Logitech QuickCam Orbit MP Webcam ( 961422-0403 )
See it at Amazon.com for $84.95Average Customer Rating
(3.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(2 out of 5)Big step backward for Logitech
The video is excellent, like all the previous good Logitech cams like the QuickCam Pro 4000. In fact, the video is better than the previous generation. The built-in mic has excellent sensitivity and clarity, which is a real plus. You can stand back from it, face away from it, and it still picks you up well, while rejecting a lot of room noise.
So, why did I only give it 2 stars?
1. It's a CPU hog. Even with the echo cancellation turned OFF, this camera consumes a good 10% more CPU on my same test system, when videoconferencing, when compared to a QuickCam Pro 4000 or Notebooks Pro model (the OLD Notebooks Pro model... the NEW one has all the same problems that this one does). That may not sound like a big deal, but it is when you start using 65% instead of 55% on a Pentium 4 2.4 GHz machine (WinXP Pro SP1)
2. The acoustic echo cancelling (AEC) is shoddy and is a MASSIVE CPU hog.
When it's on, the CPU in the above test case jumps to 85%. And it doesn't really echo cancel very well. It does a lot of heavy gating off and on, causing sentences at each end of a conversation to frequently get cut off. And even so, it lets a lot of echo ring around and go back out.
3. The installer shoves an obnoxious set of auto-startup tasks and services into your system. If you aren't afraid to turn off Windows services and delete things from the "Run" folder of your registry, you can get rid of these things. But it's either that or install the "driver only" option in the installer. These things make the camera consume even MORE CPU, even with AEC off, than the numbers I quoted above (i.e. 75% instead of 55% for a simple 2-way video conference.
4. Beware of installing this if you already have other Logitech
cameras installed on your system. The new driver installer "says" that it uninstalls these, but you'll find that the old camera either won't work anymore, or neither one will, until you uninstall both and reinstall the new one. It's best to just uninstall the old one and install the new one. The old camera will then work with the new driver. AND IT WILL USE 10% MORE CPU THAN IT USED TO!
5. The pan/tilt function of the camera works, but it ONLY works with Logitech's little proprietary popup control panel, which you must enable off their tray icon. So, you have to leave some of those annoying "automatic" things running to get this to work. Further, it doesn't obey the standard DirectShow interfaces to make it move, so application writers can't very easily control the camera motion, if at all. I downloaded Logitech's SDK to do this. None of the SDK examples even run, and there is no tech support for it.
Background:
I installed the full product and let it do what it wanted (I didn't try to disable anything). I trained the AEC with their tool. It still doesn't really work.
I have DirectX 9.0c (latest), and Logitech's latest driver. In fact, when I downloaded the newer driver from their website, nothing got better and the CPU usage climbed by ANOTHER 5%!
I am a video programmer by trade, and have tested a large number of USB cameras and echo cancellation devices. I only tell you this to give you some level of faith that I'm not a total idiot, and I am used to evaluating these products.
If you are just an average user who plugs in the camera and uses it, this camera will work well. But forget the echo cancelling; that really doesn't work. All in all, you probably would have been better off with older models, because they installed easier, used less CPU, and caused less installation interaction problems with other cameras.
In other words, it's just a big step backward. If future releases of the driver improve things, great. But I give Logitech a big black eye for even putting out an initial release that ties down my machine this much.
All these problems are true of the Fusion and the new-generation Quickcam for Notebooks Pro. They all share a similar, if not identical, driver. So they all have the same problems.
(4 out of 5)Quality hardware, junky software
I echo what one of the other reviewers stated.
The hardware is excellent: the image is NEVER grainy, even in miserable lighting conditions (monitor reflected light only, for example). Cowbofrank dot net gives some good examples of just how good the picture is in various lighting conditions. I have a wide array of cams (call me a cam fetishist) and until now I have benchmarked all cameras against my trusty old INTEL PRO which is 5 yrs old but still makes people as what I am camming with.
This one is visibly better uin quality and the CCD sensor, for once, makes a real improvement over the CMOS sensors in the cheaper cams.
The pan and tilt is 'cute' and gadgety (has a bit of a wow factor) but frankly, given the wide screen lens, it is not relly needed. Would have been better to work on an autofocus.
The RightLight and RightSound technology to improve sound and pic quality in a wide range of conditions are SUPERB. Nothing to compare it with other than expensive bi-aural mics and light measurement in a more expensive digital cam.
The fps is excellent. I really get comments that my cam seems like watching TV. And that is not just caused by the bandwith of my internet connection.
The reason I also ducked a star is because the software, especially the drivers, do hog resources. And not a little. I run a P4 machine, 3+ ghz, 2gb internal, and I noticed a difference. It truly does seem to load a lot of junk in the registry. I do not think it is a real problem, given the speed of today's machines and I think Logitech will fix this in future driver updates. They are loyal to their customers...
Also, keep in mind that this is a small trade off when you're on a quest for true video conferencing capabilities that don't give you the impression you are working with premature technology. This baby can run full screen video and do it without decline in fps.
(1 out of 5)Downgrade from the older Orbit
I upgraded from the Orbit to the Orbit MP and found that it is a major step backwards in quality.
The software control panel is much harder to use, with very coarse and twitchy sliders. You can't type numbers into the edit boxes.
Also, although still images are wonderful, the quality of live video for webcams and chat clients is horrendous. The subsampling algorithms used to convert the high-res camera images into low-res images for transmission cause blurring, loss of definition, and constant snow/shift patterns.
I'm going back to my $30 low res camera that provides higher quality for video conferencing.
(5 out of 5)Best Webcam Ever!
Hey, I just bought this at Best Buy yesterday...I don't know if they were supposed to be selling it or not b/c Logitech.com isn't even selling it yet. Anyways, let me just say that Logitech has done it again. :) The new light and sound technology really work. The microphone is ultra-clear and sounds like its a headset even when you're over 6 ft away. You can hear whispers, yawns, and breathing at over 6ft away. Also, the lighting on the camera is excellent! You can even turn all the lights off in the room, and the picture will look great just using the light from you monitor. The face tracking stuff is cool but it's still not quite perfect. However, maybe they'll continue to refine it in future software updates. What I can say is that this is by far the best consumer webcam on the market. Get this one and you won't need another for a LONG time.
(2 out of 5)Be careful what you wish for
The drivers and software came with it creates problems to other programs. If I were you, I will not purchase this product until all the driver conflicts are resolved. Things I am having problems with:
1. Drivers. Apparently, the drivers causes LINK.EXE and MIDL.EXE to freeze indefinitely (locking problems?). If you aren't a software developer, I believe it probably won't affect you. If you were using Visual Studio or Visual C++, these drivers will freeze linker or idl compiler. Uninstall the drivers fixes this problem.
2. Shutdown problem. After installing these drivers/softwares, shutdown seems to take much longer than usual if not frozen.
Too bad it is too late for me to return this product.