Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 review

The new 3D video effects include face-tracking technology, so you can conduct video chats with a distorted head or while wearing a funny hat. The collection of video effects is a big improvement over the lame collection of 2D graphics of past LifeCams. Still, the software has some annoying quirks, such as Auto check boxes under the settings tab that you cannot check. And the LifeCam window shows only your last video or still image captured as opposed to the more useful strip of thumbnails that Logitech's QuickCam software provides.

You can also share video messages via a Vista Gadget, but you'll need to have a Vista PC and a LifeCam on both ends of the exchange. Maybe Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates exchange video messages this manner, but I doubt many others will find this feature all that useful. I did not test this feature. I did try out Microsoft's Video Messages Web site, which anyone with any Webcam, LifeCam, or otherwise, can use--you need a Windows Live ID. The site, tabbed as being in beta, offers 2GB of online storage space and lets you record videos up to 2 minutes in length. The site was slow to load, buggy, and unintuitive, and it worked only in IE for me.

Microsoft backs the LifeCam VX-5500 with a three-year warranty. It does not work with Macs.