| Product: |
Trust Communicator Webcam WB-1400T |
| Date: |
20/06/07 (336 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: cheap, small, can see me
Disadvantages: no extra features
As requested by my male I went out today and bought myself a webcam, so that he can see me when we chat on MSN, not having much money my criteria was that it would be cheap and simple to use. As I also had to visit Asda to buy a couple of blouses for working in I decided to have a look at Asda's range of computer accessories discovering this webcam in the process.
The box is small about the size of a mouse box so wont be an overly large item - which on the cluttered PC desk is a good thing. So opening the box at home there is simply a CD Rom, small instruction book and the webcam itself.
Putting the CD in to the disc drive it asks you to install the necessary software, I simply clicked the relevant yes or next buttons and the software was installed in less than a minute.
The webcam itself is a USB plug in, so after restarting the PC I plugged it in.
After the symbol on the display said 'USB device recognised'
Opening the accompanying software I had to change the settings under the device menu to Trust WB1400T, then in the box magically a video image of me appears. But even without fiddling with the settings the colours are very true to life. But it is worth checking the 'mirror image' box since otherwise it all appears backwards! To focus the image you need to twist the black surround from the lens.
When the software is open the camera has a blue LED light below the lens so show that it is on. Above the lens is a silver button which operates the image capture section of the software, this isnt the best in fact nowhere near the quality of a photo from my digital camera plus is awkward to use as you need to press the button yourself (so you are likely to end up with an arm in a strange position.
Apparently the webcam is compatible with MSN messenger, and most other online messenger programmes, but I have only tried it with MSN.
The siteing of the camera is really easy, it has an attached stand but the stand doubles as a 'clamp' so it can be used with laptops or LCD screens. Mine is sitting on top of the house PC but I am confident that I can use it with my laptop should the house PC be in use. The camera itself looks quite nice if a little plastic, as it is made of two shades of silver metallic plastic the stand is black which is a shame as if it had been one of the silver colours it would look better. At top the stand you can angle the camera almost anyway you want to, as it swivels 360 degrees around and up and down through around 30 degrees (rough guestimate so probably miles out).
My main gripe would be that the consists of a single page with basic instructions for installation (disc in and follow the on screen instructions). Also there is no real help file with the software but luckily it is very simple to operate.
The technical specs (from the box) since Im sure these will make sense to someone somewhere.
USB Webcam with 352*288 resolution (100k)
Max video speed 30 frames per second
System requirement
Pentium 200MHz CPU
32 MB system memory
100MB free harddrive space
Windows 98 SE (or newer)
And now I hear you asking what was the cost of this item, well it was a whole £7.97 yup thats right less than £8. I know that ciao tells usit is avaliable for £5 but asda was the cheapest I found in a quick search online. For the money then no matter how cheap the product might be it cannot be complained about, the image is sharp and clear as long as you play with the settings, it can be used to make short videos and take pictures. Im sure its limitations will be such that other people will only be happy with an all singing all dancing camera but since I simply want a camera to transmit images of myself to my boyfriend while we chat online and I dont want to make films then there is no need for expensive features which would get used once then forgotten about.
Summary: Cheap simple webcam
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Last comment:
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thedevilinme - 21/06/07 Thats one lucky boyfriend.lol. Its only sexy peope that buys these. |
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