Philips Webcam Pro SPC1330NC

The Philips Webcam Pro is an industrial-looking product with a larger lens assembly than most webcams.

It has a small stand that allows it to either sit on a desk or clip to the top of a monitor or laptop screen.

A blue light appears on the top of the body when it’s in use, so you are not caught unaware. The minimalist package included the webcam and a CD in a rather oversized box, but it was easy to set up.

On our Windows XP test computer it automatically picked up the camera and was able to show us video without having to use the CD. It also worked smoothly with Skype.

It’s billed as a two-megapixel camera, and the video it produced was admirably detailed. It even has autofocus so you don’t appear blurry when in shot and moving around.

The lens is described as ‘wide-angle’ although in practice it’s not noticeably wider than others, and in any case you can achieve the same effect by moving the camera further away.

The built-in microphones were impressive, with excellent sound quality, and the bundled software allows the user to adjust all sorts of settings and add effects to your video.

This is an excellent camera, but the fact is that for most users it’s overkill: we don’t need such good quality for our Skype calls.

If you need a better class of webcam, though, this is it. At the time of writing, it's available from Littlewoods online at £69.