So you have a builtin camera on your laptop and now want to use it for some cool pictures and making a movie clip? This post will show you how you can use the laptop camera to take snap shots and making videos, and also how to use it as a webcam to chat with your friends and family.
Using laptop camera to take pictures
First of all, we will discuss how to use your camera as a camera! to take pictures.
Goto My computer, and you will see an icon at the bottom under the heading “scanners and cameras”. Click on your device which would probably be saying usb video camera or something similar.
Once you click on it, in the left menu, you will see a new sub menu giving you an option under new heading “camera tasks” saying “Take a new picture”. click on it and there you go! you just captured your picture from your laptop camera!
In Mac OS, you can use Photo Booth to do this.
Using laptop camera to record a video clip
If you are in windows xp, you can do it by:
- Run Windows Movie Maker (Start > All Programs > Windows Movie Maker).
- Find “Capture Video” Option.
- Find “Capture from video device”.
- Run through settings wizard (if it’s the first time).
- Record you video!
However, newer version of windows don’t offer this facility. You can download many available free video recording softwares online.
In Mac OS, you can use Photo Booth to do this.
Use your laptop camera as webcam
If you want to use the camera on your laptop as webcam to chat with your friends and family, you don’t need any special software installed. Just run the messenger that you want to chat to them with (windows live messenger, yahoo messenger, skype, etc) and make a video call and you’re done!!!