Web camera? Oh, those cheapos with hopeless resolution and supernatural color rendition, turning your face into green and polka-dotted aliens. Anyway, Web cameras were good for only silly video chat, and the only place to set it was on top of the LCD display. No practical use at all. This was the general opinion, so far.

Can we utilize these Web cameras for some serious job, like a spy/security cam for midnight shift of the convenience stores? No way! With that kind of resolution, it would be almost impossible to distinguish shoplifter's nose from a sweet potato.

Net Cowboy DC-NCP130 without telephoto lens	With telephoto lens. Looks pretty impressive.

There is serious attempt to upgrade this Web toy to something more useful. Digital Cowboy, a fancy peripheral brand pushed forward by Hanwha Japan Co. of Tokyo, a Japanese subsidiary of minor Korean chaebol Hanwha group, introduced a telephoto Web camera, Net Cowboy DC-NCP130. It will come to the market some time in February.

DC-NCP130 is, basically, a USB CMOS camera of 1.3-millon pixels (1,280 x 1,024: 15 frames per second), slightly better than other ubiquitous cheapies, but not considerably much. So, what is special? Because this camera can be augumented by a telephoto lens. Yes, optical 7x telephoto, not by the shortcut way of software zooming.

Setting and removing the telephoto lens attachment are manually operated You can't control this function remotely from a remote location. This could be a fatal flaw for this kind of cameras. But, whereas any network cameras with remote-controllable optical zoom lens could instantly ruin your financial health, this DC-NCP130 with a price tag of mere 9,800 yen (US$81) works tenderly on your purse. You have to sacrifice something with this price.

DC-NCP130's sample picture without telephoto lens	The same scene magnified with telephoto lens on.

Besides, a telescopic tripod is included. When used as the video chat camera, face-tracking feature can be activated. The camera recognizes the contour of human face and keeps it always in the center of camera frame. Not mechanically, of course.

Obviously, DC-NP130 is an ideal tool for your neighboring Peeping Tom: Cheap, small (with telephoto attached, 33 x 146 x 37mm; 160g) and relatively powerful. Therefore, Digital Cowboy explicitly warns you: "Please don't go into a misdemeanour with our product!"

 

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