Creative Live! Cam with Voice
by Creative
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List Price: Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $85.00 (85%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $7.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Creative Live! Cam with Voice
Customer Review: Mic OK but picture quality lacks
Summary: 2 Stars
Liked the built in microphone. The zoom and pan features are nice.
Unfortunately the video and still picture quality is poor. Probably will toss when another "good" deal comes along.
Customer Review: Works okay.
Summary: 2 Stars
Not totally impressed with how the cam works. A little slow and choppy and had to reinstall.Customer Review: Not worth purchasing
Summary: 1 Stars
Save yourself hassle, time, and frustration.
I stopped by Fry's electronics on my way home from work. I noticed at Fry's that there were scores of boxes of these units that were all refurbished. $29.99 I figured for the price it should provide basic functionality.
Installed the software, plugged it in when prompted, and updated the drivers. Went on to a site with videochat and within 20 seconds the picture froze. It then crashed Firefox. When I force quit Firefox, I got a flash of what I assume is the infamous Blue Screen of Death. Just great. After reboot, Windows XP Pro told me it had recovered from a fatal system error and asked me to report the crash. I was up until near midnight trying to get this to work before I decided to return it and that I had done all I could to make it work (and also to write this review).
I say that I assume it was the BSoD because I've never gotten a BSoD before. Even when I was teenager I did some dumb things to my computer (such as intentionally installing Back Orifice to learn how trojans worked). But now that I'm an adult and through a lifetime of learning, I am what is considered a Power User. I build my own computers, I run the best software and regularly maintain my pc, perform backups and restores, reformats, etc etc. I've never had a problem with malware, viruses, or serious operating system crashes because I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.
In the course of trying to get this webcam to work, I saw FOUR BSoD's. FOUR.
I'm fairly certain the driver is just not up to the job, and taking a look at the Creative Support page, I don't think it's been updated for awhile. Definitely buy a newer model, please. I was going to spring for the Logitech 9000 but I wanted something basic and lower cost for now.
The last Creative product I bought was a Zen Vision:M 30 GB and that was also a waste. I guess the moral is to stay away from Creative in general.
Customer Review: The Worst!
Summary: 1 Stars
Never have I seen such a disconnect between what is written on the flashy box and what the web cam inside delivers. Or rather: doesn't. The picture is fuzzy and there is no auto-focus nor even a focus ring. The picture seeems software interpolated as the screen is sharp for a brief moment after turn-on, then goes blotchy. The gamma and brightness controls barely do anything. The Microphone array produces noise. I recorded myself moving around, without talking. On replay there's not silence but significant crackle and popping on the soundtrack, I guess as the microphones are looking for something to track. Last, but not least, the box blatantly lies about still picture quality: one is promised up to 5 Mpixel stills, however the only resolution available for still photos through Creative's driver/software is 640x480. Spend your ~$100 elsewhere.Customer Review: Horrible Camera
Summary: 1 Stars
I rate this camera with a zero out of five. I wish there were negative numbers for ratings. In terms of misery its a ten. Do yourself a favor. Don't unpack this camera from its hermetically sealed container. Just send it back. Worst piece of junk I ever purchased. I was tempted to do a video review just so you could see how bad it is. All it would have looked like was two or three video stills with voice over. Their suppport line is as clueless as the camera. They pretend that they have never heard of this problem but when you google this camera all kinds of complaints show up. Best tip off the internet: "Get rid of it!!!"