Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

Picture quality	Excellent
Video capture rate	Fast
Colour sensitivity	Excellent
Ease of Installation	Excellent - very quick and easy
Value For Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Value for Money, Trusted Brand, Quality Picture, Ease of Use
Disadvantages:	Slow Face Tracking,

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently decided to upgrade my aging Pace webcam and after looking at various models of new super dooper cams I plumped for the Microsoft Lifecam VX3000.

Microsoft seem to dominate the world with products nowadays, however it is a name you can trust and generally you get a good quality product. This was true when I received the unit, it had a quality feel to it.

Microsoft have various incarnations of their webcams ranging from the entry level VX1000 to the highly specced and highly priced VX6000, whilst I suppose you pay for what you get, i was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the images from the unit.

After the installation of the drivers from the enclosed CD, it's a straight foward process, just plugging into a spare USB socket and windows recognises the device and loads the drivers for it. It will then go through a process of configuring the webcam to Microsoft Windows Messenger Live. As I had the latest version of this this was a simple process of just choosing the appropriate settings for the camera and ensuring the speakers and microphone are working. I can't help but guess that if you have not got the latest version of Messenger, it will request you download it from the Microsoft site, so I would do this BEFORE you install the camera.

Almost immediately I was alerted to the fact tthat the latest version of the software was available for updating, and it's a hefty download so if you have a broadband connection then this shouldn't be a problem. What beats me is there always seems to be a new version of software available instead of what was on the disk that is packaged in the box, just a thought, but why don't the manufacturers skip putting the CD in the box, include instructions to download the latest software from the website, and reduce the price of the item by a couple of ££'s.

The webcam itself can be placed on a flat surface or you can open the bottom of the stand to attach it to a flat screen monitor. I was a bit dubious about this, expecting it to be wobbly on the top of the monitor (I have a LG 21" flat screen LCD) the unit fitted well and the back of the bracket making contact with the monitor casing.

There is a button on the top of the webcam that links directly to the Messenger Live program,once pressed this opens up your contacts list in Messenger Live so that you can call them via video

The built in microphone is good quality and sensitive, this could replace any mic you have , albeit if you have a headset, you can change the mic input by running the Audio and Video setup from messenger menus.

The quality of the image is superb, in comparison to my old webcam, the 640x480 resolution is recommended and the colurs are vibrant and accurate. Focusing is made by rotating the front of the lens and is a fairly simple process.

The sotware is what you would expect, a facility of being able to capture video and still images which are stored in an album (folder) on your hard drive, from within the software you can e-mail the images and manage your images. one thing to note, the software defaults to still images the same size as the video (640 x480) - if you want the larger still image (1280 x 960) you have to change the setting in the software.

My old cam struggled to give a picture in my study,as the curtains are closed and I only have a desklight. The microsoft camera, was excellent in low light and responded well to the one light source, The settings can be tweaked in the settings menu, but I didn't need to do anything. Just shows how technology has moved on over the years

There are several gimmicky overlays that cam be placed over your image from choosing them within the options of the software and I can see these being amusing for a few days, but after that I wouldn't bother.

One thing that was of interest to me was the face tracking software. this allows the software to dynamically move keeping your face in the centre of the screen, The image is fairly wide angled so you would have to move a fair distance to get out of shot, (The logitech Spere webcam cannot be beat in this area as the webcam uses motors to keep the moving face in view, I was impressed by this but wouldn't pay £100 for a webcam in the first place.) I found the face tracking on the microsoft webcam to be too slow to be of any real use, but nice try microsoft.

I can't complain at the price I paid, about £25 and for what you get it is a quality unit that has the backing of a trusted name.

Worth a purchase and I look forward to many happy hours using it