by Can Tran

Created on: July 22, 2007

Buying a webcam is more of a want than a necessary. But a webcam can be nice when holding a virtual conference and you can see everybody else and vice versa. In a case of a friend of mine from Amsterdam who was here on a basketball scholarship, a webcam enabled him to see his girlfriend back at home. Every time I come over to pick up one of my homies, I see him sitting in front of his laptop talking to his girlfriend.

The first step to buying a webcam is deciding what you're going to use the webcam for. If you have a Macintosh notebook, read no further because they have webcams already built into the monitor. So for Mac notebook users, there is no need to buy a webcam. Save your money. This is why I'm tempted to buy a Mac notebook because I don't have to buy all sorts of other accessories for it.

A decent webcam for your laptop should run you at least forty-five to fifty dollars. However, at places like Newegg.com, you have rebates you can mail in which is pretty good. The webcams for your notebooks have a flatter design unlike the webcaps for your desktop. All webcams should have a USB interface, that goes for all desktops and laptops. The webcam for your laptop is a type you can attach to the top of the monitor.

The main concern would be the framerate of the camera. Which is how many frames your webcam can capture each second. The fewer the frames the webcam catches, the choppy the video will be. Something with 30 frames per second or FPS will produce a video that's very fluid like a television broadcast. With the way technology is, getting a webcam that delivers at least 30 FPS should be affordable.

For a notebook, you can pay about forty-five dollars for a Logitech Quickcam that's 640 x 480 pixels with 15 FPS. If you're okay with the choppy video, then by all means get it. Parts of laptops tend to get a bit more pricey though. If you want better video from your webcamera, spend another forty to fifty dollars to get you something that delivers you 30 FPS. The webcams for notebooks that deliver 30 FPS tend to have a higher cost than the webcam for a desktop.

You want a webcam with a USB interface which makes it easy for you to hook up and disconnect. Just about all of the current webcam models should have a USB interface.

In the case of a desktop, a good webcam should run you at least twenty-five dollars. But the video's still going to be choppy. Why not spend another ten to fifteen dollars to get a webcam that delivers 30 FPS. Ezonics has the EZ-368 Video Chat Kit for about thirty-five dollars with 650 x 480 pixels at 30 FPS.

In a nutshell, it depends on what computer you want to buy the webcam for. Mac users need not buy one because they already have webcams that deliver 30 FPS built into their systems. For a notebook user, you want something that you can easily attach to your monitor. If you want good video, then get something that delivers 30 FPS. Keep in mind the cameras for the notebooks tend to be higher than the models for the regular PC.

Most importantly, do your research on the various models of webcameras. Do your research before shelling out cash for a webcam.

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