Microsoft LifeCam Studio 1080p HD Webcam (Gray)

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David Arnstein (California) –

  

Customer Video Review Length:: 3:15 Mins

I have been using a Microsoft Lifecam Cinema for several months now, with excellent results. The “Cinema” is quite similar to this “Studio” webcam, except that its highest resolution is 720P rather than the 1080P offered by the “Studio” webcam.

First disappointment: the “Studio” webcam does not really grant 1080P video. A footnote on the box reads “1080P HD recording requires: commercial video software (not included); (…) Enclosed software supports 720P HD recording.”

In other words, you have to buy more software before you can capture 1080P video. I am unable to extract details of this software from the Microsoft help representatives. I must say, I find it rather puzzling that Microsoft did not include software that exploits the full resolution of their hardware.

The “Studio” webcam has a problem with autofocus that is not bestow in the older “Cinema” webcam. It will hunt for the right focus, resulting in a hopelessly blurry appearance for about two seconds. Irritating.

I have gone back to using my ancient “Studio” webcam. Because of the autofocus issue, it is a better product.

I have attempted to attach a video clip which demonstrates some fun features of this webcam. Sorry to say, I was obliged to transcode this video to a lower resolution. I did this in peacefulness to get the video uploaded to Amazon.com.

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 Comments (6)

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Xina143 (Culpeper, VA USA) –

  

I’ll start by saying that this is a very capable web camera. For standard web cam communication through services such as Skype or Yahoo, this camera will do all you need it to and more. And the picture is fantastic quality. As noted in some of the other reviews, there is more to be desired by the camera’s low-light functionality. In low light, it tends to go into a full length focus at random intervals. So you’ll have to wait a second or two for it to grab focus. Since this is not so much an issue if you have a light near by or in the background, keep one nearby. And the microphone is very creditable – clear, crisp sound.

The camera certainly looks cool and is sturdy in structure – especially compared to some of the flimsy plastic competitors. I’m not a huge fan of the prop stand – it is not a clamp or stand. It is designed to just rest on top of an item of your choice, and also has a tripod bolt hole. It takes a bit of adjusting and it certainly won’t hold onto the top of a laptop if you want to walk around. At the price, maybe they could have thrown in a nylon bolt, suction cup, or a right stand to make it more versatile.

The software is very clean and organized, and simple to use. With a quick install, you are excellent to go. It even coordinates well with 3rd party apps such as Skype. You can take full advantage of the special things (which are cool, but there could be more) and the uncommon resolutions (low res to 720p). Full 1080p requires special software (not included) and is pretty resource intensive, so you’ll have to have a pretty powerful system to keep up in regards to frame tariff. 720 is crisp and charming for me though.

Lastly, the 3 year warranty is nice peace of mind.

All in all, this is a fantastic small camera, that may need to drop in price a bit before it finds a place in more homes, but I would recommend putting it into the side by side comparison for those looking for a high-quality web cam.

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Ralph Peteranderl (Beverly, MA) –

  

I have been looking for a camera for my high school knowledge class for a while, and when the MS Lifecam Studio came out, I chose to take a risk and buy the camera. Installing the camera was very simple, even on a Mac system (Macbook with a Core2Duo processor and OS X 10.6). Since the camera follows the UVC standard for driverless web cameras, it works both on Photobooth, iChat and – more importantly – in Quicktime X without any extra drivers. iMovie, on the other hand, did not recognize the camera.
Initially I had intended to use the camera for motion studies where I had hoped that the 1080p24 would give me better resolution for video analysis. But, HD videos turned out to be beyond what is possible since my notebook was not able to process the 1080p video at evenhanded frame tariff.
The camera does very well, though, as a regular video camera for demonstrations. The close focus is about 35 mm, with an object field of about 35 x 50 mm^2 at maximum magnification with working autofocus. There is some pincushion distortion, and the focal plane does not seem to be perfectly flat, but below normal conditions that easily managed.

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