Creative WebCam NX Ultra Digital Video Camera

Price range: $54.00 - $82.00 from 19 Seller with a available.

Average user reviews:

Description:The Creative WebCam NX Ultra is the best choice for sharper, better imaging and Internet video communication. Built using the latest CCD technology, it delivers ultra-clear video at 640x480 and stills at up to 1.2 megapixels (interpolated),.Reviewed by: tshi from MS on Jan 7, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 10 Days

Strengths: CCD sensor(used in digital camera) provides high image quality. Nice color. Cool design. 4x digital zoom. Tracing mode for face. Headfree microphone included. Adjustable focus.

Weaknesses: The image of face is not as good as expected when enlarged, a little vague. Default webcam setting (automatic exposure)is a little dark.

Summary: This is a CCD sensor webcam, while most others are CMOS(lower level production). So it has pretty good video quality, up to 1.3M resolution. The quality of still image is similar to some 1-2M digital camera. Smooth transmission when your network speed is OK. The lens has a quite wide angle of view, which means you can get a bigger and real background of view, comparing to most cheaper webcams. The included microphone is cool and convenient. Easy to install the driver and work with computer. The normal price is not cheap (around 90$ at creative's own website). You may find good deal somewhere else. Last month there was a valuable $40 rebate from creative.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: gavinldc on Dec 24, 2004
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: NA

Weaknesses: NA

Summary: The image quality and performance of this camera aren't bad, but it has a very wide field of view. This is great if you intend to use it as a baby monitor, security cam, or need to show several people at once, but it's really lousy for 1-on-1 video conferencing or IM. Unless you place it 10 inches from your face you're wasting most of the resolution(and bandwidth) on the background. This arrangement is quite unflattering as it exagerates facial features and reminds me of how people look through the peep hole in your front door - not what you're looking for if trying to attract a mate online.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: xiaoj from PA on Dec 22, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 7 Days

Strengths: Good video quality. Beautiful design. Easy to install. Overall, cool stuff!!!

Weaknesses: NA

Summary: I used this product for only one week, but I have loved it so much! Before it, I was using a Logitech ClickSmart 310, which had a really low image resolution and bulky body. It was ok when I was using a CRT monitor. Then I changed to a LCD, and the 310 could not stay on top of it. I could not use it with my laptop too, when I tried to show a demo in a conference. This NX Ultra provides high resolution videos and can be easily installed and used on either CRT or LCD, also very well fit to my laptop. When I do online chat, the video rate is very fast too. Overall, you will love it once you try. Believe me!

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: MaxBoostNYC from NJ on Jan 31, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 1 Months

Strengths: Great picture quality, CCD sensor, wide angle view.

Weaknesses: Not very portable in design, expensive.

Summary: I found the video quality on this webcam to be top-notch! With a wide-view angle I can allow more people in the background to be viewed by the other party. Compatible with most IM services. The mount needs some work as it will not stay on very securely. Doesn't come with a case if you want to bring it along with you. Overall I think this is a very solid webcam and with a CCD sensor it provides very good picture quality compared to other cheaper CMOS sensor webcams. Priced a bit higher than average for webcams right now. Most people won't be disappointed with the quality of this unit.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: mhuo from MN on Dec 29, 2004
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: Easy to install

Weaknesses: video qulity is not that good

Summary: Just got the camera today, cann't wait to install it. Not as good as I expected. The pictures are clear, but the movement is not smooth. No complain though, since I bought it at $27 after rebate.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: tianyong2 from TN on Nov 3, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 3 Days

Strengths: easy to install

Weaknesses: not built in microphone picture quality is bad when it's in the evening

Summary: I got this webcam from dell. It seems to be worth the price. Easy to install and the software takes me about 10 minutes to install( I still don't know the reason why). After installation, I could easily see the videos. The picture is good in the daytime, but in the evening it's worse. I don't see the advantage of face tracking systems. The headset and microphone is not pleasant to me. I like the wide angel lens. Very cool. In general it's worth the price.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: tsganapathie from NJ on Dec 13, 2004
Rating:

Experience: 15 Days

Strengths: wide screen

Weaknesses: image is not sharp

Summary: It is worth the price. even my friend owns it for a long time and has faced no problems.
the voice clarity is also good.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: jxwilliams from TX on May 11, 2005
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: doesn't look like an eyeball, seperate headset/earpiece, many manual settings in software

Weaknesses: manual focus, confused face tracking, doesn't securely mount to laptop screen

Summary: This is a nice mid-level webcam. It has trouble figuring out what a face is sometimes. The wide angle lens is nice for having multiple people in the frame.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: Mongkut from TX on May 11, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 1 Weeks

Strengths: Okay picture quality, useful included software

Weaknesses: Facetracking gets confused sometimes

Summary: This is my first webcam, but as best I can tell it is doing a good job. I'm only needing it for video conferencing purposes and it seems to be adequate.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: sccletkc from TX on Apr 28, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 7 Days

Strengths: Good price! Very clear!

