( 34 reviews )
-
Posted: Jul 17 2009
This web cam for the x-box, made by Microsoft is a great replacement for all of those people who own a Mac without a built in camera. There's no software to install, or settings to mess with or adjust. It works great with iChat or Yahoo Chat, just click on the web cam button and you'll see the live view come on. And it's cheap, I bought mine for less than ten dollars and I saw a new one at Game Stop for under twenty dollars.
-
Posted: Jun 20 2009
I bought the Vision camera on launch day because I thought it would be a great idea to video chat, send picture messages and more with this camera. Unfortunately, the low-resolution and sub-par framerate of this camera have left a bad taste in my mouth. Video chats are not that impressive because of the low framerate of the camera. Instead of 30 frames per second, like most digital cameras, I think the Vision camera has a framerate of maybe 10-15 frames per second. And that's on a good day. If you and a friend are chatting and just sitting still, this will offer decent results. The second one of you start to move, the video becomes choppy and grainy almost instantly. Speaking of grain, the resolution of the Vision camera rivals that of most entry-level cell phones. I understand that it would be extremely cost prohibitive to include a 5 megapixel camera, but taking a picture with this thing is just bad. Unless you have professional-grade lighting equipment in your house, you're not going to get anything that's worth keeping for too long. Another thing that was promised with the use of the Vision camera, was gesture-based and live feed based gaming. The game that comes for free with the camera, Totem Ball, has been a continual source of frustration because the camera has a hard time picking up where you're standing and where your arms are at. To move your character around and ultimately play the game, you have to continually move your arms up and down. It would be one thing if this was just physically tiring, but the game is really not that good and the camera has a hard time distinguishing where you are or how far away you are if you're playing on a larger TV set. And the live feed based games just show a continual video feed of your usually semi-nude opponents during games like UNO and a few others. This doesn't offer that much to the gameplay except you now get to see who's calling you racial slurs or hurling homophobic remarks. The camera really doesn't deliver on its promises so I'd recommend everyone to pass on this investment.
-
Posted: Jun 17 2009
Works great with Skype on OS X (Leopard) on my PowerBook G4. Nice clear picture. I'm very happy with it--especially with the low price.
