Webcam advice required

garywork · 16 Jan 2010 at 20:29

Hi

i know nothing about webcams . . .

but i would like to buy one for a relatives laptop

1 - not keen on those clip on the screen ones as they close the laptop up
so one of those seperate ones really

2 - they all have a microphone ?

3 - thinking back to winmodems , do all webcams use their own processing power or do they rely on te CPU in the computer ? - not sure that even makes sense but i hope you get the drift

4 - guess to connect to someone else you need to email each other ? - need something simple , they wont be joining any facebook type thing just 1 2 1 with me

they have a vista laptop - i'm xp from my end and i'll buy one as well to match the model

thanks

Kushage · 16 Jan 2010 at 20:51

The Cams obviously rely on the PC, but are just a normal (usually) VGA camera sending an image straight to your desktop. Yes they usually all have a build in microphone (if your laptop doesnt already). My HP notebook has a build in webcam, which is perfectly fine. Dont spend too much money on a cam, as you can get good logitech ones for not more than 20pounds. The cheap ones have good enough image quality and keep in mind, that the higher the quality, the more your internet is going to suffer.

Hope that helps.
Peace

garywork · 16 Jan 2010 at 21:04

hi

quality - we both have broadband and would only be webcamming while we are on and not downloading at the same time

prices , yes , seen some in the shops , pleasantly suprised !

Evilreg · 16 Jan 2010 at 21:05

hi there
im looking for a reasonable webcam too slight different reasons tho so will create my own post dont want to hijack yours
my wife is from bulgaria and we call them everynight using a program called skype this has both webcam and call features. the link is below install it on both computers and the rest is self explanatory.
http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/

have fun
evil