Microsoft LifeCam Studio 1080p HD Webcam - Gray

This review is for the "Microsoft LifeCam Studio 1080p HD Webcam - Gray" in case you find it under another product.I was looking for a new webcam for the frequent Zoom meetings I attend. The main requirement was the camera's viewing angle had to be narrower than the wide-angle view provided by nearly every other less-expensive webcam. This can only be obtained via optical zoom (preferable but unavailable at this price point) or some form of digital zoom effect. The reason this is important for online conferencing via Zoom and related systems is that the normal wide-angle view makes your face too unimposingly tiny, especially in "gallery" view. Imagine my surprise when I found a whole slew of camera controls in the Skype settings menu (ridiculously, they aren't even available via the Windows 10 camera app.) Among the controls that are adjustable is a digital-zoom setting -- exactly what I was looking for!How to take advantage of this in Zoom: Open Skype, adjust the settings for the camera using the Skype Audio and Video settings controls. Remember to hit the "Apply" button on both settings windows. Exit Skype and start Zoom and the camera settings will have been preserved between the two applications! Using this procedure and sitting about a foot from the camera, I was able to get my face to fill at least 3/4 of the screen height, the exact effect I was after.I've only tested this with Zoom so I don't know if it works with other conferencing or picture/video software. But it's good enough for my purposes, especially since I bought this model back in 2012, way before there ever was Zoom.BTW, this camera's image quality from the start has been extremely good and it is still competitive today.

I read a bunch of reviews before buying a webcam. A few on here said this webcam didn't work with windows 10. It does indeed work on windows 10.I ignored the disc that came with it since I assumed everything on it was old and the drivers online would work. The USB plug had a sticker saying to install drivers before plugging it in so I went to Microsoft's website and searched for the driver. The driver I downloaded was intended for windows 7 and would not install so I decided to just plug it in since windows 10 is pretty good at trying to find drivers for anything you plug in. I had one more issue after windows set the device up. I had previously disabled camera access in my windows 10 settings for all apps. After turning it back on I was able to use the webcam with no issues.The auto focus is a little weird sometimes (especially in lower light) but if you put your hand up in front of the camera, it readjusts. The quality is much better than cheap webcams and laptop webcams I've used in the past.The base moves like a snake and is able to be shaped so you can mount it anywhere. The tripod screw also is convenient if you are trying to record on the go.

Been playing with the LifeCam Studio for a couple weeks now. I really like the quality of the video it produces, though calling it a 1080p camera is a bit of a stretch since it doesn't do 1080p out of the box with the software it comes with. Though, it's not like Skype or Live Messenger will do 1080p video chats anyway, so it's not that big a deal, the 720p video it captures is way better than the other cameras I've seen. If you want to record in 1080p with the lifecam studio, you'll have to use something like VirtualDub (freeware).I do like that it's Microsoft's and they have a much better track record of releasing firmware/driver updates than most vendors <cough-Logitech>. My last camera I had for 3 years with no driver updates, no firmware updates and they didn't even make a Windows 7 driver for it. This camera has had 2 firmware updates and at least one driver update. That means they're serious about improving the experience with it.The camera picks up an image very well, even in super low-light situations. I turned off all my lights and just had the monitor going, it is able to lengthen the exposure or open an iris or something to make my face really clear still. The other cameras I tried didn't fare nearly as well.The camera's microphone is also very sensitive and sounds great. Which is good and bad. While chatting, every move in your chair is caught, every throat clearing heard, and yes, people can hear you belch or break wind. Farters beware, they will hear you."Did you just fart?""Uh, no...that was this old chair"The reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5 is because it needs a fast machine to get the full HD video at a fast frame-rate. I have a dual-quad core computer with 12GB of RAM and a giant radeon graphics card and I get fantastic video at over 30fps. Other people have complained about how bad the refresh rate is, which I didn't see on my computer. When I moved it to my weak-arse laptop however, I did notice a slower frame-rate at the high resolutions. I guess that's to be expected until someone creates a camera that offloads all the image processing to an on-camera chip. I don't really see this as a problem with the camera though, more a problem trying to do more than the computer is able to do. Want it to go faster, use a faster machine. It's like watching full-screen HD videos downloaded from the internet with older machines. You wouldn't blame Media Player if it's choppy, you'd blame the slow processor and weak graphics card. Same principle in my mind.All in all I think it's a great camera at a great price.