Someone Is Watching You (Creatively)... (Creative Webcam NX Pro)

Member Name: glenbelt

Product:	Creative Webcam NX Pro
Date:	15/05/08 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top quality video images, excellent price

Disadvantages: Not many extra features

I decided that I would get a webcam so that my mates could see me on MSN when they talk to me, as I can see most of them as they all seem to have webcams. They are quite commonly bundled in with brand new PC's such as ones brought from PC World etc, so I thought I better get myself one to go with my computer.

I was browsing the web one time with the thought in my head, and checked the Dabs pages and such and then looked on Amazon and found it in the market place for sale, complete with a microphone at about £15. I felt this was a very good price, as it was in its original packaging and such still, and seeming as it was on sale about £30 elsewhere I better buy it before someone beats me to it.

I quickly checked the specifications on the Creative website, mainly checking the resolution which it offered. Lots of the cameras digital video capture resolutions were about 352 x 288 but this webcam had a 640 x 480 resolution. It also had a 1024 x 768 resolution for capturing still images, where as some others had a smaller 640 x 480. Thanks to this better resolution, more pixels would be used to make up the picture, so therefore there would be a far better picture then most of its rivals. Digital video capture resolution is the most important specification to look at I think, as it tells you what the resolution will be in video-mode, which is what webcams are used for really, and gives you an idea of what the picture quality will be.

The webcam and microphone came in a nicely packaged box, coming supplied with the manual and CD drivers. It came the very next day too, because I ordered it before 12 in the afternoon, which was really good I felt. The cam was really easy to set up - just plug it into a spare USB port on your PC, and insert the CD to install the drivers. Then you follow the onscreen instructions, choosing the camera you purchased, allowing the correct drivers to be installed on your hard drive. This process is really quick, so then you can get down to starting video-conversations and such.

Installation of the camera takes up about 250MB space on your hard-drive, which shouldn't really tent most people's storage space nowadays. This includes the driver itself, but some other programs bundled for use with the camera - Creative PC Cam Center, Cam Detector, and Cam Monitor.

Cam Monitor is a program which can be set up to take photos every time there is a movement in the camera's view - a motion detector function. There are also options to change this, such as taking photo's every few seconds or minutes, etc. This can be quite handy in certain situations, and I remember recently hearing a story about how a burglar had been caught in the act stealing a computer, thanks to the webcam which was on top of the PC as he was stealing it! The user had set up the camera in motion detector mode and had set the camera to record the pictures on a separate computer in his house via his network. The victim was then able to look at these pictures and get clear photos of the burglar in the act, and managed to get him arrested and get his PC back. A very clever idea and a very handy feature of the webcam, which would have saved him a lot of money.

Web Cam detector is a program used to detect whether the webcam is in use, and which can change many settings on the camera. I haven't actually bothered using this program, as I haven't needed to.

PC-Cam center is another nice little program, and is the main hub of the camera, which I use quite a lot. Here you can take photo's and see them straight away in the media viewer, arranged like a photo album which is a nice touch. You can do all sorts from this program, importing new albums and changing your current ones, with various tools to edit individual pictures brightness and contrast, and even has functions such as red-eye removal which can be handy, though I've never experienced that using the camera. It may be for other pictures which you have taken with a digital camera for example, and uploaded to the album for you to view or edit.

The quality of the picture the webcam sends out is near perfect in my opinion. The colours are very varied, and very crisp and clear. There are many settings available to adjust brightness and colours and saturation etc, but I haven't really bothered adjusting these as I think the picture itself is very clear.

The camera itself looks really nice, a half transparent black plastic and silver theme tune running throughout, with a black wire leading down to the USB connector. It is quite small, and comes with a 3 prong clip which it stands on, which you can clip to your monitor. As mine is a flat-screen it fits on really nicely and you can slide it up and down the top of the monitor, which can be handy depending on the lighting in the room. You can rotate the camera 360 degrees which is very handy, and also tilt it up and down.

One annoying find about the camera which I discovered, and have noticed that I am not the only one from reading other reviews on this camera, is that every time you unplug it from your PC, you have to re-install the software drivers. Whether this only happens on Windows XP Home Edition (o/s I am using), i don't know, but its still annoying. You have to try your best not to unplug it, but that can be quite awkward as my computer has about 4 USB ports and many peripherals these days are USB compatible only. You can get around this if you simply don't unplug the camera from the PC, as you may have enough USB ports already, or you just simply go through the process of re-installing it each time you want to disconnect it.

I think you should only really bother with a camera like this if you have broadband internet access, which many people nowadays do have. Using a 56k modem wouldn't really do this camera any justice, and frame rates and such would painfully slow down thanks to the low net speed. If you were to use a 56k modem or such, you may be better off with a cheaper and lower quality camera which your internet connection would be better off handling with.

I have used the microphone few times, I must admit. However the times I have used it, my mates have been able to hear me really well, so it must be pretty good! It simply plugs into the soundcard on your PC at the back or on to the motherboard if you have onboard sound. It looks a bit boring, with beige plastic being used, that doesn't really fit in with the webcam itself, but its still a nice microphone itself, with plenty of wire available so you don't have to struggle to get it to reach you. A nice little feature implemented with it is a sticker attacked to the underside of the base, allowing it to be stuck down somewhere on your computer desk, keeping it neat and tidy.

Overall I really rate the Creative NX Pro webcam. The picture quality and frame-rate are great, the software bundled with it is good and a lot of fun too, and the microphone is really crisp and clear. It is great value of money, selling online for about £25, and I recommend this camera to anyone wanting to experience using a webcam, or even for using the still-photo option.

Summary: A high quality webcam at a very reasonable price

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