A great little camera (Intel PC Camera Pack)

Member Name: danfreedman

Product:	Intel PC Camera Pack
Date:	09/10/00 (177 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well made and highly specified bundle

Disadvantages: Tips over if you do not stick the camera to the surface

I bought one of these some time ago when I thought that video to video calls to friends and family would be a great fun idea.

The camera connects via the USB port and was instantly seen by my Windows software. The camera itself is well constructed. It seems to be one of very few which has a shutter which covers the lens for protection when not in use. The same shutter can be used to reduce the amount of light entering the lens if necessary as it houses a special filter. There is a small pivotable stand with a sticky base for holding the unit in one place - this was important since the weight of the cable tends to up end the thing. There is a single button on the top to take snap shots in programs which support this - a simple video recorder was supplied.

The software was a mixture of useful and fun. There is the Intel video phone software which is quite simple and very similar to netmeeting - which in the end I used instead, there is also a video postcard program, a version which required the recipients to also have certain codecs installed which you could provide them with. A number of other bits and bobs bundled in, all added up to make this a very well specified package.

The set up for the video initially needed upgrading via the net. There are some very useful adjustments that can be made to correct brightness, colour and zoom. Pan and tilt for some reason refused to operate on my setup.

All in all the picture quality was quite good and compares well with many other camera I have seen operating (usually as demos on new systems in shops). The picture size expands comfortably to about 3 * 4 inches (on my 17" monitor), beyond that there is a marked lack of focus and blur is readily apparent. The speed of the frames was reasonable too, with very little jerkiness or lag.

Get one - then give me a video call!

Summary: