Philips SPC1300NC

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This sleek, black-and-silver camera is a great-looking device, billed as an HD webcam because of the high resolutions it can achieve. It can capture video up to 1,600 x 1,200 pixels and still images up to 3,840 x 3,072 pixels, will record at 90 frames per second if you want it to and features an 8x digital zoom. Although you could use these to record video direct to your hard disk, for making video greetings for instance, you wouldn’t be able to use the highest-quality settings for online video chats.

The built-in microphone means set-up and operation are kept simple while background noise isn’t too much of a problem. The picture quality you get in your video is similarly impressive.

The camera comes bundled with Philips’ VLounge software, which provides a pleasant interface for capturing video and still images, monitoring movement for security purposes, using live broadcasting services, or launching (or installing) messaging programs, including support for Skype, Windows Live Messenger, QQ Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and AIM. All this makes it a great all-rounder for those who want a little bit of everything at a decent level of quality.

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