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Until fairly recently, digital cameras were often dismissed as mere tech toys that only a few people (such as real estate /insurance agents) would use. This was no surprise, as a $10 disposable camera offered substantially better quality than a digital camera costing over 100 times as much.
85% Rating: 
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Digital Cameras >
D-Link DSC-350 |
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Installation
D-Link is known for
their extremely efficient installation routines, and the DSC-350 proved to be no
exception to this rule. Simply install the software, connect the camera to a USB
port, and that's it. Drivers are available for Windows 98/Me and Windows 2000
(the only Windows based operating systems that support USB).
One word of caution regarding installation however, is that
the camera requires 500mA of power to connect with a USB equipped computer. If
you are plugging the unit directly into a USB port on your motherboard, there
won't be a problem. If, on the other hand, an external USB hub is being used,
ensure the hub is a powered one (ie, connected to an AC outlet). Granted, this
isn't a fault of the D-Link camera itself, as virtually any digital
camera/webcam will have this same limitation.
Ahh, the holy grail of digital cameras; image quality. The following
is a set of pictures taken both indoors and outdoors at the highest
resolution (1024x768 interpolated), then scaled down to 320x240 (a typical
resolution for web-based images).
The first two pictures
were taken indoors. Now, whether it is a flaw with my particular camera, or a
side effect of having no flash, pictures produced in this setting are
essentially non-useable. In terms of the actual lighting used, it was a standard
light fixture with 2 60w bulbs providing fairly good brightness. In order to
obtain even adequate indoor pics, I'd strongly recommend having an outside light
source such as the midday sun shining through a window at your subject, or
something similar.
Luckily, the camera
redeems itself when used outdoors. As the second two pictures illustrate,
outdoor shots are quite suitable for web graphics. While some overexposure can
be noted, it doesn't take much away from the subject being photographed (in this
case, the two vehicles). In this regard, output is much more similar to that of
a standard VGA-class digital camera.
In terms of webcam performance, the
DSC-350 was slightly more adept at producing adequate, though not heavily
detailed, images. While quality was better than the indoor digital still
pictures, colors were often still too dark and showed signs of poor exposure.
Even still, for personal video conferencing, quality is adequate, if not
top notch. One aspect I wasn't too impressed with however was the digital video
capability. While the specs call for 20fps @ 160x120, the highest I could detect
was maybe 10-15 frames per second. No matter what resolution I used, video
appeared more like a slide show then true full-motion video. The performance in
video mode was so disappointing, I question why D-Link chose to include this
capability at all.
When D-Link first
announced this camera, it seemed like an excellent product. Boasting up to
"1024x768 resolution" and an amazing 8MB of internal memory, it seemed to have
just the right features to propel it to the top in its class. Sadly, with
unacceptable indoor picture quality indoors (under average lighting), misleading
claims (1024x768 is the interpolated resolution), and a video mode that produces
slide shows, it's hard to recommend this camera to those needing an indoor-use
unit. For those who plan to use the camera outdoors to take pictures destined
for the web however, the camera does a reasonable
job.
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