I recently downloaded Skype and I heard about the webcam chats you could have. I therefore decided to buy a webcam and after looking in several different shops, I decided to settle for the Logitech Webcam C100 from Argos.

The webcam is very small and measures approximately 7 cm long by 3cm high. This is ideal as when it is on top of your monitor/laptop it does not stick out and is not obtrusive. It is quite a modern looking device, in my opinion, and is a nice colour. It can also take pictures. The shutter button is on top of the webcam.

It is very simple to set up, all you have to do is plug in the USB cable which is attached to the webcam and your computer should start installing the required driver for it to work. If your computer does not do this, then you can put in the CD which is supplied and install this to download the required driver. Set up takes only a few minutes. The instruction manual provided includes all the relevant information you need and has detailed step by step instructions to ensure that you set it up correctly.

When it is set up correctly, you should see in the centre of your monitor a picture of what the webcam sees so then you can adjust it to make sure that it is focusing on you.

Now for the technical stuff: it has a plug and play setup (UVC). The video capture is 640 x 480 pixels. It can take up to 1.3 megapixel pictures. The video can be up to 30 frames per second. Its is Hi-Speed USB 2.0 (this should work on most newish computers/laptops), it has a universal clip so can be attached to all slim monitors and finally it has a fixed focus.

Also included on the disc is Logitech Vid which appears to be very similar to Skype and allows for "free, fast and easy video calling".

The quality is not the best as the pixel range is quite low and I found that when doing video calling, I appeared to be blurry to other people. This is probably because the frame rate is up to 30 frames per second, but like most products the 'up to' is a bit optimistic! By this I mean that if you move your arm, then the webcam shows you moving your arm a second or so after you have moved it and the movement is not smooth and instead appears to look blurry. Having said this though, the quality is not so bad that you are not visible.

Also, there is no microphone included so you have to buy another one but this should not matter too much as I've heard that the microphones which come attached to web cams are not particularly great. There are so many different microphones available cheaply on sites such as Amazon, so this is not really a huge issue.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has Skype or another programme for video calling as it is cheap, looks modern and is small so is not obtrusive. I would not recommend this for anyone who is looking for a high end model as they would be disappointed if they bought one for that reason.

It can be bought from most high street electrical shops and from Amazon and ebay for around £10-£15.