Best webcam for laptop computer and traveling, preferably HD.

Good evening, WBF. I'm on the search for the best (preferably HD) webcam out there. This will not be for a desktop. My lovely wife will be using it on her laptop for when she's traveling during the week for work, so that our 3 year old son can "see" Momma and listen to her say goodnight each evening she is out of town. We are going to try the Skype thing or equivalent web based video chat. Being a complete virgin at this kind of thing, I sure would like to pick your brains a bit if you don't mind.

For the home, I just purchased the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910. The spec's can be found in this link >>> http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-HD-P...5&sr=8-1&keywords=Logitech+HD+Pro+Webcam+C910

What I'm looking for is something my wife can use that will be the best possible companion to the desktop webcam I just purchased. Of the things I have read about, some things of concern are having a protective case or something to protect the webcam during transit [always carry-on], refresh rate per second and having a good grip on the laptop in case she wants to walk around. There's also the reliability factor with having the webcam in a completely portable capacity. Having my son "experience" Momma without her being there with the best possible quality would be the #1 thing I am looking for. A 360 degree swivel feature would be pretty cool feature but is not a requirement, unless you think otherwise from experience.

At the house, we have a 24" widescreen HD monitor the Logitech C910 will be mounted on, an incredibly fast CPU, decent internet speed and Windows 7 [64-bit] to view things on our end. I currently do not know what my wife has going on with regards to her laptop. I have seen it but have not used it, so if any additional information is required here, I can find out.

For those in the know, is there anything that I may want to be aware of that may be unforeseen? My computer at home is solid as a rock and I do not foresee any issues with that [I hope], what is the unknown to us is actually using this type of contraption on the go. Any advice, warnings, things to look out for, compatibility issues, hotel wireless issues and associated suggestions are more than welcome and I'd like to thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and look forward to any advice you might have to share.

Tom

? Is there anybody out there? ?



Tom

Hmmm, didn't know that. Kim will be bringing her work laptop home tomorrow. She doesn't 'think" that it has a webcam and the HP Pavilion Entertainment notebook laptop we usually use around the house doesn't have one. Like I said, I'm a complete virgin to all of this stuff.

Would you happen to know if the ones included with most of the laptops are a high refresh rate or HD [720 or higher]?

Tom

I think I found one that suits my needs well. http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/lifecam-hd-6000-for-notebooks/7PD-00001#details It's only a 30 FPS refresh rate but it is widescreen and HD, built specifically for a laptop, has a 360 degree swivel feature and comes with a travel case and they price on Amazon wasn't too bad at only 29 dollars.

Tom

Hello and Merry Christmas everyone. Well, just figured that I would update my findings so far for those who may be interested.

It turns out that my wife did have a built in webcam in her work laptop. Several folks tried and tried to figure out how to get the sound from it to no avail. It's got a video camera but no microphone. An external one is needed. Eh, whatever. There are many things in life that just make no sense whatsoever. With that said, we have tried all three devices [Logitech, Microsoft and the Dell built in with no microphone] on both ends of 1 desktop, 3 laptops and some sort of fancy phone.

What we have learned is that in this case, you get what you pay for. The Dell built in webcam has no outgoing sound and considerably the worst picture/transmission of the three. It was actually so bad, that I wouldn't have even been interested in acquiring a microphone or using Skype altogether. Too many consistent issues with the video/transmission on both ends and it also wasn't very user friendly. The Microsoft mentioned on the post above had a nice picture, great sound but focus issues regardless of what settings we tried. It keeps going out of focus and self readjusting all by itself whenever it wants and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to the cause. The Logitech was clearly the winner of the three. Great picture, great sound and the receiving end looks almost a little too revealing at times with no focus issues whatsoever. It was also the fastest and easiest to hookup, get rolling and adjust prior to calling or on the fly while using Skype. The two external webcams were considerably better video-wise over the Dell built in webcam. The refresh rate, digital snow, fast moving images, detail, focus and what the other end views were all considerably better than the built in.

None of them really looked like an HD video but the two HD webcams were vastly superior to the built in. The best way I could describe the two HD webcams would be like you were watching regular programming on an old tube TV that was slightly out of focus. This is clearly not HD. Better focus on an image would be how I would describe it but not HD. Still, not bad at all for a free service [Skype]. No complaints here, just thought I'd mention it.

Found out another thing. You can't use the aforementioned Microsoft laptop webcam on a desktop...or at least we couldn't on the one we tried [not mine]. So, it looks like we are good to go and I'm glad I decided to go external with the webcams. Now onto connections...We have found out that my wife has an android phone and that we can DL an app to make her phone a hot spot. The app is http://foxfi.com/ and we will be trying this out soon. It has been relayed to us that hotels do not like guests using Skype and they will purposely block your internet access if you try to use it. Apparently, it's all written in the fine print so this will be the next setup challenge for us. Either get a hot spot, use this app [that will hopefully work] or tether.

Tom