Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Many of you are having image quality issues so be sure to use the focus ring on the front of the camera. This camera is not auto-focus. Also, update your drivers to version 6.2.9200.10275 first before you leave any bad reviews. See my 9/22/2014 update below on where to get the new drivers. It makes a *world* of difference to use the newer drivers. That being said, it's hard to find a decent webcam these days even though there are gobs and gobs of them that purport this or that resolution over USB 2.0. USB 2.0 has a theoretical bandwidth of 480Mbps so unless there's *major* hardware/software compression involved, you're not going to hit full HD at that bandwidth. You really need USB 3.0 for that. I was skeptical about this cam and a company whom I'd never heard of. I'd always been a Logitech fan but their quality has gone down the tubes many years ago. I have to say I am very impressed with this cam. 12 megapixel for $17.99 shipped to my door from the UK, you can't beat it. Tecknet has a website tecknetonline dot co dot uk for support but they haven't posted newer drivers or firmware for this cam. It seems that Tecknet has removed their support section for this cam for some bizarre reason so read some of my updates below on where to get newer drivers. It took around 9 days from the time I received an Amazon shipping notice for it to reach my mailbox. I consider that fast. I plugged it into my machine (Asus A8N-SLI, 2GB RAM, Athlon 64 X2 3800) running Windows 7 64-bit SP1 and Windows found it with *no* drivers required. However, I'm a 24-year IT veteran and the generic OS drivers aren't good enough for me or you so don't use them. After much research I found out this cam uses a Realtek chipset (dubbed REALTEK USB2.0 UVC, the specific chipset I do not yet know but I am guessing at either RTS5822 or RTS5821). Realtek is a reputable tech company who usually updates their drivers with some frequency compared to a lot of fly-by-night Chinese companies. The sound or network card on your motherboard is 99.99% likely a Realtek. The drivers on the included disk are a bit old so I recommend you search for driver version 6.2.9200.10275 (or newer). Station-Drivers dot com is your best source to find this drivers or just use Google to search for that driver version and you should get some solid hits from various places. This cam and chipset is in a lot of laptops and other devices. Version 6.2.9200.10275 popped up on the internet around July 2014 and they installed for me without a hitch. I got mine from the Station Drivers web site in the (Lecteurs de Cartes Memoires pour Mobile (Notebook)) section. You'll get much better performance from your cam with these drivers than the generic ones installed by Windows. Skype found the cam without issue. The cam is not auto-focus (hey, it was $17.99 when I bought it) but the CCD and lens are quite good and resolution is very sharp even on my 1280X1024 Dell monitor. No lag, choppiness or video problems. Sound quality seems average. I don't ever expect too much from USB microphones though. Overall, I am impressed as far as bang-for-the-buck goes. As long as you update the driver, you'll have good luck with this cam. The actual model number of this cam is C018. The other model (720p) that Tecknet sells is C016. UPDATE: 2/2/2014: I am sad and disappointed to say that TeckNetOnline has vaporwared support for this cam on their own website. The drivers are secretly hidden here: www dot tecknetonline dot com / download / C018.rar. They'll gladly still sell it to you but support is non-existent. You can still get the newer 6.2.9200.10258 drivers from the Station Drivers web site. Don't lose you original CD! UPDATE: 4/24/2014: New drivers! You can get the newer 6.2.9200.10258 drivers at the Station Drivers web site (yes, it's in French but it's navigable if you know the driver version). Simply use search (Vous êtes ici : Accueil) for the driver version and click the Télécharger link to download. Alternately, type 6.2.9200.10258 into Google and it'll be the first link to come up. UPDATE: 9/22/2014: New Drivers! I've been a bit out of touch with this cam lately but I've noticed that the latest version of the driver has been bumped up to 6.2.9200.10275 (as well as 6.2.9200.10269, 6.2.9200.10264 & 6.2.9200.10265 on the Station Drivers web site). Realtek released version 6.2.9200.10275 WHQL but, for some reason, not on their web site. Maybe soon. WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) are the ones tested even by Microsoft. Search Google for "6.2.9200.10275 WHQL" and it'll be the first site (alldrivers dot ucoz dot net) to appear. That's where I got mine from. I have made contact with Station Drivers to let them know of these newer drivers. You can still get the 6.2.9200.10269 from Station Drivers but the 6.2.9200.10275 drivers installed for me. UPDATE: 1/5/2015: For those having trouble finding the 6.2.9200.10275, please see my response to the comment dating 1/5/2015. I have posted direct links to file sharing sites which carry the file. As always, please virus scan what you download. The slightly older drivers are available on Station Driver's web site and it can be switched from French to English by selecting "Select Language" from the menu at the top left, just below the "News" link. UPDATE: 11/22/2016: Been a long time since I updated here and only because I found "newer" drivers for this great webcam. I'm still on Windows 7 SP1 x64 but the drivers worked just fine. The final drivers that work for this cam are version 6.2.9200.10296 for x86 and x64 Windows and have a date of 1/13/2015. I suspect these ought to work fine on Win 8/8.1/10. I would think Win 10 might have built in support though. Don't have Win 10 so I cannot test. I've shared these drivers at www filedropper com/realtek62920010296-x86-x64 and the filename is realtek_6.2.9200.10296-x86-x64.zip. Place a dot between the spaces in the web site location. Enjoy!