BIOS: Technology Means Business

The WebCam Live! Ultra is Creative's latest addition to its extensive line of Web cameras. While the camera is definitely pushing the upper edges of the Web camera price range, it also pushes the upper edges of performance in terms of frame rate, image quality and functionality. The WebCam Live! Ultra offers good-quality photo and video in medium to high light situations, but its low-light quality lets it down. Nevertheless, its excellent software bundle and general high-quality performance make it a great choice for more advanced users.

Pros: Good video quality; rotates 360 degrees; excellent software
Cons: Struggles in low light; no lens cover; patchy motion detection

A Web camera (or Webcam) is a really neat way to bring your computer to life - but only if you've got broadband! The greatest feature about a good Web camera, such as the WebCam Live! Ultra (Best Current Price: £61.03), is that it connects quickly and easily to your PC's USB port and lets you make video calls over the Internet in a matter of minutes. It also allows you to see friends, family and colleagues from all over the world while you chat to them using an Instant Messaging (IM) or dedicated video-conferencing application.

As with many new technologies, Web cameras and Webcam chat found their earliest commercial adoption and most aggressive technology advancement through use by the adult industry. Today there are thousands of Web cameras that provide views into homes, offices and other buildings as well as providing panoramic views of cities (Metrocams) and the countryside.

Initially intended for personal video-conferencing, Creative's WebCam Live! Ultra lets other authorised users view you, or whatever you want them too, while online. For instance, although the WebCam Live! Ultra will be used primarily for IM text chat services such as Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and MSN Messenger, there's absolutely no reason why you can't set it up to let you and your partner view a part of your home while you're both at work - or even to keep an eye on an indoor pet!

The WebCam Live! Ultra is a very good desktop Web camera for personal use. Its capabilities and functionality can be outdone by more expensive business-orientated products, but its CCD image sensor with a 640x480-pixel (VGA) resolution produces relatively rich, vibrant colours. Combined with its USB 2.0 Hi-Speed connection and headset microphone, you should be able to achieve full-motion video with audio at 30fps (frames-per-second) and capture still images at up to 1.3-Megapixels (software enhanced).

There's even a 4X digital zoom lens (76-degree wideangle), manual focus ring and snapshot button. This means it can show an image almost half again as wide as that of a standard Web camera - wide enough for two or three people to gather around the screen and do a video-conference, for example - but also zoom in for reasonably good closeups.

A neat feature of the WebCam Live! Ultra is that it ships with a mono headset, unlike the useless built-in microphones in most other Web cameras. Although initially a little awkward to fit comfortably on your ear, the headset allows you to make 'proper' VoIP calls and chat using an IM application. The headset also means you'll get better privacy because you don't have to shout across your desk.

The camera is also mounted on hinged tripod legs, allowing it to sit on a flat surface or hang (albeit insecurely) from uneven surfaces such as the top of a CRT monitor. It can be clipped to an LCD display, too. The only downside to the design is that there's no lens cover, so you're never really sure your privacy is respected unless you unplug the camera from your computer. There is, however, a small green LED on the camera which illuminates when it is turned on. From vertical, it can tilt 45 degrees forward and 45 degrees back, and it can rotate a full 360 degrees.

Another distinguishing feature is the inclusion of motion detection, remote security monitoring, timelapse video capture, and video e-mail software. Thanks to Creative's WebCam Center utility, the WebCam Live! Ultra will also track your face and keep you in the video (the camera identifies your face by distinguishing flesh tones). Unlike other Web cameras, smart face tracking can also track multiple people.

Creative also bundles Arcsoft's PhotoImpression, VideoImpression, Multimedia E-Mail and Collage Creator packages. They let you touch up or edit still photos and video, embed audio/video clips in e-mails, create pictures by assembling images and video clips you've shot, and so on.

The WebCam Live! Ultra is a really good performer. We tested the product using an IBM ThinkPad T42 laptop, 2Mbit/s broadband connection and MSN Messenger and it performed excellently, producing good video quality, smooth frame rates and clear audio. The only criticism is that it struggled in a dimly-lit room, with images tending to be washed out. But this is easy to overcome - just turn the lights on or sit closer to a window. [8]