I have to admit, the idea of a $8 (at the time of this review) webcam that would actually work was pretty alien to me. At no point did I expect such a cheap device to work, much less work well. Even then, my expectations dropped even further when I saw the real name on the box was different from the name on Amazon. The advertised 12 Megapixel resolution was actually 640×480, at least according to the box it came in and the screenshot I took. The rest of the engrish made it hard to tell whether these were the real specs or some shoddy job. This made my expectations drop even more. However, once tested I was pleasantly surprised at what it was capable of.
Packaging of the so-called Docooler webcam was fairly basic. The page on Amazon declared that installation disk was needed and thus there was no disk inside the box. The camera was wrapped in a thin plastic wrap and put in the box. There was no real packaging to keep the camera in place while it shipped.
Outside of the box, the camera consisted of a roughly 5 foot USB cable (permanently connected to the camera) and a plastic mount for LCD panels. The plastic mount had no springs so it is a bit flimsy sitting on my monitor, but since the monitor never moves it sits just fine.
The camera itself has a built-in Mic and an adjustable manual focusing lens (that’s right, no autofocus here). The lens itself is 8mm.
With at least my Windows 10 computer, the drivers installed automatically. Since the camera came with no software, the only way to test it is with Skype or some other video phone program. This also means that you cannot take single pictures without trying to install a 3rd party software. The camera clarity also depends heavily on the camera’s focus, internet connection, and lighting.
This is not an all-inclusive test, but rather a simply show of the video quality in Skype, as seen in the picture below. The camera also functioned perfectly in Lync and Zoom, if you or your organization uses either of them.
All in all, for an $8 web camera, I am pretty impressed by its quality. If you are a company with a conscious budget but need video conferencing capabilities, then I absolutely recommend it and you can pick it up here. If you need high quality or higher resolution than the 640 x 480, then I would pick up something else. Just a note though, I recommend a separate microphone or headset as the mic on the webcam is basically worthless, with no one on the other end able to hear more than a soft mumble.
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