Product Description

Creative Live Cam Optia combines highly sophisticated style with true plug and play simplicity. Its translucent white design complements modern LCD screens or notebook displays, and lifelike images are assured by the high-quality precision lens. Fast, smooth video is maintained by the high-speed connection to the PC. NOTE - actual color of this product is orange, picture shown is for reference only.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16921 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Creative Labs
• Model: 73VF028000000
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 3.90" h x 8.30" w x 8.40" l, 1.25 pounds

Features

• Smooth, full motion 30fps digital video streams and top quality images with High Speed USB 2.0 throughput
• Fits easily to almost anything - notebook displays, CRT monitors and flat panel displays
• Spice up your chats with fun audio and video effects including Live! Cam FX Creative and Live! Cam Doodling
• Edit and organize your photos easily & create fun photo calendars with Creative Live! Cam Suite
• Certified for Windows Vista

Amazon.com Review
Just when you thought all webcams were created equal, along comes the Creative Live! Cam Optia AF--the first webcam to offer an autofocus lens and a ceiling-busting 2-megapixel resolution. But that's just the start of the technical enhancements, which also include dual microphones with noise cancellation capability, a wide range of visual and audio effects (which you can also create), parental controls, and still image capture up to an interpolated 8 megapixels.

This screenshot was taken with the Apple iSight...

...while this was taken with the Optia AF--notice the deeper shading of colors compared to the iSight.

The Optia AF offers easy plug-and-play operability on either a Windows PC or a Mac--just slide in the USB 2.0 plug, select the camera from your chosen video chatting program (it works seamlessly with Skype, Yahoo!, Windows Live, SightSpeed, and iChat), and you're good to go. The Optia's autofocus feature gets engaged whenever you make movements more pronounced than just moving your head from side to side--the picture mildly blurring for about a second before it adjusts to a crisper focus. We found it best not too move too much, otherwise the picture tended to constantly adjust itself, which was frustrating for our chat partner.

However, our chat pal did notice that the colors from the Optia AF were much richer when compared to a test we did with the Apple iSight (see images at right), and that the flow of video was smoother with the Optia's 30fps (frames per second) capture. He also noted that my voice seemed to come in clearer, thanks to the dual adaptive array microphones.

While the Optia AF works as advertised right out of the box, you'll benefit from installing the Creative software package, which includes the Cam Console from which you can make a wide range of adjustments. (Note that this software is available for Windows users only; it's also Vista-certified.) From the Autofocus section of the console, you can specify a focus area from an Advanced menu that will help cut down on refocusing, or choose to manually focus on one point if you're going to be more stationary.

Add special effects such as crocodile eyes, which will follow your face around the screen.

The Cam Console is also where you can select from a host of special effect add-ons that range from draping a background around you (such as the Eiffel Tower) or adding elf ears or crocodile eyes, which will follow your face as you move. Unfortunately, it seemed we needed a green screen behind us as we could never get the backgrounds to fully form. But we were much more successful with the facial additions and such whole-scale manipulations as half-tone and mirror image.

The included CD-ROM also includes Muvee Autoproducer software, which can help you stitch together a movie from different clips captured from the Optia AF, as well as Orb, which enables you to broadcast your video feed to a Web page that friends and family can check in on. Coupled with the Optia AF's parental controls, the Orb service could be handy for parents who want to remotely check in on what their tykes are up to in another room, or back at home with a babysitter.

Like its predecessor, the Optia AF's stand can sit freely upon a desk or older CRT monitor, and the rubber grips on the bottom help to keep it from slipping. A clip is included on the bottom to stabilize the stand on your laptop's screen or LCD monitor, making the Optia one of the most secure webcams we've used. You can twist the black high-gloss camera body around 270 degrees, and the image automatically flips when it's rotated more than 90 degrees. Adding to its stylish looks is an inner ring that lights up in blue when the camera is turned on. Swiveling the lens so it's pointing down turns the camera off for when you need privacy.

Overall, the Optia AF is a welcome advance to to the world of webcams, thanks to its sharper focus, richer colors, and clearer audio. But it's also chock-full of extras that will add fun to your chats with family and friends. --Agen G.N. Schmitz

Pros:

• 2-megapixel resolution helps improve the tone and depth of colors
• Noise-cancelling dual microphones handy in loud environments like coffee shops
• Plug-and-play operability on both Windows PCs and Macs

Cons:

• Autofocus can overcompensate if you move around too much

From the Manufacturer

Small, Stylish and Packed with Features You can now enjoy super sharp image quality and sound your best all at the same time! The Live! Cam Optia AF features an Auto Focus 2 Megapixel Sensor and revolutionary Live! Audio technology that lets you deliver stunning image quality and crystal clear voice. Best of all, you can use this great looking Live! Cam anywhere on any notebooks or computer displays without having to worry about driver installations. Sharper image quality with 2-Megapixel Sensor and Auto Focus feature Revolutionary Noise Cancellation technology and Adaptive Array Microphones reduce unwanted background noise Greater viewing flexibility with multi-axis swivel rotation and automatic image flip Smooth videos and uninterrupted chats Fits easily to almost anything--notebook displays, CRT monitors, flat panel displays, or flat surfaces Convenience of plug and go with USB--no driver installation required

Spice up Your Chats with Fun Audio and Video Effects Have more fun by adding a wide range of special effects and backgrounds to your video chat with Advanced Video FX. You can even experiment with difference voice effects to thrill your friends online! In addition, with Live! Cam FX Creator and Live! Cam Doodling, the possibilities are limitless! Entertain your friends and families by drawing your own effects realtime while you chat with them! Also: Edit, organize and create with the included software suite. Works with Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and other compatible instant messaging services. Maximize your webcam experience with SightSpeed, included at no extra charge, which turns your PC into a video phone. Create videos easily and quickly with the muvee autoProducer!

