Labs

This wacky-looking camera's claim to fame is that its built-in lights provide enough illumination for you to capture video even in the dark. We're a bit mystified about why you'd want to do this. Why not just switch the lights on? Maybe the designers had some sort of security application in mind, but no dedicated

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software is supplied for that purpose.

Gimmicks aside, the technology in the Lindy is well past its prime. Our impression of the 'shooting in the dark' concept wasn't improved by the fact that the picture kept changing very quickly from normal-looking lighting to pitch black and then overexposed. As if that wasn't bad enough, the Mini Cam has an antiquated USB 1.1 connection and its CMOS light sensor boasts the lowest pixel count of all the webcams on test. Predictably, these two limitations combined to produce poor-quality, dull and grainy video. We ended up with what looked like a cheap, rather tedious remake of The Blair Witch Project.

No Vista-compatible drivers were supplied with the camera, and only after several attempts did we manage to get the XP drivers working in Vista.

Avoid this cam unless you don't mind paying £23 for a toy. And not a very up-to-date toy.