Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000

Author's product rating:   

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

Advantages:	top quality images, no blurring effect, face tracking camera movement, audio pickup
Disadvantages:	there are no negatives that I have experienced

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Webcams are not a new invention as I am sure readers will be aware, but the actual technology has moved along at a break neck pace over the past year or so. Gone are the days of the blurred, grainy black and white images with no audio pickup and now we move into an era of top quality face tracking webcams that will follow you around should you decide to move around slightly taking away the need for constant readjustments as and when the user changes sitting position. I have owned several webcams for use with my personal laptop and have recently purchased the Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 after reading several articles that heaped praise on the webcam for it’s ease of use, picture quality and audio pickup.

When first released the webcam was a very expensive piece of equipment, but I managed to negotiate a price of only 65 Euros (approximately £45) from my local computer supplier. I have looked online and cannot find anywhere where it can be found any cheaper so I would strongly suggest any potential buyer shops around due to the fluctuations in price from one retailer to another.

Any product with the Windows brand is expected to be cutting edge and the Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 is no different. On opening the box I was presented with the webcam in its stand, a USB cable and a drivers disk for installation. Any potential MAC owners should stop reading now really as it is only compatible with Windows software and requires at least a Pentium III 700 MHz, RAM of 128 MB and 300 MB of space on the hard drive.

The entire webcam and stand together are about the size of an egg with only a little more weight. The manufacturers instructions confirm the dimensions as 7.4 cm in height, 5.5cm in width and depth of 5.3cm. The total weight being registered (without a USB cable attached) is only 95 grams. This size and weight combined with the long USB cable attachment allows the webcam to be placed at some distance away from the user. This is a good thing for me, as I don’t have a table to sit the webcam on from my usual sitting position so it stretches to a shelf nearby and looks down on me as I use the laptop. If you are using a PC with an older model of monitor the camera can sit quite nicely on the top.

Installing the drivers was as easy as you would expect from any Microsoft software. The onscreen prompts were easy to understand and once the product serial code was inserted everything was installed within 10 minutes with a shortcut being placed on the desktop for easy access.

Despite placing the webcam some distance (around 1 metre) from me when using it, there is no problem with the picture being reduced in size or quality as there is a zoom option available. Images are picked up in full colour and the optical sensor utilises 1.3 million pixels with a resolution of 1280 X 1024. What this basically means it that the picture is made up of 1.3 million tiny dots. The more dots, the more detail. My last camera had a mere 700,000 pixels and I was quite happy with the picture quality. Now the picture is made up from 1.3 million pixels I can clearly see the different in the level of detail picked up when taking stills from the webcam. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the picture when chatting online and moving around is of a digital quality, but it is the best I have seen from a webcam. For an example of the picture quality look at my profile picture, this was taken from the webcam and has only had the background altered using other software. In addition, there is also no blurring when there is sudden movement from the user.

I also like the fact that I don’t have to use a microphone when talking over the Internet thanks to the built in microphone. This picks up everything in a room, even the television that is placed some 7 metres away and on a low volume level. At times even traffic noise outside is picked up! The level of audio pickup can be modified though to easy individuals personal preferences.

The best thing about the Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 is the face tracking technology. As long as movements are not extremely sudden or too far away, the webcam lens will follow you around. This is very helpful for me personally as when I chat online I tend to talk quite a lot using my hands as a way of projecting my point of view. This leads me to move around. Prior to using the Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000 this meant that I would move out of shot whereas now the people I am talking to can see me 99% of the time.

If you’re looking to buy a webcam for the first time or just looking to upgrade an existing webcam I would recommend this product to you without any form of hesitation. I have used it without any hardware or software faults for over 3 months and see it serving me well for the foreseeable future. Looking at the prices quoted online now, I know I received a bargain and am very much pleased.