Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 Web Cam

This is an excellent quality web camera. It has good picture, a couple of extra features and most important of all(for all you non techy's) easy installation.

Despite it's low mega pixels compared to other web cameras on the market, the picture quality is excellent. Do not be fooled by the 1.3 mega pixels to be seeming low. As long as your not looking to create a movie or professional still shot photos, this web cam will stand up to whatever you throw at it. At 30 frames per second movement visualized by the camera is pretty much seamless. This web cam is especially great for video chatting, which is my primary use for the camera.

Let's start off with the hardware. This web cam has a six foot long cable that increases mobility by far in case your monitor is maybe under your desk or a bit far from your monitor. The clip that the web cam is actually pretty well made, it locks right on to your monitor and better yet it doubles as a stand, which allows you to sit it on a shelf or maybe your desk. The USB port transfers both the images from your web cam and the built in microphone on the web camera.

[Note: the microphone on this web cam sounds a little distant so buying an external microphone for a couple of bucks will go a long way]

The software that comes with this computer includes the driver which should come on a disc, if it doesn't don't throw a fit, the drivers are all online making updating your web camera and getting all its necessary components one click away. There is an exclusive program that comes with the update drivers called Microsoft LifeCam (pretty simple). In this program you can take pictures, record audio, and record videos. It also has a few effects such as a ladybug crawling around the output, a little bumblebee that hovers around, and a couple more. You can also adjust the settings for this web cam via this program. By the way, the software is very user friendly and easy to use.
Among some of the web cam settings are flipping the image 180 degrees, mirroring the image, and something call low-light, which basically turns up the brightness but the image looks crisp and natural, something I did not expect.

The web cam is easily installed by installing the driver via a CD drive and then plugging in a single USB plug into your computer which, as stated before, transfers both sound and video to the computer.

If you are looking for a something to web chat and mess around with, this web cam is definitely for you.