Webcam on N61Jq really this bad???

I was hoping to hold out for an N43/53 with Nvidia GeForce 400M graphics, but they kept getting delayed in the US so I broke down and got the N61Jq which has a Mobility Radeon HD5730 instead. Overall I am very pleased with the performance of the laptop. There are, however, a couple issues that I have noticed.

First of all, the webcam is terrible. I am thinking something has to be configured incorrectly... I don't see how it could be this bad. The framerate of the video it captures is clearly in the single digits, like 5fps or less. It looks absolutely terrible. Makes Skype annoying for the people I am trying to talk with. Is it really that bad? Is there anything that can be done about it?

Secondly, this seems to be a very strange issue. When I close the lid of the laptop, when I reopen it, it looks like the color is set to 16-bit mode (I've checked though and it still says 32-bit). All gradients of color have very noticable banding. I have the the computer set to do nothing when the lid closes and the power charger is plugged in, and it still happens. Seems to go away with a reboot. I'ts really strange and annoying. I have the latest Catalyst drivers installed, 10.10.

Does anybody know how I could fix these issues?

EDIT:
It also seems like the color issue gets fixed if I log off and log back on