Webcam/digital cam suggestions ????

[SladeZero]

Hey there,

I am looking at getting a webcam for my fiance. When I get married I will be gone quite often for a while.
I want to give her something that she can use with NETMEETING to talk to family and friends.
This also includes being able to take pictures as well. I have been looking at the
CREATIIVE Labs PC-CAM 600. It has a REALLY good resolution and has a digital camera mode as
well. It does not have a zoom but it's picture quality is good.
I understand though that it has probs with WIN XP though .

There are 2 ways of going about this :

1) there is the option of getting a webcam with a digital camera feature such as mentioned above or

2) the option of getting a digital camera and using as a webcam.

I need some info as to some good products. Also, I am on a limited budget. Getting a $300-400 camera is OUT OF THE
QUESTION

What are your suggestions on this ??? Which route should I take and if you have any pics for support I would LOVE TO
SEE THEM

Thanks everyone..........you haven't let me down yet

SladeZero

 

[SladeZero]

BUMP****

NO actually,

I have narrowed it down to the Creative PC-CAM 550 or the Intel Pocket PC Camera.
The only thing keeping me from getting the Intel camera is the lack of a Flash
The creative is supposed to have probs in XP. Anyone got any experience on this ??
I could use some suggestions, $100 - $120 is about what I want to spend.

SladeZero

 

[AnAndAustin]

Well getting a Webcam that couples as a d.camera is a bad idea, the pics will be VERY low quality. A much better solution is to get a d.cam that has webcam abilities.

 

[AnAndAustin]

I can heartily rec FUJI A101 (1.3MP) or A201 (2.0MP) and both are certainly WinXP compatible. These along with Olympus take the best pictures of any d.cam and are all-round excellent AND pretty cheap considering. They have a d.zoom but lack a true optical zoom, but that is a very small consideration for 99% of d.cam users and adds heavily to the cost. These 2 d.cams have a nice LCD screen, falsh, video capture (20 secs), webcam facility, are easy to use but do allow you extra control if you want it. They use 2xAA (very standard) batteries which makes them cheap to run, I got 4xAA Nimh rechargable batteries with charger for £14, better than being tied in to a custom battery! Seriously excellent cameras, can't rec them highly enough. And don't listen to all of the reviewers who are spoilt with super expensive 3.0MP+ d.cams, 1.3MP is more than sufficient for A4 size (20x30cm or 12x9") photo quality printing, esp if you can handle sw well. Also 16MB of SM storage is fine, that gets you 50 high quality or 100 good quality picks before having to download.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Fuji A101
Fuji A201
Shop's info on A101
Shop's info on A201