Creative’s Live! Cam was one of the smallest and lightest of the cams we tested. That’s a plus for portability, though its inflexible clip for mounting to a monitor and its inability to swivel right and left made it a little inconvenient to position. Image quality was in line with the other cams in its class, both in good and poor lighting conditions.
Two features, though, really caught our attention. First, the noise-cancelling microphone did a good job of reducing background noise. This could be important if you cam or use VoIP in a noisy environment. Second, a clever feature in the bundled software will display an image file or PowerPoint slides in your video stream; this works with whatever videoconferencing software you’re using.
Creative’s light little cam offers some useful features and solid performance.
$70, www.creative.com
Noise-cancelling mic; clever whiteboard feature in bundled software.
Hard to position; a bit pricey for its class.
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