TECH SPOTLIGHT : Hue Webcam for Windows or Mac adequate for home, decent for business use
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
With the end of the year approaching, my vacation days are becoming more scarce than a professional athlete without a criminal record.
Since I don’t have much time to go visit friends and family, at least until next year, I have to find other ways to see them.
Thanks to modern technology, that’s fairly easy to do. Cameras made for computers and Internet use, better known as webcams, have become prolific. Some computers have them built in. Many webcams can be bought and added to computers. They usually vary in size, shape and quality.
Clique Communications recently introduced a colorful set of webcams. The Hue Webcam offers a flexible neck, USB connection for most computers and higher quality than many Webcams. It comes in six colors: hot pink, red, white, lime green, bright blue and black.
The Hue is made to work with Windows, and in fact only mentions Windows on the box. However, the Clique Web site offers drivers for Mac OS X systems as well. I tried it out on the Mac side using Yahoo Messenger and had few problems. Apple’s iChat won’t work with USB cams without special, thirdparty software.
The Hue is made up of a bulbous base that connects to the computer by a separate USB cable, and the camera on a long, flexible neck that ends in a USB connector. The camera can be plugged into the bulb for stability or to work with a desktop system. It also can be plugged directly into the computer, which works great for laptop systems.
Many webcams have autofocus features, which can be problematic. The Hue webcam has a ring around the lens that can be manually adjusted, so you get perfect focus. Sure, it’s less convenient than auto focus, but to me it was easier to get and keep a well-focused picture.
The main purpose of most webcams is to allow video conferencing or chatting. Many chat programs today, such as Yahoo Messenger, AOL’s AIM and Apple’s iChat, allow for video chatting. With the Hue attached, the person with whom you’re chatting can see and hear you, thanks to the built-in microphone.
The Hue also offers some nice extra features. A small button on the back of the camera will take a snapshot, so you can get decent still pictures instantly. The software also allows the Hue to record video.
The video quality is adequate, though picture-wise it depends on how well the environment is lit. The Hue does little to enhance dark settings, so if there isn’t plenty of light in the room, you won’t get good video or photos.
The arm of the camera adjusts very easily. It’s one of those metallic necks like you used to find on the old desk lamps, only smaller. Once adjusted, the camera stayed put most of the time, though there were a couple of positions where it slowly fell. But I remember the necks of those old desk lamps would wear out over time if adjusted often. I suspect that will eventually happen with this camera, though it probably will take something like a year or so of heavy adjustment.
Admittedly, the Hue in Windows is better quality than many of the PC Webcams I’ve seen. When using the WebCam Monitor software that came with the device, the picture was smooth and the video easy to capture. The quality wasn’t quite as good during chat, however.
To get the full feel of the Hue cam, I enlisted the help of my brother. He found the cam to be about average in Windows. The sound was a bit low, even after cranking up the volume in the preferences. We used AOL’s AIM chat program to test out the cam.
We then switched to the Mac. By accident, I first started chatting with him using the Apple iSight webcam built into my computer. I soon switched to the Hue and continued chatting with my brother. He observed that the Hue was more pixelated (little squares pop up in the image ) when compared with the iSight. The sound, again, was softer and not quite as clear. This time, we used Yahoo Messenger.
However, the picture on the Hue was smoother when using the Mac version of WebCam Monitor. I think that the lower quality of the Hue in the chat program may be, in part, the fault of the chat program. The webcam’s quality seemed to vary from one program to another.
That’s not the fault of the camera. Still, the quality wasn’t perfect in any of the programs, which can be related to the camera.
Bottom line, the camera isn’t quite ready for work on CNN, but it’s more than adequate for home use, and decent enough for standard business use.
It’s also just fine for keeping in touch with friends and relatives as vacation time fades in the waning days of the year. Melissa L. Jones can be reached via e-mail at mljones 72 @mac. com.
Where it’s @ The Clique Hue HD Webcam requires Windows 2000 or later or Mac OS X; 128 MB of memory and 200 MB on the hard drive. A USB port also is required, USB 2. 0 required for megapixel image capture. The product retails for $ 99. 99, but the Web site currently offers an introductory price reduction of $ 20. More information is available at www. cliquecams. com / HUE.
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