My chat partners never had trouble hearing me, and the TouchCam N1’s wide design helps it pick up the sound of your voice if you ever need to move away from your monitor.If you follow my blog here on TechLore, you might know that I'm a big fan of the Skype VoIP product. The WebCam’s dual microphones excel in picking up the speakers’ voice. Colors were impressive–vibrant and true to hue on the standard setting in natural light. The wide-angle lens puts much of your surroundings in the shot, but the graininess problem introduces some fuzziness there. The TouchCam N1 keeps the subject of the video capture very clear, but objects in the background often look a little grainy. Manually adjusting the brightness setting via Skype, or dimming the overhead lights (if you can) may fix this. The picture remained bright under all sorts of lighting conditions however, white objects in environments with high overhead lighting appeared blindingly bright. The camera kept my face in focus no matter how much I moved, and the autofocus lens made subtle adjustments quickly. The TouchCam N1 provided fluid motion capture during a videoconference, without any noticeable drag or delay. You also need 1.2-mbps upload and download speeds at both ends, Windows XP or higher, and Skype 4.2 or later.

Skype video call quality and picture quality depend heavily on the Internet connections involved, and the system requirements for enabling the TouchCam N1 to capture in HD are pretty steep: a minimum 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 200MB of hard disk space. To permit the Webcam to shoot in high def, your computer must meet certain system requirements. And because it comes without extra effects, the only way to change elements such as contrast, brightness, hue, and backlight composition is with Skype’s manual settings loaded through Windows. You can, however, use it as a VGA webcam with other chat clients, just not in HD. Not having to download any additional software is very convenient, but you can only chat in HD if you’re running Skype software. Setting up the TouchCam N1 is simple: You just plug it in via its attached USB cable, open Skype, and start calling. The Skype software doesn’t provide a way to zoom in or pan from left to right, either.

Unfortunately, you can’t tilt the Webcam once it’s in place instead, to adjust its angle, you must unclip and reseat the entire Webcam. Its weight makes attaching it to the side of your monitor rather difficult, however, so your best is to park it on top. Its flexible base and arm attachment anchor it firmly to the top of your monitor.

This slightly bulky, rectangular Webcam measures 3.9 by 1.8 by 2.4 inches, and weighs 2.1 ounces.

Freetalk camera driver