Instant messaging has been with us for many years now, with clients such as MSN Messenger, Skype, Yahoo and AIM amongst the most popular.

Things have moved on a bit since the days of good old fashioned text chats though, and video is now all the rage. Lucky then that there are some brilliant, yet affordable webcams on the market made for just that purpose.

Microsoft Lifecam VX-3000

The Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000 is one such contender, and comes from a brand you can trust (assuming you haven’t suffered an Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death of course) in Microsoft.

These cameras are currently being sold on Amazon either separately or as a pair, with the idea of the twin pack being to enable friends and family members to each own one and be able to stay in contact wherever they are around the world.