Weaknesses: None

Summary: This webcam is amazing. At the price that i'm paying it for, there is no way other webcam can match it. It is clear, fast and most importantly, value for money.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: llevites from IL on Apr 19, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 30 Days

Strengths: Good picture quality

Weaknesses: not found yet

Summary: Good picture quality, easy to start. Did not encounter any significant problems so far. Serves its purpose. Reasonably priced with a $15 mail-in rebate from Buy.com

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: sellmen from OH on Apr 5, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 1 Months

Strengths: 1 Megapixel CCD sensor, up to 640x480 video resolution. Good low light performance, face tracking feature

Weaknesses: Colors are sometimes inaccurate

Summary: This is a very nice webcam. It can take 1 Megapixel still images, or video at up to 30 FPS. The picture quality is quite good considering its price and size. Particularly, the low light performance is better than comparable Logitech webcams.

Colors are a mixed bag; depending on the type of lighting, colors can be extremely accurate or a bit off. This camera has a wide angle lens, which may or not be good depending on your needs.

One nice feature this camera has is a face tracking feature; when turned on, the camera will track your movements. I've found this feature works pretty well, it's excellent for video conferencing/chatting.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: james_qiu on Apr 3, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 10 Days

Strengths: Good quaality image, and easy to install and usein Windows system, adjustable focus. Free microphone included.

Weaknesses: N/A

Summary: It is the first time to buy creative webcam. I am glad to own it because it's good to install and use, having good quality images. I plan to buy Logitech products, but it's too expensive. However, the webcam is worthy due to high rato of performance/price after $30 rebate. If you are going to have a nice webcam, I strongly encourage you to buy it.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: gmoneyjie from NY on Mar 27, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 5 Days

Strengths: Very easy to set up. Base of camera sits easily and securely on top of my flat panel. Picture quality a little better due to CCD sensor compared to cameras with CMOS. Auto face tracking and zoom.

Weaknesses: Installation of Creative software gave me a little problem but a simple "end task" worked for me. Power indicator light stays on; no way to turn it off. No lense cover to prevent dust when not in use.

Summary: Overall, I'm very satisfied with this model. The image quality is pretty good and the included headset/microphone is great for those who don't already have their own headset. The face tracking feature can be a bit too sensitive but you can tweak the sensitivity setting. I do not have very bright lighting in my room but this unit does a very good job under poorly lit condition. The only thing that disappointed me was buggy creative software (maybe its only me); there are a few bugs in the software and it has crashed a couple times within an hr. I definitely would purchase this again but hopefully others have better luck with the stability of the software.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: wecotu from MO on Mar 24, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 3 Months

Strengths: Good picture quality, wide angle view.

Weaknesses: No built-in mic.

Summary: This webcam is perfect for my LCD. The picture quality is much better than my old logitech quickcam. The zoom feature is very useful. I hope it has a built-in mic but it doesn't. Overall it's a good webcam. Recommended.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: dingdang from IA on Mar 8, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 3 Months

Strengths: Great image.

Weaknesses: None.

Summary: Very nice web cam. The software installation is a breeze. The image is clear and bright. The included headset is just a great plus. Can work with both desktop and laptop, so it's very convenient.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: geotuna on Feb 26, 2005
Rating:

Experience:

Strengths: Free headset included.

Weaknesses: No major flaws.

Summary: This camera is decent quality for using it through the chat programs. When it's evening, you will need a separate lamp that is close to you (preferably in front of you) to make the colors right; however, this is much better at low light than the cheap Logitech camera I have (which just displays black instead of distorted colors).

I plugged it (and the microphone headset that came with it - nice touch!) into an IBM laptop running XP, and had zero problems getting them to run with the chat programs. You do have to install the software to get it to take pictures, however.

