4 stars out of 5

Author's Rating:

Pros: Small size, light weight, good picture quality, relatively inexpensive

Cons: Positioning and focusing instability, marginal brightness of spotlight

The Bottom Line: 
Good value for the capabilities, needs minor improvements.

Author's Review
Overall this is a very satisfactory personal webcam, especially for laptop, notebook, and travel use because of its small size and light weight. I can think of only one serious drawback, and that is, the gooseneck stalk on which the camera head is mounted is way too limber. It takes some fiddling with the geometry of how you position the head or its weight, although very light, will simply cause it to fall over. The built in white LED "spotlight" is permanently fixed so that it illuminates the camera lens field of view, the concept apparently being that your face can be seen in an otherwise dark location, but it is simply not bright enough for a good result in that application. Handier for the dark is that you can point the light downward so as to illuminate the keyboard for typing in the dark, but of course that's what the camera sees too. If there was some way to illuminate the keyboard and your face at the same time it would save having to use a separate keyboard illuminator (as I do now) for dark situations. The lens can be focused by twisting its mounting ring but the ring has too little rotational friction to keep it tight, so the focus can be thrown off by slight movements during transit and stowage, and if you are not super careful you can get a fingerprint smudge on the lens.