IPEVO PoV Webcam

Gadgeteer Hands On Review by Claire Strodtbeck

July 22, 2008

I'm a bit of a webcam aficionado. I have several - my Dell XPS M1330 and eeePC 701 have integrated webcams, plus I have an older VGA Logitech QuickCam and a new 2MP QuickCam Orbit AF. Video chatting can be a lot of fun when your friends live out-of-state - or on the other side of the globe. Julie sent over a couple webcams for me to review - the IPEVO PoV and a networked security camera from Brando.

The PoV is a different take on video chatting - rather than a camera that sits on your desk, it's designed to be picked up and pointed at things (hence the PoV, or point-of-view, brand name). It has a manual focus ring and a shutter button on the camera itself, so you can take photographs to send to your friends. It's definitely not your typical webcam.

IPEVO is big on the Skype market. They have created a number of products specifically designed to work well with Skype, including USB phones and other webcams. I've done a lot of video chatting and personally perfer to use Windows Live Messenger. I find Skype uses far too much memory and processing power. At any rate, we'll see if this camera is a worthy competitor to my Logitech Orbit AF.

Right off, IPEVO's packaging is very slick. Included are some cards with line drawings illustrating suggested uses, along with a drivers and software CD-ROM and the camera itself. The camera is nestled securely in thick foam blocks.

In the box is everything you need to get going:

• VGA (640x480) web camera with attached USB cable
• Clip to attach camera to laptop or desktop display
• Desktop stand to position camera on a flat surface
• Drivers/software CD-ROM
• Instruction manual
• Suggestion cards

The camera itself is extremely easy to use. The included software worked perfectly in Windows XP SP2 and Vista SP1. I used it with both Skype and Windows Live Messenger without any problems.

From the side, you can see that the camera is well-shaped to accomodate even large, adult hands. You can hold like a pen or a remote control to point it at various objects.

The top of the camera has a large shutter button for taking still images, a "send-out" button (more on that in a moment), and a convenient on/off switch. The front has a green power indicator LED and a red recording indicator LED.

Because you might want to use this as a regular webcam once in awhile, IPEVO includes two different mounting options - a tabletop stand and a spring-loaded clip to attach the camera to a display. The stand actually attaches to this clip, as shown below.

The monitor clip is pretty cool. It's designed to be mounted on a regular CRT or LCD desktop display, or a thin laptop display. It has a spring-loaded piece that can be pulled out to accomodate different display sizes. It attached securely to both my desktop's LCD and my eeePC's display:

This camera does not have autofocus, so you must use the thumb ring around the lens to adjust the focus manually. The ring moves smoothly without being too loose, and it has a wide focus range - you can zoom in on objects as close as 4cm (about 1.5"). Even at its low VGA resolution, close-ups are pretty sharp, as you can see here:

Click thumbnail for fullsize image

Image quality from some distance isn't spectacular, but it's pretty on par for any VGA camera. The default settings are a little on the blue side, but the software provides image adjustment options to correct this as necessary. I wouldn't use this camera in lieu of a regular camera for face shots, but it's pretty good for quick macros of text and small objects. Here's a sample regular image in medium lighting:

Click thumbnail for fullsize image

As you can see, my cat is thrilled to be an Internet celebrity. Hah!

The software is really designed to work in tandem with Skype. The "send-out" button I mentioned earlier will, when running the included software and logged into Skype, immediately take and send a picture to the selected Skype contact. Given that I know a grand total of one person who ever uses Skype, this feature is pretty useless to me. Without Skype, it functions as a normal webcam. The software is still usable for tweaking the camera's image quality, as well as taking still images with the shutter button (or the software shutter button, if you prefer).

Overall, this is a pretty decent webcam for the price, given its added point-and-shoot and macro features. If you're a heavy Skype user, it might be just the thing for you. I like that it's compact and very portable, and the display mounting clip is really ingenious. It works just fine as a standard webcam, and the ability to use it as a point-and-shoot camera might come in handy.