microsoft lifecam cinema webcam software

Billed as the top dog of Microsofts LifeCam line, the LifeCam Studio (100 MSRP, currently available from Amazon for 55 ) pulls out all the stops: 1080p video, Skype certification, and an eye-catching durable design.

It mostly lives up to its high-end promise, too, ranking near the top of the heap, with a few caveats.

In keeping with its line-leading status, the Life Cam Studio sports a tony design in black and silver aluminum.

The barrel-style camera features a petal lens hood to reduce unwanted light above and below the glass lens, and the rubberized mount flexes rather than hinges to conform around displays.

It also has a threaded hole at the bottom for tripod mounting.

A small mono mic is integrated into the top-back end of the camera.

With a 75-degree field of view, the camera provides a bit of wiggle room in the frame without you having to move it.

Should you need to, though, it rotates 360 degrees180 degrees in either directionso you can change the camera angle without having to detach it from your display.

The LifeCam Studios versatile mount allows for attachment to displays or a tripod.

Given the cameras smart looks, it was a little disappointing to find that its specs werent quite so pleasing.

The Life Cam Studio is advertised as delivering 1080p HD video recording.

Thats adequate when youre casually chatting with friends and family, but its a bit below the bar for corporate settings where video conferences are typically held on full-HD television screens.

In those situations, you want to use a camera that supports 1080p video calling.

On our humble PC display, the LifeCam Studio did pretty well.

The image was sharp with vivid colors in just about every type of lighting environment we tried.

Even though the mic is mono, it reproduced warm vocals, but it also picked up a fair amount of ambient noise in bustling rooms.

The camera rotates freely, but not necessarily smoothly; the mount doesnt fit snuggly enough on most displays to stay still (or even attached) when you rotate the camera.

As a result, repositioning it is a two-handed task: one hand to hold the mount in place and the other to swivel the barrel.

Despite its slightly misleading 1080p promise, the LifeCam Studio is an excellent webcam for both personal and business use.

He contributes regularly to TechHive and writes the Max Productivity column for PCWorld.

Microsoft Lifecam Cinema Webcam Software