The Video Blaster WebCam Go

 The Video Blaster WebCam Go

Creative say: “It's a WebCam... It's a Portable Camera... All in One!! Use it for NetMeeting® videoconferencing or video capture, then simply unplug the WebCam Go and go! Take it anywhere, photograph anything, and bring the pictures back to your computer to share with the world.”

At a little over USD100 that’s quite a claim, and it’s true. This stylishly shaped multi-purpose camera works well on your computer, or straight out of your pocket. And it’s all very simple to set up and use. It runs straight off a USB port, so one of those is needed.

As a stand-alone camera, it’s hinged lens straightened, the WebCam Go fits neatly into your pocket. It’s comfortable in the hand and the viewfinder and shutter controls are well positioned and comfortable to use.

Rotating the lens housing adjusts the focus from about 8 inches to infinity. This works well, but is the only aspect of the camera that feels less easy to understand and use. Infinity is marked as an icon of a mountain range, but the addition of marks for focussing at a few meters and nearer would make the focussing of the camera as simple and effective as it’s other features.

The types of images that the camera takes is controlled using 3 buttons on the back of the WebCam Go. You click through to choose still images or short video clips, with the option of taking an immediate or a delayed picture in both cases – simple. The images storage is generous, holding 92 still images, or a number of short video clips.

When you return with your pictures and plug the camera in at your computer and open the control software, the images can be downloaded from the camera as jpegs and small avi files, ready for more processing or immediate inclusion in web pages. Simplicity itself!

When the WebCam Go is attached to a computer it provides a whole new range of video features. With the hinge between the lens and the body of the camera now bent, the WebCam Go sits securely on top of your monitor on the two neat gripper rubbers on it’s base. NetMeeting colour video conferencing worked immediately and provided an impressively high quality picture. Adjusting the hinge and the camera’s orientation puts you in the center of the picture.

The desktop controls allow WebCam Go to be used for video capture, saving the video files in avi format. WebCam Go also “just worked” through Windows Media Encoder, to provide streamed video to a web server – the Web Cam of it ’s name.

Not satisfied with all these features, Creative have included more in WebCam Monitor. With this you can use a movement or timed trigger to capture stills and short videos. And the software will even ftp them to your web site, automatically on both dial-up and permanent connections. A very useful feature is the inclusion of a template web page that auto-updates with the software. The motion triggered setting stores 10 seconds (about 19MB) of video, and can post the time-stamped opening frame to a web server. The timed capture setting creates 3KB files, either every 3 seconds on the continuous setting, or at any pre-set regular interval.

WebCam Monitor, with a permanent connection to a web server on the Internet, allows for low bandwidth display of changing situations through it’s regular updating of small still images. This provides a very low cost, fast download, remote display option to anyone with a leased line. Password protection of the web page could control access to the display.

Whether you want still images for your web site, or streamed video, at higher bandwidths, or video conferencing, then WebCam Go does it all.

To sum up – you plug and WebCam Go plays – easily and well – allowing you to get on with it. WebCam Go is for those who want results not hassle, and quality at a good price.

    ISR RATING: 4/5