2MP Webcam 2.8-12mm Varifocal Lens Webcamera VGA High Speed 100fps 1080P USB Camera for Industrial, HD Web Camera with CMOS OV2710 Sensor

I love the concept of a simple HD camera with manual zoom, focus, and iris. It solves a lot of problems! The one I got does not have the Sony sensor, but the CMOS OV2710 with the 2.8mm to 12mm zoom. The picture looks pretty good but it does not perform well in low light. I did not get the Sony sensor based on complaints about a yellow blotch in the middle of the picture (apparently when paired with the longer 5-50mm lens).The camera can use h.264 compression but at low frame rates - pretty unacceptable for web cam use. For high frame rates you're stuck with Mjpeg. It's not bad but you can see a little noise in it. One other thing that is a little annoying is the zoom and focus. I love that both are manual and it's all in the optics but they don't track together like a camcorder lens. If you zoom, you will lose focus. This makes for a cheaper lens to produce but you have to get used to zooming to your shot first and then focusing. It's not hard and focus is not hard to get right, but it is a two step process.If you get this camera, what looks like zoom and focus levers (nubs sticking out from the respective rings) are not levers. They are locking screws. Be sure to loosen them before moving zoom or focus.Pros: Compact, standard mounting threads, fairly rugged, manual functions (zoom, focus, iris). Picture is slightly noisy but still looks pretty good. Colors are not bad. Plug & play.Cons: No microphone, zoom and focus don't track together, can't really use H.264 for normal web cam use, poor low light performance.Conclusion: I might buy another one of these. They are handy and if you're streaming video, they behave nicely by staying the way you set them. I may, however, wait until I see some improvements (like good use of H.264 and the Sony imager problem worked out). Seems to me that if they can use some stunning sensors in action cameras, they should be able to use something similar in these ones. An audio input would be nice. So would a microphone.

Picture quality is very very good by webcam standards. I am using it as a webcam with an external microphone as this does not have one. (As a side note, Pop Voice lavalier mic works great even at a distance) Manual focus is very useful as you can keep it focused on what you want. As a webcam, close to the face, the zoom would be backed off to wide angle and the range where everything is in focus is very satisfactory.... maybe a 5 foot range window. This camera requires decent but very reasonable lighting to look really good and does not seem to "gain up" a lot to compensate for really poor lighting. My old low resolution logitech 640x480 webcam by contrast is grainy but more tolerant of bad lighting. The same ELP company sells cameras that look the same with different sensors. For poor lighting in a dim bedroom, I might go with their lower resolution 720P sensor which they tout as high sensitivity.

Not a camera expert, but it is listed as 2.8mm. The image is not wide angle. Viewing angle seems to much smaller angle then my 5mm camera.