HP - Elite Webcam

I bought a nice laptop about 2 months ago, upgraded from my custom built PC from 2004. The built in webcam is only barely useful. I went and spent 50$ on the Philips cam SPC1005NC and found a drastic improvement over the built in. I decided that with such a big step up at 50$ to try the 90-100$ range and see if all the hype was true. At best buy I bought both cameras, since my wife and I sit side by side it's a perfect chance to compare. I have the HP Elite and the Logitech Pro 9000. Image quality on both was a significant step up from the Phillips product and another Microsoft product I tried. HP Elite- Nice upgrade over phillips, big jump in clarity & resolution... but it's less than 5$ cheaper than the logitech. Poor mounting options and bulky unit make it a no go for us on our laptops as we travel often. The swivel & tilt head on it would not stay put. It just slowly fell forward until it was pointing at the keyboard. I may have had a bad unit for this. There doesn't seem to be any way to tighten the mounting hinge so if you get one like this you're just out of luck. Logitech Pro 9000- Even better upgrade over the Phillips. The HP elite boasts 3MP resolution video but having them side by side, for my test anyway, it seems the logitech produced clearer and more smooth images. Mounting bracket for this one is really nice. Much more compact than HP's version and the design doesn't leave room for the "Lazy camera" problem I experienced with the HP Elite. Microphone on this one is able to pick up audio behind the camera if you need to, this is nice when holding it to "Show off your room" or whatever (It was handy for me & I've had others do this on the far end and you can't hear them when the mic is facing away from them). All in all I have to say that the HP Elite is a nice camera. I firmly believe that my problem with the mounting bracket being lose was probably a unit specific issue. However, had I tried to mount it on my Toshiba laptop it just wouldn't have worked at all due to the shape of the monitor lid regardless of these issues. The bracket is heavy too, some people may like the weight to it but I don't. I felt like with the weight and bulk of it that if it fell off the monitor onto the desk it would likely break. The images are good, but you can do better for about the same money. I'm going to return it for a 2nd Logitech Pro 9000 in the morning.

This webcam from HP is great! Setting up this webcam can't be easier. On-line web chatting on yahoo, msn, or AIM is fantastic. HP made mounting this webcam very user friendly. The design is nice & looks real cool. The software that comes along with this webcam is good, the special effects is neat. I also found the privacy cover to be a nice touch. The picture & sound quality was very good, better than a lot of the other top brand webcams. The price was a little expensive, but you get what you pay for in this webcam. I'm very pleased with this purchase & I'm sure you will be too.

Elite? Really? Get the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, please. You won't be disappointed. I thought a webcam with 3MP video resolution and 12MP still resolution would be a giant leap from my trusty, old 1.3MP HUE webcam. I wasn't having a problem with HUE, but once I upgraded to a new, faster computer with Windows Vista...well, you know how Vista does it! The HP Elite Webcam video resolution was dark, grainy, and very slow. The drivers are compatible with Vista, but It was like I was using my old 1.3MP webcam on my slow computer all over again! I tried taking a few still shots and they all came out the same way. The cam was plugged into one of the high-speed usb ports, so that wasn't the problem. I thought it might just be a faulty cam, so I took it back and got another one. The results were the same!

Overall, I liked the webcam, however, all of my computer accessories (i.e. keyboard, mouse, printer, speakers) are wireless and I would like to see a webcam with this great quality in a wireless option.

I SAW THE AD ABOUT 12 MEGA PIXEL CAMERA AND 3 MEGA PIXEL VIDEO. I BOUGHT IT AND TRIED, BUT I FOUND IT NOT THAT GOOD. I HAVE ONE LOGITECH QUICK CAM ORBIT AF WITH 8 MEGA PIXEL CAMERA AND 2 MEGA PIXEL VIDEO. THIS IS 50 TIMES BETTER THAN THIS HP PRODUCT. I RECOMMEND HP TO IMPROVE THE CAMERA QUALITY. THANKS.

this product is amazing it produces clear, beautiful images which is completely amazing. I like this product because i can use it to communicate internationally with people around the globe. I can really say this is an extrodinary product and you have to have it .

Software is typical of other cameras, works great with Skype

I am 50 and bought this product to make a you tube video with my grandson. The editing was easier to do than I thought. I quickly learned how to add music in the background of my little video. The quality is clear and the price was reasonable for me. The help menu is good as well.