Also Includes:

Bundled Creative Handsfree Stereo Headset Chat away with greater ease and comfort with the included Handsfree Stereo Headset.

Parental Control The Parental Control feature enables you to secure the camera with a password. Every time you activate your Live! Cam, you will be prompted for a password.

Customer Reviews

Great camera for Skype and MacOS X
I have an Apple MacPro system running MacOS X 10.4, and I wanted a setup that allows me to use Skype with video and sound. Initially, I thought I need to get a video camera, a microphone and speakers separately.

Since the Optia AF has not only a video camera, but also a built-in microphone, I decided to give it a try. I was more than impressed with the ease of use of setting it up: just plug it in a USB port, start up Skype, tell it to use the USB video camera and the USB audio device and everything works perfectly. No need to install any software, it worked out-of-the-box. The camera works great with iChat and PhotoBooth applications too, again without installing additional software.

Autofocus is fairly fast in a well lit room, and if you don't move suddenly in front of the camera. As you start moving the camera tends to hunt the focus a little bit, but that's something I'd expect from such cameras.

Colors are fairly saturated and the image has good contrast. I like the colors a lot better than those generated by the tiny cameras embedded within the latest generation of iBooks, when used in similar light conditions. The Optia AF is also much better in low light than those cameras, with less grain and better colors.

Sound quality is very good. I don't get any echoes even with the computer' speaker close to the camera's microphone. The sound on the other side is natural, without artifacts. The camera's built-in microphone is great, since my desk space is not cluttered with one more thing I need to worry about (wires, additional USB port or line-in, etc).

The camera fits very well on an Apple Cinema display, and could be easily oriented to frame you. When the camera is in use, a blue light turns on to indicate it. The camera can be rotated in a position that prevents it from turning on, thus providing privacy when you need it.

The only feature missing is the ability to zoom in or out manually, but I don't think it's crucial. The camera's focal length is chosen very well for Skype-type applications (it appears to be the 35mm equivalent of 35mm cameras).

I don't have experience setting this up on Windows, but if you're on Mac, I'd highly recommend this camera.

Not bad, not bad at all
I have a lot of web cams, having been part of a few video related software projects, but it always seems that when I need a cam fast for some test the one I grab or the only one at hand is one that doesn't have its drivers installed on the test machine.

I was wary of a driver-less cam because it was one of those holy grail items. However, what the heck, I gave it a try. And what do you know, you plug it in and that's it. It is recognized and you're off to the races.

I've used it on Windows 2003R2 Server along with Camtasia, on XPPro for flash video testing and on TabletPC2005. Every one detected and ran it. However some DirectX software lost the camera connection when I tried to iterate the extended properties of the camera device, I figure that's the tradeoff of driver-free.

The framerate drops quite a bit when used along with Camtasia, but so do my other logitechs. I think it's a little worse but still very useable.

I haven't installed the creative software so I can't confirm or deny the previous reviewers experiences. Again this a a major reason to buy this unit, you aren't forced to install lots of stuff you don't need.

One thing I wasn't expecting was that the mic would be any good without added helper installation. And honestly I had my doubts that even with the software installed those two mics so close together would give you the real power of a phase array like we have on tablets or pro mics with dsps built-in. Another surprise... the mics picked up my naration of a screencast very nicely from about three feet away and even did pretty well at reducing the levels of a movie track that someone was working on in the next cube.

The clip? I actually find it pretty good. It holds onto the top of both my desktop lcds (inch and a half deep) and the top of my convertable fujitsu T4215 (less than a half inch deep). It's not super tight but it holds well and the little strips of rubber help it stay in place even without it being a tight clamp. Oh, and it only goes down about a half inch from the top of the monitor which means it doesn't touch the lcd on most displays. Nice work on that design.

The camera barrel swivels smoothly all the way around for better lining up of your targets and the tension is just right, not too loose & not too tight.

In all, a good buy.

I'm buying a few more for my crew. Beats running around going "I've got an Orb, do you have the drivers? No? Who took my NotebookPro, it'a all I have installed on this box!" :)

serious software and hardware issues
I bought this cam to replace my aging intel webcam. My intel webcam worked great, and also functioned as a detacable ditigal camera, which I made good use of. Intel's software was simple, but easy to use. Unfortunately, intel no longer makes cameras, and no brand seems to make detachable webcameras anymore.
However, since my webcam was several years old now, I wanted to update it and creative's optia AF seemed to offer the best specs. The camera worked like crap right from the start. At the high resolution modes, the camera is very choppy. At the lower modes it smoothes out, but the picture gets extremely dark. Then the camera, after only one use, stopped working at all. I called creative and they quized me up and down. I asked them about the software issues and they told me they were unaware of any software issues with this product despite the fact,that their own website forum list numerous complaints about software bugs with this product. Because it was in the first 3 months they finally agreed that I could send it in. After over a month later, I get a call saying they can't fix it and don't have a replacement to send me. I told them I wanted a refund, and they told me that wasn't their policy, that I could exchange it for something else. At first they offered a lesser webcam, which was cheaper then what I had paid for and had worse specs. Then they offered me a mp3 player, but I had to pay them another 50 bucks cause it was more expensive, also I'm getting a refurbished model. That was their best offer. Don't buy from this company.