Genius Look 312P Webcam

• He's getting it for his girlfriend.
• He's desperate to attract women by any means possible.
• He is of “different” sensibilities.

The reason I say this is because in case you haven't seen the screenshot below yet, the Look 312P webcam is built inside a cute stuffed toy that looks like a puppy wearing overalls.

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Before I go on about the puppy dog part, I'd like to mention that the quality of the camera is great. There is no graininess (as was seen in the Look 315FS), and the image looks crisp and clear. Even the colors are pretty much spot-on, coinsidering its only a CMOS webcam. In short, this is the kind of webcam quality that I'd like to use for video-blogging or making a crazy video to post on You Tube.

Now back to the design of the cam. Having a stuffed dog for a webcam may be cute for the first couple of minutes, but once you realize how impractical it is, you'd probably smack yourself for spending your hard-earned money on it. Since the camera is located on the dog's nose, the dog should constantly be facing you, which is next to impossible to achieve.

Contrary to what the webcam box says, getting the dogs limbs to move enough to achieve a practical position is really hard. Even if you do get the dog in a position where he is facing you, you probably wont be in the centre of the image. The worst problem is that once you can place the dog in a position where you appear in the middle of the screen, chances are the image will be tilted to a particular angle.

The webcam doesn't come with an integrated microphone, but Genius does bundle a clip-on mic in the pack. The mic works fine, except that there's no provision for plugging it into the dog-cam itself, so you'll have to attach it to the microphone slot in your cabinet. Not Cool!

The camera bundles with the DD Theme party software, where you can take pictures and videos of your face in a variety of digital scenarios. It's the same software that got bundled with the football cam, and feature the same themes for you to use (Dracula, Jurassic, Casino, Matrix, Pharaoh etc.)

At the street price of Rs. 1,800, the Look 312P is nothing more than a novelty that you'll gift a kid or your girlfriend on a special occasion. But once the “so cuuuute” factor wears off, there isn't much functionality you can get out of it. It's a pity that such a good quality webcam is completely wasted in this body.