Product Reviews

One problem with webcams is that you need to sit in front of them. Move around and the other party might wonder where you've gone. Not with Creative's Live Motion. This clever webcam uses face-tracking software to always keep you in the frame.

The camera is attached to a pivoted folding stand that doubles as both a desktop stand and monitor clip. The pivot is motorised, drawing its power straight from the USB port. Using its motor, the camera can rotate through nearly 180 degrees, allowing it to track your face as you move around. The lens assembly is also motorised and rotates vertically through 105 degrees.

You can

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control its motion manually using the keyboard's cursor keys, but you'll have more fun with the face-tracking software, which attempts to keep your mug in the middle of the picture, moving the camera to follow your face. This works surprisingly well, although there's a small lag between you moving and the camera following. You also need plenty of light for the best results.

Face-tracking is just part of a larger suite of tools provided with the Live Motion. In addition to the usual still and moving image capture, you can record time-lapse video, upload images to a Web site and use the camera as a motion detector. There's also a nifty tool for capturing a series of still images as the camera rotates, giving a sweeping panoramic image.

The Live Motion's still image resolution is lower than the Fusion's, but this shouldn't matter too much if you're just snapping images for Web use. Unfortunately, its image quality is awful. The wide angle lens gives a pronounced fish-eye effect and video capture is terribly jerky. Worse still, the camera just can't cope with low light conditions and its murky, grainy images, captured in the same dimly lit room that the Fusion coped so well with, were all but useless.