Labs

The Pro 3D is almost as expensive as Creative's webcam-cum-digital camera. You get a lot for your money, though, including a sturdy telescopic stand, a 2m USB cable which gives plenty of freedom and an egg-shaped carry case.

There's loads of software, though we weren't convinced by the usefulness of Xerox's Pagecam for reading in text. PhotoExpress 2 is a basic image editing package and VideoLinkMail lets you create clips to e-mail, while GameCam allows you to play games by waving your arms, legs and anything else around in front of the PC - great fun, but the games themselves are rather basic.

The maximum frame rate of 60fps is no benefit to videoconferencing, but does make captured video impressively smooth. A pity, then, that no video-editing software is included, which costs the Philips a place among the winners.