Want a web cam? Got $5?

I know there are some friends and family who have been dragging their feet to get into video conferencing, not knowing what to get or how much to spend.

If you’ve been on the fence and want to test the water without gambling a lot of green, you should check out Sony Eyetoy for Playstation 2. Best Buy has them for $4.99 plus applicable local tax. (Order it online and choose “pick up at local store” if it’s available, you save shipping.)

Even though it’s technically for Playstation 2, it’s just a USB camera. You don’t need a Playstation 2, they’re just phasing them out since Playstation 3 is the current model. Enterprising individuals have written drivers for them for Windows and for MacOS. I’ve tried it myself on Windows XP and OSX; Vista users may want to sniff around a little, I don’t use it or have any way to test, and I don’t know anyone who uses it yet so I haven’t bothered.

It’s no Apple iSight, but iSight is more than 5 bucks. It’s a decent camera, works with Skype and Google Talk just fine, and until you’ve got some kind of specific need that it doesn’t handle (whatever that would be), it’ll do the job.

If you don’t know why you’d want a web cam, I’ve got 3 words for you: Video conferencing. Well, that’s 2 words, but they’re pretty cool when they’re paired. Although I wouldn’t replace a simple phone call or quick email with a video chat, there’s nothing like it for checking in with people you know every once in a while. I’ve used Skype for video conference with friends and family for free, and it’s fine. But my weapon of choice these days is Google Talk. It’s simpler, and it seems to require a lot less processor power, so it runs more smoothly for more people. Sort of comes down to what the people you know use, though, and since they’re both free, you don’t really have to choose. If you’ve got a computer and any kind of bandwidth other than dialup, you really ought to give video chat a try, and for $5, there aren’t many excuses left. 

On the off chance that Best Buy sells out, which they eventually will, they’re available every day of the week on Amazon or eBay for about 10 bucks. Still not bad for a decent, name-brand web cam. Oh, and if you happen to actually have a PlayStation 2 as I do, it’s actually pretty fun to have anyway.

Popularity: 17% [?]