• Superior video quality and high definition still photos
• Automatic face tracking software
• Crystal-clear audio with built-in microphone
• Video effects let you express yourself during chats
• Optimized for Windows Live; Windows Live Call Button, LifeCam Dashboard, and One-Touch Blogging

Take instant messaging with friends and family to new levels of sight and sound. Hear sounds and voices as if they were in the room with you. See clear live video images and experience a new dimension in communication. The LifeCam VX-3000 is optimized for use with Microsoft Windows Live Messenger, so you can share life as it happens. Easily start a video chat by pressing the Windows Live Call Button, and clicking an Online Contact. Crystal-clear video conversation is now possible with more than 200 million contacts in nearly every country in the world. Get vivid high-quality still images, even in low light. Hear your friends and family as if they were in the room with you. The built-in unidirectional microphone automatically picks up your voice with remarkable clarity-there's no more hassling with separate devices. Long, flexible cable gives you more room to move Surprise your friends with cool video effects, accessible right from the Windows Live Messenger Window LifeCams capture life at 30 frames per second, which means the video images you see are smooth and seamless System Requirements - Windows XP Pro, Home, Media Center Edition, Tablet PC Edition, 300 MB of available hard disk space, an available universal serial bus (USB) 1.1 or 2.0 (recommended) port
Putting the power of Windows Live Messenger at your fingertips, the Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 takes instant messaging with family and friends to a new level of sight and sound by offering great video and crystal-clear audio with acoustic noise cancellation. Plus, you get advanced features, such as automatic face tracking software and low-light adjustment, so you feel like you're right there.

Get great video and crystal-clear audio during your Windows Live Messenger chats.

A universal attachment base fits on most monitors, including flat screens.

The Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 is optimized for Windows Live Messenger, which is used by the largest worldwide instant messenger community with over 200 million users. Three key features give you a superior Windows Live Experience. First, the Windows Live Call Button makes it easy to start a video call. Simply press the button to see who's online, and you're on your way to a video call. Second, with the LifeCam Dashboard you can access video effects and control your webcam from the Windows Live Messenger window. Lastly, with One-Touch Blogging, a single click allows you to upload to Windows Live Spaces, an "online scrapbook" that lets you easily post blogs, photo albums, and personal music lists.

The VX-3000's automatic face tracking software, which takes advantage of the camera's pan, tilt, and zoom controls, follows you so you don't disappear off-screen. Meanwhile, the camera automatically adjusts for low-light conditions for improved video quality, and a built-in unidirectional microphone with acoustic noise cancellation provides crystal-clear audio. Video effects give you a fun way to express yourself, and last but not least, the camera's universal attachment base fits on most monitors, including flat screens. Alternatively, the camera can sit directly on your desk.

Note that while the VX-3000 is optimized for use with Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft LifeCams also work with other instant messaging programs, such as Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger.

If you want the next level of performance from your LifeCam, consider the Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000, which adds high definition video capabilities, a wide angle lens, a 3x digital zoom, and a high-speed USB connection. View a comparison of the LifeCam VX-3000 and VX-6000.

Customer Rating:
Summary: very noisy audio
Comment: I bought this Microsoft webcam for my parents so they could see their grandkids. The video is fine, but I should have believed the reviews about very noisy audio problems. The audio has a high-pitched scratchy hum that makes it too annoying to listen to for any length of time. I do not recommend this camera.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Little Webcam! Plus, easy way to do the driver install.
Comment: This is a great little webcam. Better than any I've ever used. And indeed it works quite well in low light. Hard to beat for the money.

Best of all, you can throw away the Microsoft installation CD with its 50MB of garbageware. Just plug the camera in a USB port and the camera drivers automatically install. Camera installs as a USB Video Camera and as a USB audio device. Skype finds and uses the camera just fine this way.

I had trepidatiously started with the CD, knowing the capacious amount of Microsoft crapware that would be installed, but even worse, without asking, the CD proceeded to try and download and install Live Messenger, which is enormous piece of s**tware that will take over your system. Fortunately, this failed as the Microsoft download server for Windows Live seemed to be down. I gave up and killed the install. Looking around, nothing at all seemed to have installed, but I did a system restore of the restore point I had done immediately attempting this install, having figured that I might regret installing from the CD.

While I was waiting for all of this, I just plugged the VX-5000 into another computer, and the standard USB camera drivers simply autoinstalled, so I did the same thing on the original system after the system restore completed.

The VX-5000 worked just fine, and worked just fine on Skype.

My advice is to throw the CD away and just plug the thing in.

The two systems I tried this on were both Windows XP.

Expertise level: I work on Windows PC software for a living.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: User friendly
Comment: I bought this webcam for myself and 3 family members to keep in touch long distance. Product works great and is very simple to use once installed. Setup a bit more complicated than it needed to be, but fairly intuitive. Good product for the price.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Deal on Great Webcam
Comment: My wife and I live far from our mothers, so we bought them these webcams to stay in touch with us. We got both on sale here for what it normally costs for one. I installed the one for my mother-in-law and it went it no hassle and is easy for her to use.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great product, easy to use
Comment: This web cam arrive quickly and was very easy to install. I am enjoying it so much.

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