How good is your webcam? Well, most of us would try to compare the quality in terms of brands. Some professionals would say CCD web cams are far more superb than CMOS web cams. Furthermore, there are those who can rotate and turn by itself. Basically, even with the advanced technology of these latest webcams, they all have one weakness. That is, these traditional hardwares are only capable of focusing near objects, and nothing more. Objects are a distant would even appear blur.

Standards are so restrictive these days and who would one actually imagine of having a USB web cam mounted with a telescope? That’s true! As such, even distant objects would appear to be extremely clear and capable of reproducing high quality images on your computer.

Available from Hong Kong, this little piece of equipment costs only US$26.00! I won’t say what you can really do with this Telescopic Web cam, but there are definitely much more applications you can exploit using with this device, such as one quoted from i4u News:

So you live next to Keira Knightley. To broadcast her bathroom window live on the internet, the gadget you need to pull off this feat is a USB Web Cam with a Telescope.

Features

• 7*18 telescope
• Use telescope to magnify for near views
• Lens rotation for adjusting clear image
• Easy adjust the angle by mini tripod
• Excellent still image capture
• Video Conferencing
• Snap shot button
• LED indicator
• Interface: USB 1.1, USB 2.0 compliant
• Support: Windows 98se/Me/2000/XP
• Telescope dimension: 69×28x33mm
• Web cam dimension: 80×32x33mm

Specification

• Image sensor: CMOS sensor 480K
• Resolution: VGA 800 x 600
• Frame Rates: up to 30fps@320×240, up to 15fps@640×480
• Focus: 50mm to infinity adjustable
• Video digit format: 24 bits
• Built-in image e-mail
• Manual focus
• Snapshot button for image capture
• Auto white balance
• Auto electronic exposure

Package Content

• USB Web Cam
• External Telescope
• Mini tripod
• Driver CD
• A Cloth
• User’s Manual

USB Web Cam Telescope

USB Web Cam Package Content

Check out an example below of how good the quality of the image you can get with this USB Web Cam with Telescope. See the image of the building captured on an un-zoomed webcam, and compared it to the quality when the zoom is used.

Un-zoomed Image without Telescope

Image taken with USB Web Cam with Telescope