Decent quality webcam? At a decent price?

smashed

Hi.
I am looking at buying my girlfriend a decent webcam, so i can see her in all her glory
I know some are shocking quality, and I therefore want 1 that is decent. However, having a spent a lot on Xmas for her, I would like to try to get 1 cheap.
Any ideas please?
Probably a budget of £20ish... or more if it really makes that much difference... altho I also need 1 for me.. so any 2 webcams in 1 deals are also handy if up to standard.
Also read about the eyetoy as a webcam, and read conflicting things about its performance.

Any help appreciated

dobbiesloan

I got a TRUST 320 SPACECAM with built in microphone and snapshot button for less than £20 works well on yahoo chat MSN messenger.

black-saturn

I've got a Hi Cam but I couldnt find a link to buy it online from the UK anywhere. They sell them in all good computer shops though. Mine cost £19.99 and has a really clear picture. It also has a built in mic and flashes when you have an incoming email.

smashed

Cheers... will have a look now at reviews.. prices etc

Dude

Logitech QuickCam Zoom is very good costs about £40 though.

Swan_2

I use an EyeToy & it's excellent ... if you search this Tech forum you'll find quite a few threads about it ... this one HERE for instance, which has several helpful links including one which has comparison screen-grabs, drivers & all the information you need to get started

smashed

Swan... I think that is where I read it before..
It was just another forum that reckoned it wasnt too good.. but perhaps they are comparing against state of the art.
The microphone feature on the others looked handy

Mr_Skint_2

Whatever you get make sure it has 30FPS or more or the picture
will be all jumps FPS = Frames Per Second Creative do some nice ones
I bought the creative Live Cam £30, It also has a surviellance option
called rmote monitoring so I set it up as a security camera aswell

smashed

I did notice that the sony eyetoy had 20fps,,
how important is the pixel size.. or is that affected by broadband speed etc anyway?
Cheers,, again.
Did look on google.. but wasnt too successful

Mr_Skint_2

Pixel size, if you can get 640x480 still image resolution that will
be fine but FPS is more important, Broadband speed is "Faster the Better"
basically I use a 512kps connection with no problems bear in mind that
if someone is on the other end with a 56k dial up, it wont matter if you send
a webcam conversation on a 10meg connection as they will still be on 56k.

smashed

yea.. im aware of broadband issue.. im on 1meg.. so is she..
just wondered if the full image got transferred down the line.. or it got compressed anyway.
I guess the full 640 goes