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Palm Discovery would like to extend a BIG THANKS to Brando for providing the product for this review.

Here’s a very small, pocketable webcam that fits in the palm of your hand and works very well. The webcam comes with a retractable USB cable which does a great job of retracting the slack of the cable when in use as well as pulling it all the way into its spring holder when not in use, truly making it very compact and portable. When retracted and in its compact form, the entire webcam is only slightly longer than a lipstick. Wow!

For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

Brando’s USB MiniCam is a superb solution for travelers and those who travel enough that doesn’t want to lug around a bulky webcam package of cables and accessories. The entire webcam, when fully retracted and in its compact form is barely much more than a lipstick. But don’t be fooled by its small size. This webcam works perfectly well and does a very good job of detecting the background lighting and compensating for the changing lighting conditions. As well, it also supports face tracking which can be very handy for web chats since most of us aren’t necessarily always going to keep our face still the entire chat session.

The package contains the main webcam with retractable cable and a mini CD with the necessary software drivers and the webcam software, AMCap.

Simply install the drivers from the mini CD and plug in the minicam. Then run the webcam software, which is Microsoft’s AmCap and go through the usual settings of setting up a webcam such as directing the source of the webcam (if you have more than one connected to your computer or hub), setting the lighting, activating or disabling face tracking, audio and video capture, etc. To ensure that you are viewing what the webcam is viewing, it is very helpful to enable the “preview” window in the software so that you can adjust the lens of the webcam to the exact spot where you wish to capture.

The minicam is, as I’ve discussed, shaped very much like a lipstick and is designed for laptop and LCD monitor screens. To clip it to the LCD screen or laptop you pull the pair of spring clips at the back of the unit. Then position it over the top of an LCD monitor or laptop screen and release the clips so that it will hang just over the top and front of the LCD or laptop screen. The lens can be rotated up or down so you can adjust it for optimal capture. Then extend the retractable USB cable and plug it into the USB port of your computer or the USB hub. Run the AMCap webcam program and you should be able to have it working.

When not in use, simply pull on the retractable USB cable to get the webcam back into its compact shape and size. You can even cover up and protect the webcam lens simply by rotating or turning it downwards until it’s pointing to the back. What an ingenius design! Now, not only is your webcam very pocketable but its lens is also well protected from potential damage. What more can you ask for? Of course, as you can see, even in its compact form, the retractable spring and the USB attachment is still visible but compared to many other webcams, this is still probably one of the most smallest and pocketable webcam available. The package also comes with its own drawstring carrying bag/pouch.

Click on the thumbnail images for a bigger picture

Product Video

Video at YouTube

More details (taken from Brando’s website)

#Features: 1.3 Mega pixel 1/4″ CMOS sensor
# CMOS chip Type: CMOS Color image sensor
# Hi-resolving power: 1280X1024

Package Contents:
# USB Mini Cam with retractable cable

Here are my observations: This is clearly a very small and pocketable solution for those who travel frequently and wish to stay connected anywhere. The webcam is very well designed to make it very small and portable and I really like how the lens can be covered and protected when not in use, simply by turning or rotating it to the back. The clip is strong enough to grab and hold onto an LCD or laptop screen but yet not too strong that you’re wrestling with it to clip onto the monitor. The clips are independent of each other so you can practically clip it onto any object that isn’t necessarily a completely flat surface. So, you can use either the left or right clip or both and each clip can adjust to the object it is clipping to. This can make it very interesting as a personal monitoring device as you can clip it to many different surfaces.

My main quips with the minicam is that there is no way to turn off the blue LED light, well at least, I can’t find a way to turn it off. Maybe if someone is more familiar with this webcam that knows how to turn it off can let me know, please leave a comment for this posting or contact me. Although it’s nice to be able to tell that the webcam is connected and working, the blue LED light is very bright as you can see in the picture and in the video. Especially if you are using it to chat with friends, you will find that the bright light very distracting, if not hurting your eyes. So, for me, I decided to tape over it with black electricians tape. The only other quip I have with it is that the monitor clips to me, are not deep or long enough to give it enough of a grip but of course, that would make the webcam package a bit bigger or the clips will stick out more. Perhaps if the clips can have an extension feature so that it can be extended to a certain length and easily be retracted back to keep its compact size for portability? Just a suggestion.

Review Summary

Brando’s USB minicam is quite a decent webcam packed into a small, portable size. It works very well and it’s a great solution for those who need to stay connected via video conferencing or web chat without taking up much luggage space. Or, even for those who need to have a webcam when surfing the internet at a local cafe. Having a webcam that fits in your hand or pocket allows you to have that video connection everywhere. The image is amazingly decent and sharp for such a small webcam. It’s great at detecting the background lighting and automatically compensating for the changes and does a good job at face tracking. If you need a small webcam that takes decent video, give the Brando’s USB minicam a closer look.

Palm Discovery again thanks Brando for providing this product for the review.

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