Genius Eye 320 review

Cheap webcam proves you get what you pay for

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Genius Eye 320
Pictures from the Eye 320 are hardly amazing, but then you get what you pay for

TechRadar Verdict

Basic webcam functionality on a budget, but the image quality is mediocre

Pros

  • +

    Cheap

  • +

    Works well enough

  • +

    Easy to use

Cons

  • -

    Low picture quality

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Apple's laptops and iMacs might all include an iSight camera, but what if you want to add a webcam to a Mac that doesn't have one in the bezel?

The good news is Mac OS X 10.4.9 introduced support for the USB Video Class (UVC) standard for use with iChat, so as long as a webcam supports UVC it will work as an iChat camera without drivers.

And sure enough, plug the Genius Eye 320 in and it appears as a source for video in iChat or Skype. It has no built-in microphone; a boom mic headset is included, but it won't work with the Mac's line-level input port.

Picture quality isn't stellar - colours lack saturation and details are soft - but it's not appalling. Focusing is manual, using a ring around the lens, and the camera will sit on a flat surface or hook onto a monitor.

It's cheap and does the job, but the Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks is still our choice of external webcam.

Christopher Phin