Intel Pro PC Camera
[Archived in $0 - $100, Digital Cameras und Microscopes, Intel, Products, Webcams]
Manufacturer: Intel
Price at amazon.com:
Used & new from $64.99List price $105.00
- Takes both photo and video images
- 640 x 480 maximum resolution
- 16.8 million colors
- Progressive-scan CCD image sensor
- Up to 30 frames per second for full-motion video
Product Description:
Designed for a desktop or laptop PC, the Intel Pro PC camera is a full-featured USB camera with bundled software that lets you record audio, video, or still images for use in e-mail postcards, movies, and Web sites. In addition you can easily plug a VCR or camcorder into the video-in plug on the back of the camera to edit home movies on your PC and then post them on your Web page, or e-mail them to friends and family. Using a progressive-scan CCD image sensor and a four-layer glass and plastic lens, the camera captures clear, 24-bit, 16.8 million-color still images at 640 x 480 resolution. It also takes 640 x 480-resolution video clips at up to 30 frames per second for full-motion video. Featuring a focus depth of 1 inch to infinity, the camera includes a dial for manually adjusting the image clarity as you change distance from an object. Simply press a button to capture snapshots or start recording video clips. With its removable tilt-swivel base, the camera can rest on any flat surface, or you can disconnect the base to expose the tripod socket for more versatility. You can also set your camera to take motion-detection or timed-interval snapshots automatically. A generous 9-foot cable provides plenty of latitude for camera placement, and a lens cover protects the lens. Intel provides a one-year parts and labor warranty on the camera.
Description from Manufacturer:Designed for a desktop or laptop PC, the Intel Pro PC camera is a full-featured USB camera with bundled software that lets you record audio, video, or still images for use in e-mail postcards, movies, and Web sites. In addition you can easily plug a VCR or camcorder into the video-in plug on the back of the camera to edit home movies on your PC and then post them on your Web page, or e-mail them to friends and family.Using a progressive-scan CCD image sensor and a four-layer glass and plastic lens, the camera captures clear, 24-bit, 16.8 million-color still images at 640 x 480 resolution. It also takes 640 x 480-resolution video clips at up to 30 frames per second for full-motion video. Featuring a focus depth of 1 inch to infinity, the camera includes a dial for manually adjusting the image clarity as you change distance from an object. Simply press a button to capture snapshots or start recording video clips.
With its removable tilt-swivel base, the camera can rest on any flat surface, or you can disconnect the base to expose the tripod socket for more versatility. You can also set your camera to take motion-detection or timed-interval snapshots automatically. A generous 9-foot cable provides plenty of latitude for camera placement, and a lens cover protects the lens.
Intel provides a one-year parts and labor warranty on the camera. Average Customer Rating: 
Comment: great camera, software needs some work Rating:
Short and sweet... This camera is great, hardware-wise. The image looks good, and the automatic light adjustment works well. Capturing video at 320x240 is smooth.
Installation is true plug and play. This camera is Microsoft WHQL logo'd and drivers are included with Windows ME and XP. No installation of the included software is necessary. If you have Windows 2000 you will need to download drivers from the Intel web site. This is a bad thing for people who actually want to use the included software, as it will not install or work in Window 2000, the downloadable drivers are bare bones. This is not so bad, as the included software is not too hot anyway, and netmeeting and windows movie maker or media encoder work great. Windows media encoder is a free download from Microsoft.
The camera is well priced and beats all the other cameras out there for OS support and quality. Yes, even the Intel Pocket Camera. Pick up this camera for a low price and there is also the rebate which makes it a steal. If you are even slightly considering getting a webcam, go for this one. You will put it to good use if you plan on running Windows XP in the near future, as the built in Windows Messenger software makes it really easy to have video chats with friends or family.
Comment: After A Long Search, Perfect Cam Rating:
Well, I searched around a bit, and also took a look at friends cams in their homes and other friends output of their cams online.
The problem with most webcams is that they really are horrible, but since they are very inexpensive, many people get tricked into buyin the cheapest one, I mean, a cam is a cam right? Wrong.
Most cams offer poor lighting features, poor color, lousy picture, and their software is lame at best.
This cam worked immediately out of the box, has great software and within minutes, you can send a link to a friend and they can see you like that!
The software included, gives you the option to turn your PC into a video server, which in these days of broadband, is a great option.
You can also set up a motion detector feature, so that when you are away, if anything moves within the camera range it can do several things with the image. One, it can save the image(s) to disk, or email the picture to a selected email account, or upload it to a web page.
I found all of these options worked well, except the upload part. There was limited documentation on how this worked, but I tried it with a FrontPage website, no luck. Tried it via FTP, no luck. I did manage to get it to upload to an AOL web account (members AOL space) which is fine for my needs. I may have not set it up correctly for the other features, but it was fairly basic: FTP username, pass and location, so I am not sure how I could screw that up.
The camera adapts well to low light, and with a little tweaking, you could probably get a clear picture under candle light :)
I must say, I was very impressed with this product, and it just goes to show, that if you do enough research on your purchase, you have a great chance of being satisfied with it. The reviews for this cam, helped greatly in my final decision to purchase the cam.
A++
Comment: Good for what it is designed for Rating:
the quality of this webcam is great with one of the best video outputs. I have tried it with yahoo and MSN messenger, and everyone says my video quality is great!
The include software is not very good, but you don't really need it. I use Photoshop to get still image, though the still image quality is not very good.
Posted at November 11, 2003 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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