So, let’s sum this up. First things first what does this camera look like? Let’s be honest, if this thing has to sit on top of your computer all the time it should at least add to the overall effect. Well, every time l look at this camera the same thought pops into my head: “If Darth Vader had a webcam, it would look like this!” It’s silver and black and with the privacy shade pulled down (great considering the new viruses which are supposed to be able to activate your webcam at will) it looks slightly ominous. Just in case anyone is confused by all this, this camera looks pretty impressive in my books.
Looks aren’t everything though. What it all comes down to is performance. Now, it has been our experience at HardwareHounds that if you try to judge a webcam off of what you read on the box, you are in for a world of confusion. The $20 webcam appears to do the same thing as the $200 webcam. Add in a bunch of flashy adjectives such as “Stunning” and “Intense” and things just go from bad to worse. Here is what we know for a fact. This is not the cheapest camera on the market but it is not the most expensive either. You can find it on sale on a semi-regular basis and it actually delivers on its promises (without the adjectives).
So, we plugged it in and put it to work. This camera presents a nice clear picture under a variety of lighting conditions; from the brightest daylight through to the semi-dark of evening. Not only that, the image is nice and fluid. Now, we did not hold out a lot of hope when it came to the microphone considering it is nothing but a small hole on the top of the camera but we were wrong (and we’re big enough to admit it). That tiny little hole can pick up a voice clearly at a three foot distance without distortion. No need to yell, the camera will pick it up. Of course this goes both ways. If you are in a noisy room then the camera will pick up everything (a headset would be recommended in that case) but if you are trying to have a nice webchat while alone in a room, then this camera is more than enough machine. Keep in mind though that the video quality depends on your computer. We tend to run this camera on an AMD 2600+ with 512 megs of ram and an ATI 9600 pro video card and it runs like a dream. I would consider Logitech’s recommendation of a Pentium III 500 as a minimum requirement.
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