Seeing is Believing

Masterfile

When it comes to Web cams, there are two kinds of people: those who mastered the technology and those who want to. If you’re holding video calls with friends and family members, there’s a good chance it’s because someone else set you up. Web cam use typically spreads one social circle at a time, and it all starts with one motivated person.

“That tends to be the more technically savvy person in the family network,” says Andrew Heymann of Logitech. The person takes on the hand-holding job of walking newcomers through the steps of buying and setting up a cam.

But Web cams are no longer tricky devices. Quite the opposite: You install the device’s drivers from the accompanying CD onto your computer and plug the camera into your computer’s USB port, and your computer should see your Web cam just fine—which means friends and family will see you just fine, too. (A few cams now take setup a step further with plug-and-play capability; no drivers required.) The only trick is that when you make a video call, you need to use the same instant-messaging program as the people with whom you want to have a conversation.

More people seem to be resolving this issue. A Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) study in March 2008 found that 23 percent of U.S. households have a Web cam, up from 16 percent in 2003, the last year CEA conducted a study.

These people are finding that a Web cam’s performance has improved quite a bit in the past 3 years. Today’s Web cams include lenses made with glass, higher resolution sensors and more-sophisticated image processing. Meanwhile, broadband Internet service is more accessible, which makes it easier to send large, clear video images, which wouldn’t have been possible 3 years ago. The result? Gone are the days of stuttering video and dim pictures.

“More people are getting online and using Web cams,” says Andrew Ware of Hewlett-Packard. “We see that trend continuing out to the future.”

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. With the exception of a few niche brands, the Web cams you’ll find in your local electronics store are compatible with all the major video-calling applications. Don’t think that just because you’re using Windows Live Messenger, for example, that you need a Microsoft cam or that HP cams work only with certain programs. Instead, think about what level of video quality you demand.

An increasing number of desktop and notebook computers now come with built-in Web cams. Although convenient, these cams generally are acceptable only for taking quick pictures and videos, or for use in an environment with abundant lighting. For anything else, you’ll want a separate Web cam.

When it comes to quality, the spec you’ll see most prominently is the resolution of the Web cam’s light sensor, measured in pixels, or more frequently, megapixels (MP). In 2007, Creative introduced the first Web cam with a 2MP sensor, and now most of the major manufacturers have at least one such model. In April 2008, HP upped the ante to 3MP with its Elite Autofocus Web cam.

You’ll pay for the pixel. Web cams that deliver standard 640-x-480-pixel resolution (also called VGA quality) can cost as little as $20. A 2MP Web cam (also listed as 1600 x 1200 or called high-definition or even ultra hi-def) typically will set you back $100 or more.

Heymann says we can expect the “megapixel war” to continue, but beware. Some manufacturers know that you’ll look first at a Web cam’s MP rating, so they pump that up at the expense of quality. We agree that pixels matter. Pixels grab light, so having more pixels means more light will reach your sensor, which results in a clearer picture. But more is not always better. As manufacturers squeeze more pixels into their sensors while keeping Web cam sizes the same, they’re reducing the size of each pixel and actually diminishing the cam’s overall performance. For now, 2MP seems to be the cut-off point for delivering excellent images.