Posted: July 12, 2002
Written by: Justin "The Sheriff" Woods

Using the camera as a web cam

The software suite included with this camera is very easy to use. If you want to set up a web cam, you press the web cam tab and you're presented with a few different options, such as image size, and more advanced settings like white balance and frequency of update to your webpage. Setting up the camera to be used as a web cam is extremely simple. Logitech has partnered with a website called www.spotlife.com, and you are given a free 30-day trial account, meaning you can run the web cam 24/7 without being charged. For live broadcasts, you're given 60 minutes of free live broadcasting time (video and sound), as well as 10 megs of space for storing a web album (pics and video). When the 60 minutes are up, you can buy more time. Setting up the account was painless.
Webcam Interface Click to enlarge	Broadcasting Interface Click to enlarge
The camera can capture and transmit images to your web cam or broadcasting pages at 3 resolutions. 160x120, 320x240, and 640x480. I tested the camera at both the 320x240 and 640x480 resolutions, and aside from the file and image size, both resolutions offered clear pictures even in low light (See below). One note, if you run Winamp or a similar program, there could be a conflict occasionally with the live broadcasting application. At least once while testing the broadcasting application, my sound shut off and I had to reboot to hear my MP3s. This anomaly doesn't seem to be caused by the Logitech software, so I only mention it in passing, and have not penalized the camera's score in any way.
Spotlife web cam page at 320x240 Click to enlarge	Spotlife web cam page at 640x480 Click to enlarge
Spotlife web cam, lowlight Click to enlarge
One thing that was somewhat annoying was the mandatory install of Real Player. After it installs itself, it automatically puts an icon in the system tray and loads when Windows starts. Mostly this is just a nuisance and can be disabled, though I chose to uninstall Real Player entirely, which I later found out was a slight boo-boo, as you need it to see your live broadcasts on www.spotlife.com. This may not bother the average user, but I think requiring the download and install of a secondary application to view the live broadcast is a little unreasonable. Uh, stepping down from my soap box now :), back to the review.

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