Well, what did you expect with a logo that pronounces HD in bold and a lens housing that reminds you of a serious SLR camera?
Microsoft’s latest S$149 gizmo is clearly aimed at folks who want a top-of-the-pops webcam to webconference daily for work or play (we leave that to your imagination). While many other cams will scream HD and support much lower resolutions, the LifeCam Studio’s 1080p sensor is twice as large as the sensors used on 720p HD cameras and offers more detail than the bunch of pixels you often get on webconferences.
Another useful feature: a 360-degree view lets you point the camera around so it’s easier to adjust it to fit your face in the frame. The expensive-looking, elongated housing also has a real use, according to Microsoft, which says it helps keep out stray light from impacting the image it is capturing.
The camera will come in handy especially if you use Microsoft Live Messenger 2011, which supports HD videoconferencing in a 16:9 widescreen format now. So, if both you and your friends have great bandwidth on your broadband service, then those days of blurry images on screen are a thing of the past with this webcam when it hits stores in Singapore at the end of this month.
