Introduction
The TV-PC350 USB camera by TRENDnet is a sophisticated web camera that does an excellent job. TRENDnet makes three varieties of its USB camera, a 100, 300, and 350 model. The difference between them is the resolution of the CCD (Charged Couple Device) image sensor. Higher resolutions will mean better picture clarity and output resolution. All of the models allow you to capture a video stream or take still pictures; however, your best bet is to pick the 350. Primarily, this is because even as their flagship model it only costs around $50, and it seems to be the only one which is readily available on the market today.
Setup & Appearance
The TRENDnet is sharp looking for a web camera. It is a translucent blue which should appeal to PC owners wanting to have some iMac style. Because it is translucent, you can see its circuit board inside the camera, which gives you some perspective as to how miniaturized the camera is. Unlike other web cameras which are designed to attach to your monitor, the PC350 has a weighted and adjustable base. I really liked this feature because with its five-foot USB cable, I could easily move it around the room to take pictures rather than being locked into one viewpoint. The camera is small enough to easily fit on your desk without taking up very much room and not drawing too much attention. Additionally, there is a small top button that you can press to snap a still shot and a green LED on the front lights up whenever the camera is activated.
To give you some idea of how easy it is to get up and running with the PC350, it took just under two minutes to set up. The longest part was installing the bundled software (SmithMicro’s VideoLink Mail, and MGI’s Videowave and Photosuite SE editions). Essentially, you just plug it into a free USB port and Windows finds it. (Note: The camera requires at least 300 mA of power, so connect it to a powered USB hub or to the motherboard directly.) Windows then searches for the drivers and installs them from the included driver disk.
Afterwards, you can install any of the included programs for video/image editing or the video conferencing, email, or messaging. Installing these programs was just like any other software installation; the only twist is to tell the programs what hardware to capture images from.
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