The clamp takes a little getting used to, but it will sit flat, hang on to your LCD (it involves balancing, so don't think you can move your laptop with it hanging on), or put it to your regular CRT monitor. This kind of versatility is useful.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: wangry from CA on Jan 28, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 2 Weeks

Strengths: Small size,portable.

Weaknesses: zoom lens

Summary: Although the images from this Creative NX Ultra is not as good as those from professional digital cameras, they are fairly acceptable, especially as a video cam when doing an online video chatting or a video conference. The disadvantage about this webcam is its zoom angle function. It's totally useless. To conclude, this unit is at an average quality considering it's a Creative product.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: evezhang from MA on Jan 15, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 15 Days

Strengths: cute shape, very clear picture

Weaknesses: focus not useful

Summary: The picture is very clear even when I am moving fast. The software has a nice face and easy to use. However, due to the close distance, the picture is usually distorted. I haven't found a way to make it look like what it is

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: panhao from FL on Jan 9, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 2 Weeks

Strengths: wide angle, face tracking function and 1.3 megapixel photos

Weaknesses: a little bit bulky for notebook users

Summary: Facing tracking function is very considerate, and the included headset is a good extra. However, I would prefer to see a microphone-integrated design. Resolution is high enought as a webcam, but for video purpose, only 30 frames all the time is not satisfactory enough.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: tableau from MA on Jan 8, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 20 Days

Strengths: Astonishing wideangle lens. High resolution. Easy installation.

Weaknesses: Poor low light performance; Face-trace function difficult to figure out.

Summary: I have been using this webcam for a while. The super-wide-angle lense is the most attractive feature to me. And it even has an aotumatic correction software for the lens distortion. Although most of the time, you really don't need such a wide view angle. (I end up using digital zoom to make my face bigger.)
The image is clear during the day or you have good light in your room. But under low luminances (not really low though, I have a ceiling light on, and a 20" CRT screen infront of me), The image quality is degraded.
In general, this webcam is suitable for everyday usage, and is among these "high-end" ones, so is its price. I am pretty satisfied with the purchase.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: jnks2005 on Jan 7, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 7 Days

Strengths: sharp and clear video, wide angle lense, easy to install and use

Weaknesses: image dragging in Messenger

Summary: I am been using Creative NX Pro before and i got deal for NX Ultra. It is definitely better than NX Pro and other CMOS camera. It has CCD sensor with wide angle lense which is very nice feature. CCD sensor is used in camcorders. While using with internet messenger, images were dragging if you are moving but if you keep yourself steady then it brings up nice sharp image. Packaging says face tracking feature, but i didn't found anywhere in the manual!! Overall it is very nice camera compare to other cheap CMOS cameras.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: dysong from WV on Jan 6, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 2 Days

Strengths: Flexible wide-angle lens softwares provide a lot of options

Weaknesses: the quality of still pictures is not so good as expected.

Summary: The camera is very small and easy to stand either on the desk or at the top of LCD. You can move the lens back and forth and rotate it, so it is very convenient to capture your object. Through the software of PC-CAM Center, you have a lot of options to set this equipment. For example, in Face Tracking, you can set Tracking Mode "Off, Continuous or Smart" and set the Tracking Speed "Slow, Normal or Fast". I am very satisfied with the vedio quality, but a little disappointed to the quality of still photos. Because it claims the resolution of still picture can reach 1280 x 960.
Overall, it is very cute. I love it. Taking into account the ratio of performance to price I would recommend strongly.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: oo7bunny from TX on Jan 5, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 9 Days

Strengths: Easy to setup on XP, no driver needed, and no need to focus manually. Works well in dark places. Not much light is necessary for to pick up images. Which is a plus.

Weaknesses: Couldn't get it to work on my linux box so far. Still searching for drivers.

Summary: Compare to a 20 dollar webcam, quality of this camera is just a little better... I would probably go for a Axis camera ranges around 200 dollars for real webcam quality. Overall, it is a camera with nice picture quality for the price paid.

Reviewed by:Reviewed by: ikumar2000 from MO on Jan 4, 2005
Rating:

Experience: 4 Days

Strengths: looks pretty and sturdy, stand clip much better than other models, decent picture quality

Weaknesses: lack of inbuilt microphone, headset isnt smart enough

Summary: I was hesitant to buy this initially because of other reviews. The picture quality is decent enough esp the color. The view-field is very wide, u may like it or hate it. OKay during low light but better if light is there. I don't understand why the software from Creative takes so much of time to install. Initially it looks like the comp is hanged. Anyway, after installation it worked fine.