I HATE THIS WEB CAM WITH A PASSION
Pros:
its cheap and small
Cons:
Everything
The Bottom Line:
Avoid it like the bubonic plague.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Ive always wanted a web cam but I never knew which one was good. For one reason or another, Im always stuck with the worst ones. After borrowing my friends Creative Video Blaster Webcam Plus, Ive come to realize that most web cams have poor picture quality and video quality in comparison to a low budget digital camera and a low budget camcorder. I didnt like the Creative web cam plus for various reasons which I will not get into right now but after having used the SIIG Mobilecam/light, I truly appreciate it now.
I remembered begging my brother to get a web cam for our desktop or my laptop for months. We did plenty of research on which web cam we wanted. I thought we both wanted a quality web cam, but I was seriously wrong because he brought this one. The main feature that he cared about was definitely not quality. The one feature that was most important to him was obviously small and convenient. The SIIG web cam is small but definitely not convenient. I detest this web cam from the first moment that Ive laid eyes on it. I hated even more (if that was possible) after he had the nerve to install it on my laptop. There is only one positive quality about this web cam, its small. Other than that, let me break down the many ways that I HATE this web cam. Please keep in mind that I even tried to give this web cam a second chance after I uninstalled it from my laptop.
1) The USB cable that is supplied is amazingly short. This is important once you read #2.
2) How the hell are you suppose to dock this stupid web cam? The designer of this horrific product thought it would be a great idea to slap a web cam on a bendable wire so that it would be an ideal mobile solution for notebooks and computer uses. Good luck trying to bend it to the position you want and keeping the camera in the position that you had in mind. Youll probably have better chance if you spent a couple of bucks more and brought the SIIG Mobilecam/light PLUS (but why would you want to buy this crap anyways). Trying to position this web cam is the most frustrating thing in the world. You can try bending and twisting this repulsive product all day and somehow itll bend itself back just enough to make you want to pull your hair out or put this ghastly piece of cr@p out of its misery with a shotgun.
3) The picture quality for both video and still frames. The picture quality of this camera in a well lit room is equivalent to its low light setting, p1ss poor. Very grainy. The only color that this camera was able to capture properly is white. Other than that, ever color seems to be made up of five different other colors. I feel like Im watching a low quality streamed Real video from a modem.
4) Although the driver and software were relatively easy to install, using the software was another story. There are two programs that are installed for you, too bad theyre more of the same poorly designed crapware. Navigating and trying to configure the various options is not exactly intuitive. Configuring the web cams option can be very frustrating. There is very little documentation for this product, which leads me to my fifth problem.
5) The only documentation provided for this product is the install guide and thats about it.
6) There is no timer button for pictures. Most cameras, in general, offer this feature because its so simple and useful. How could the designer not think of adding a feature where the user click on a button and the camera will allow a specified time for the user to pose before snapping away.
7) Theres actually a five year warranty for this product. Too bad I wanted to throw it in the garbage after the first five minutes of using it.
8) The light that this web cam comes with is VERY ANNOYING. There is no way to turn it off. If this web cam it turned on, then the light is going to be on in front of your face all. The light never turns off. The only viable solution that I could come up with without breaking it, was slapping duct tape over it.
Well this is all I can come up with right now but Im pretty sure if I could just force myself to use this product for more than five minutes at a time, I could come up with more reasons to HATE this product.
In conclusion, if you see this product at your local computer store, do not even bother touching it. Just walk away from this product as quickly as you can, then run out the door and into your car. I dont recommend this to anyone, not even your worst enemy. If you have one, please do yourself a favor, RETURN IT. If you cant return it, ask your friends to slap you around for keeping this crap around past the return date. If you're offended or disagree with me on any of the notes that I've made, please message me and I'll see what I can do unless you work for SIIG.