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Last update July 1, 2005

Creative Notebook December 26, 2004, $49.99 A pretty nice little camera in my opinion as long as you are satisfied with a 320x240 image. It claims to have a 640x480 image sensor, but I found that at the larger resolution the image becomes a little soft. I suspect this is due to the lens. But at the 320x240 size, the picture is quite good, coming close to that of the Logitech QuickCam Notebook. A major advantage is the size of the camera. A nice small cylindrical shape which clamps on the top of your notebook screen. The clamp could be a bit wider; it only fits screens up to 1/2 inch thick. I have to force it onto my screen which is just a bit thicker than 1/2 inch along the top left. It won't fit in the center of my current notebook screen. However, when I received my new Dell Inspiron 9200, I found the camera won't stay on the screen at all. Many of the new notebooks have a rounded edge to the display cover and there is no flat area for the camera to hold on. I had to add a self adhesive rubber foot to keep the camera from falling off the screen. Not sure what computers Creative used to test their design, but they have created a major problem here. If the clamp were 1/2 inch taller the problem would not exist. Consider this carefully before buying this camera. The focus ring is easy to get to, easy to adjust and stays put. The camera comes with a small padded soft carrying case. The camera does very well in bright light and moderately well in low light conditions. I find the device settings to be a bit limited. It only has automatic control on the exposure and it seems to have some difficulty color balancing in incandescent light. The white balance settings have no slider and only allow for Automatic, Fluorescent, Incandescent and Outdoor. My biggest complaint was, as with many of the notebook cameras, there is no horizontal swiveling control. You have to sit directly in front of the camera, which becomes a bit awkward since I can only mount the camera to the extreme sides of my notebook screen. Overall, a good camera for portable use. I think this will be my camera of choice for portable use, providing I can figure a way to keep it fastened on my screen. Product Specifications Image sensor: CMOS 640x480 Video capture: Up to 640x480 pixels Still image capture: Up to 640x480 pixels Frame rate: Up to 15 frames per second Lens: 52° normal angle view, Manual focus ring 45° downward pitch and a 270° panning angle Creative hands-free headset Included Software ArcSoft PhotoImpression 4 Live video-enabled MSN/Yahoo! Messenger OrbSecure1 Security software Creative SightSpeed Video Phone Creative WebCam Center Bundle Minimum System Requirements (PC) Windows® 98, Windows® 2000, Windows® Me, Windows® XP Pentium® II 366, AMD Athlon® processor, or higher 128 MB RAM 100 MB free hard drive space CD-ROM drive 16-bit color display adapter USB 1.1 connection Screen shots of camera configuration settings Device         Advanced Pluses Actual sensor resolution 640x480 CMOS Acceptable image quality and works fair in low light Mounts nicely on flat thin notebook screens Custom installation option allows you to choose which parts of the software are installed. Minuses Mounting clamp needs to be wider and taller Limited color balance Installation places links to AOL on desktop and in Internet Explorer favorites without asking Specs (from Creative website) Color VGA (640x480) CMOS image sensor Focus range of 6 inches to infinity Field of view at 44 degrees (Horizontal) Captures video in 24bit color up to 30 frames per second for resolutions up to 352x288 for Standard System up to 15 frames per second for resolutions up to 640x480 for Minimum System Color format : I420 & RGB24 Physical Product Details Flip rotating angle : from -45 to 225 degree Dimension (min): 580mm(L) X 24.85mm(W) X 420mm(H) Dimension (max): 580mm(L) X 26.05mm(W) X 420mm(H) Weight : 110 grams (10 grams tolerance)