Creative Video Blaster WebCam Go

This USB device functions both as a Webcam and a

stand- alone digital camera. You can connect it to your system or use it to click photographs on a trip. You can even use it as a basic surveillance tool. 

Being USB-ready, the camera gets instantly recognized. The manual also gives detailed installation instructions. The camera has 4 MB of internal memory that can store about 90 snapshots in 640x480 resolution and 24-bit color depth. A tiny LCD display on the camera shows the number of frames left, operation mode, and low-battery warning. It runs off two AAA alkaline batteries. The images can be downloaded to the software’s album with the WebCam Go Control software and stored as JPEG files.

There are four image capture modes—standard single snapshot, multi-exposure, time delay, and time delay multi-exposure. You can sequence multiple photographs to create an AVI file using the bundled software. Its lens has manual focus adjustment. 

When connected to the computer, the camera works as a Webcam. You can take snapshots or make movies. These can be exported to other programs or be sent through e-mail. A 24-bit JPG image of 640x480 resolution takes up about 17 kB of space. For AVI files, frame rates can be adjusted to a maximum of 30 fps. A 10-second AVI file takes up about 5 MB of hard disk space. 

Various settings like frame rates, color, brightness , etc, can be adjusted through the software. There’s a WebCam Monitor application that lets you take time-interval shots and upload them to your Website. This application also works in motion-detection mode, which can be used as a security system. Its sensitivity can be adjusted to sense the slightest of movement, and it can send you an e-mail to notify you of the movement. 

The Webcam also has an image editing software called Polaroid PhotoMAX. Using this, you can adjust image properties like hue and saturation, and retouch images. The Creative Gallery utility in this application enables you to do whacky stuff like putting your face on the Statue of Liberty!



It has a pretty big software bundle that includes MediaRing Talk99—an application that lets you make phone calls over the Web; Microsoft NetMeeting for video conferencing; and Internet Explorer.


With a good software bundle and the neat features, the device, although expensive, is a good buy.