Webcams are more popular than ever these days, with broadband access making video messaging a more realistic possibility than before.

Creative's Webcam Pro is just £40 and has decent image quality, although its ease of use leaves a little to be desired.

Coming with a 640 x 480 Cmos sensor, it is capable of still and video capture at this resolution, the latter running at 15 frames per second (fps) at this rate, and 30fps at 320 x 240 resolution.

The still image resolution can be upped to 1,024 x 768 via the supplied software, but the resultant image isn't that good.

The images themselves, however, are very good, although at 640 x 480 the images start to look a little grainy. It's certainly no match for the Philips webcams we saw in our group test, although those are over £20 more expensive.

Plug in the webcam via USB and it is automatically recognised by Windows XP. To use it, though, you'll need to install the drivers and the proprietary software that Creative has supplied.

On the driver CD, there is a multitude of programs to choose from. However, only one of them, PC Cam Center, seems to allow you to capture both still and video images.

It is pretty well laid out, simply dividing recorded footage and the live feed, but the interface was a bit confusing as items were not clearly labelled.

Any captured photos can be emailed or just kept for posterity. Webcam Monitor is relatively simple, and lets you set up a live feed should you so desire.

Specifications:

Price: £39.99 (incl. VAT)

Contact: Creative
www.europe.creative.com