T1B

I'm in the market to get a webcam for my computer and my Mom's computer so she can keep up on the growth of my little ones. any advice would be greatly appreciated...Thanks CK

Just about any one of them that you can pick up at Radio Shack and Best Buy will do. If you or they have a laptop, I would get one that you can carry with you and clip on the top of the screen. The same types can also be used if you have an LCD screen with your PC. This way when you are looking at them on the screen, it seems like you are looking into the camera.

As far as companies go, I like Logitechs line of cameras. They have a wide variety available. Most cameras I've seen have a built in Microphone, but it does help to have a head phone, especially for private convos.

As far as software goes, Any of the AIM clients support video these days but right now I've become a big fan of Skype. Its free to do online chatting and video conferencing, but it also allows you to make phone calls, both nationally and internationally. I think the current price is $25/year of unlimited US calls. Of course calls to phones don't support video conferencing.

Also make sure both sides involved have high speed connections. Video conferencing over dialup is not pretty. Don't expect anything close to 30 frames per second.

As far as prices go, you shouldn't need to spend more then $50 unless you want a really good camera. The best one out there is the Logitec QuickCam Orbit. It runs over $100 but it is motorized so it can be operated by the software on the computer. I use the QuickCam Pro 5000 at work and the Quickcam for Notebooks delux for my laptop. Logitech also provides a conferencing tool on the disk that comes with most of the cameras so you can also use that to make video emails and recordings and video conferences.