Typhoon Webshot II 300k USB Cam

Home » Reviews » Entertainment » Digital Cameras

Typhoon Webshot II 300k USB Cam

Aalaap Ghag, Mar 17, 2005 0000 hrs IST

Oh yes, we still have a lot of Typhoon products left to review! But instead of keyboard and mouse reviews, today's Typhoon is a Webcam

Good quality in lowlight, Easy setup, 100% compatible

Low horizontal angle, Non-sticky rubber clamps, A bit expensive

Expert Rating :

Expert Review

Oh yes, we still have a lot of Typhoon products left to review! But instead of keyboard and mouse reviews, which most of you just Alt-F4 almost every time, today's Typhoon is a Webcam - the Webshot II USB 300k cam. Webcams can let you video chat with your MSN Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger buddies even on a dial-up connection, but now that pretty much everyone is moving to so called "broadband" (or at least, is made to believe so), it makes very little sense to put away that purchase decision. And then, a Webcam isn't to be bought just because those women on Yahoo! Chat say that you must have one too, or they won't let you see them.

Oops.

You can use the cam for video conferencing, to shoot home movies, as a home security system (motion detector), to video blog your daily (and nightly) activities for everyone on the Web to see. Or you can just keep the camera window on your desktop and use it as a mirror. You can do all that with the Typhoon Webshot II.

The cam rests on a swivel base much like your monitor (and much like any other Webcam you may have seen or used recently), which offers full 360 degrees of horizontal motion, but only about 30 degrees of vertical motion. The rubber pads on the base are also not rubbery enough, i.e., they don't clamp down properly. Focus of the lens can be adjusted manually on the lens itself. There is also a snapshot button on the top to take pics, but the bundled Camera Plus software needs to be running in the back. The length of the USB cable is around 1.5 meters, which is quite sufficient. This isn't a problem anyway - since it's a standard USB 1.1 compliant connector, you can just pick up an extender cable from Lamington Road for some 30-60 bucks and there you go. You can even put up a cam in the next room with a bunch of extender cables.