Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
The Creative Live! Cam Sync V3 has an all-plastic construction, and is rectangle-shaped with rounded corners and a beveled front edge, which fits in nicely on top of my Dell monitor. With the exception of the glossy beveled edge, the webcam is matte black to keep fingerprints and distractions away. It is a clean, simple, and functional design. In the middle of the Live! Cam Sync V3 is the heart of the product, the lens. The f/2.2-5.0 fixed focus lens has a 95° horizontal field of view, which feeds the image to a CMOS 2560x1440 QHD 5MP image sensor. The image sensor can capture at 2560x1440 resolution with a third-party application like OBS Studio. Otherwise, it can do 1920x1080 at 1x digital zoom, 1600x1200 4:3 at 2x, 1280x720 at 3x, and 960x540 at 4x. A manual physical privacy filter that opens downwards is located in front of the lens ensures no one is spying on you through the camera, which is definitely a welcomed feature. However, the way it flips down is a bit awkward and feels a bit cheap.
A mesh extends out horizontally from the lens, which hides the dual built-in omni-directional digital MEMS microphone array. A white LED indicator is also located behind this mesh. Meanwhile, Creative's logo is found in the top left corner, while the Live! Cam 2K branding is in the top right corner.
Here is a look at the back of the Creative Live! Cam Sync V3. At the top, a capacitive touch zoom button allows you to cycle through 1x, 2x, 3x, or 4x digital zoom. If you are not familiar with digital zoom, the resolution decreases described earlier as you increase the zoom level, because digital zoom is just a fancy term for cropping the image sensor, as compared to optical zoom that works by increasing the focal length.
A fixed 1.8m cable with a USB 2.0 Type-A connector leads out the back of the webcam. It is plug-and-play USB video device class compliant, so you do not need to install any additional drivers for it to work.
When it comes to dimensions, the Creative Live! Cam Sync V3 is 82mm wide, 58mm tall, and 53mm deep. This is measured at the largest dimensions, including the monitor clip. It weighs 95.7g thanks to the all-plastic construction, making both its size and weight quite reasonable.
Flipping the Creative Live! Cam Sync V3 upside-down and we can take a better look at the base. The webcam can stand by itself, but flipping the base open will allow you to place it on top of any LCD display, including your laptop. The front and back of the clip is rubber-lined for additional grip. If you want to tripod-mount it, a standard 1/4" thread makes this possible.
The base connects to the camera module using a ball-and-socket joint. This means the camera can be rotated on all axes. A label for the serial number can be found inside the base, shown in the above photo.
With all these things in mind, how will the Creative Live! Cam Sync V3 perform? Let us take a look at sample shots and videos on the next page.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Software, Sample Videos, Analysis
4. Conclusion
