Gembird CAM55U
Purchase price - 13.50$. Category - low end. 28 January 2008 Camera purchased and tested in January 2008. Entry level camera, one of the cheapest ever bought. It can be as easily put on a desk or a CRT monitor as well as on a LCD monitor or laptop, as long as the width of your LCD monitor is no more than 25mm. It kept falling down on mine, so I guess it is not a camera for me to use :) The clip has an appropriate strength to hold this tiny unusually shaped webcam. The camera rotates about 5-10 degrees on left and right, about 45 degrees on back, and about 10 degrees in front. Not so impressive. Has an automatic focus, works pretty good. Image quality is ok in bright light, daylight, fluorescent or incandescent, but as long as it's not too bright because then, the white becomes blue. There was an interesting issue with testing this camera in low light. Gembird CAM55U has in integrated sensor, so when the luminosity is bellow some level, it lights the two white leds that are located on the front of the camera, they where impossible to turn of, even if you check this option in the menu. Also, if you let the camera connected to the computer, as normal, in the night the leds will be on! So the image taken in low light is actually the image taken with the leds on. Gembird CAM-55U is using a 330k or VGA (640x480) sensor at least this is written in camera documentation, but the limit of FPS to 20-30 and available only in CIF mode suggests that possible the sensor is only 100k (352x288) or that the camera sensor is really old and slow. The lens (about 2mm in diameter) are protected by a glass that could confuse you, there are no such big lens in this price range. No microphone, but who can ask for it (there are some cameras in this price range from Gembird that have an integrated microphone though). Package contains a 8cm CD-R with drivers and manuals, and the camera, all packed in a cheap plastic box that looks like starship Enterprise.
Sample images: Pros: * Very cheap * Lightning leds, sometimes * Acceptable in low light Cons: * Impossible to fixate in LCD thicker than 25mm * Lightning leds, sometimes * Noisy image in low light * Faded colors Verdict: Super cheap camera from Gembird, there are some better options even in this price range.