Recently, I bit the bullet and bought a new Web cam for my Vista machines. (It was about time… the last ones were two and three years old.) What follows is a short history of what it took to get the thing working on one of the machines….

I purchased a Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000. It arrived several days ago. I had Bruce open the package (I hate packages that require tools to open them.) I pulled out the camera, the CD and a couple of sets of instructions. In case you don’t know what a LifeCam looks like, it is a small, silver rectangle.

It runs off of USB 2.0, and there’s a black box on the left - it’s the lens. To store it, you push in the lens until it clicks. The thing is only about three inches tall (part of why I bought it).

Okay, so I set it on the shelf in front of the computer and got ready to install it. Directions said to install the software from the CD first, then plug the camera into the USB port. Grabbed the CD. Put it in the drive. “Yes, Vista, you can install it,” I said, “oh, wait - no you can’t.” Very shortly after telling Vista to install it, the installer came back with a message that I didn’t have the right OS to support this camera. WAIT A MINUTE! This thing was Vista compatible - said so in every review I read. Tried it again. Read the message closer this time. OHHH. Needed to download the new version of the software and the drivers from Microsoft’s site.

Clicked and waited for the download. Download done, install? Yes, please. Waited some more. Okay. Then it said I could plug in the camera. Did so. Nothing happened. Waited a bit. Finally, it came up with: Want to make a call? What? No, I wanted to do a screen recording with Camtasia!

Bruce was standing here, and said we should test it with Messenger first. Okay. He logged in. I started the call, he started the call. Neither could answer the other. Killed both calls. Started over. Got it. He could see me and hear me (of course, he was sitting less than one room away, but…). We took turns talking to the camera and seeing how things looked. Understood how it worked. Time to work.

Went to All Programs to start Camtasia. Aw… shucks - I never installed the latest version of Camtasia on this machine. (I have it on my laptop, but I wanted to record from the desktop.) Started the download. Found the key. Did the install. Told Camtasia which camera I wanted to use. Were we ready yet?

Nope, now we needed to make sure Camtasia could understand the camera. Played with the settings. Okay - learned how to zoom and pan the camera. Learned how to set the mic level. Now we were ready to test.

I recorded a test session in OneNote. Played it back… UGH! Sound was off. Called Bruce, my resident gladiator. Futzed and played. Clapped at the camera. Sound happened, then two seconds later, claps happened. Not good.

Searched Google and groups for answers. Found out that the sync between audio recorded with the Web cam and the built-in mic for the cam is known to cause sync problems. Found an external mic right in the front pocket of the speaker bag (where it was supposed to be, so I never would have looked there).

Tried again. Looked much better. But sound was very low. Played around with sound levels. Got frustrated. Went to a different blog post for the other blog. Came back refreshed. Re-tested the sound. Decided to hold the mic.

And the result? Not too bad, if I do say so myself. One recording of “How to use Insert Extra Writing Space In OneNote” was just over two minutes long. Check it out here on my ScreenCast.Com site.

One thing I learned: This Web cam needs to be lower - like right at eye level. Otherwise, there’s no reason for me to be recorded. If you watch the recording, you will see that in the end I only left the Web cam input visible for the very beginning.

Tags: webcam, web cam, nx-6000