Logitech 720p Webcam Pro 9000
by Logitech
|
List Price: Our Price: $48.91 You Save: $31.08 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $34.75 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Logitech 720p Webcam Pro 9000
Customer Review: Great for Skype - but bad software
Summary: 2 Stars
I had a very hard time installing the software. I'm a computer expert and I had to try every trick in the book to get the installation to run correctly.
The drivers seem to be very poor. Sometimes motion in the camera is great, other times, motion leaves thick trails and mouth-sync to the audio is terrible. Tweaking a few options without any specific order or reason seems to cure this.
I think the technology is great and top quality, but obviously, with cheap offshore software engineers available by the tonne, I expect this product is a typical victim of "not made in America!"
If the software was improved, I'd probably give this 5 stars.
Summary:
-Better quality than a typical webcam.
-Not reliable for video blogging / diary - you never know whether the video will be audio-synched until you record.
-Some cool face overlay accessories that are funny and do work well.
-Clamps easily to just about any monitor.
-Very poor drivers - seems to be a throw of the dice as to whether it will work well on your system.
UPDATE: 01/10/2009
I have not been able to use the video effects for many months now. I have no idea what went wrong. All of a sudden, the video effects no longer worked. I installed the latest driver package "qc1180.exe" and this disabled the microphone! The video effects came back, but no mike. I uninstalled and reinstalled and found that the video effects no longer worked and neither did the mike. Several days later after a few installs and uninstalls, I have the camera mike back but still no video effects.
Bottom line ... this web camera is not worth the stress and hassle. I will no longer buy anything from Logitech. I have read through their support forums and they usually assume the problem is with your own equipment. I bet they hired some cheap inexperienced coders from a poor country to do their software and that is why it sucks so badly! DO NOT BUY!
Customer Review: Just about perfect for a PC add-on webcam -- now with Logitech Vid
Summary: 5 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The new Pro 9000, released in July 2009, has some tweaks that makes it different from the older QuickCam version, even though both products share this page. (If you are considering buying this, make sure you read the recent reviews.) First, the back lighting option is built into the camera and therefore doesn't require driver software. You can choose to make RightLight automatic or on demand. Next, the older version worked best on Skype, but this one has the same refresh rate no matter which video calling program you use. Third, Logitech Vid software, competition to Skype, is included on the driver CD. Last, this new version can adapt to Widescreen format. You do get the same quality video when recorded directly on your computer no matter which device you use.
Within minutes of installing the software for the Pro 9000 on my PC, I was able to snap photos, record video, add special effects, and video calls, either using the included Logitech Vid software or Skype. The menu controls are intuitive, and the video/photos are good quality for a web cam, with great auto focus and automated "back lighting" that brightens video taken in a dark room. It sits easily on top of a full size monitor or a laptop screen.
I see only two drawbacks: one, there is no shutter to keep the webcam closed when not needed, and two, if you have a Mac, you cannot use all the features since Logitech does not have Mac drivers for it. You can plug the camera into a Mac as an "unknown device" to use for video calling. This last issue really bugs me about Logitech, that they seem to ignore Mac customers. They do, however, provide great products and driver software for Windows machines.
-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann
Customer Review: Think this one costs too much? It's worth it!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm glad I waited this long to buy another webcam. My last one was the 3Com HomeConnect camera that was made popular on Tech TV back when Leo Lapore hosted. That one broke and I swore I would wait until one came out with a good lens. Well it's here.
Maybe you can get a better one somewhere, but for under a hundred bucks, the image on this camera is amazing. You won't be getting HD resolution through MSN Messenger, but you can record that HD to your hard drive and share with friends and family.
I tried out the on-board mic with a friend of mine. He said I sounded good so I will take his word for it. I love that I can ditch my old headset and just use my speakers now!
Installation took about 10 minutes to copy the software to my Vista drive. Then it just worked. I had no issues. Very easy process. I have only tested it so far with Windows Live Messenger. Autofocus works quite well. And it's quiet. You don't hear motors inside focusing back and forth.
I have a 24" Wide Dell and the camera fits very nicely on top. A small amount of "rubber" surfaces keeps it from moving around. Nice design.
The "Red Circle" in the image that you see comes on when the camera is showing/recording video. Software settings allows you to disable this if you want. There are also a lot of manual override settings for almost everything should you want to tweak the image in your own way.
If you are interested in the little graphics - the avatars, hats and mustaches etc... they seemed to work pretty well. As long as you don't move quickly. I was impressed that with the character mode (Where you look like a cartoon cat or a shark), when you blink or open your mouth, the character really blinks and opens his/her mouth. It really works! Too silly for me, but kids and some adults will love this function.
Buy it for the quality of the image. It's impressive for the money!
Customer Review: The absolutely the best webcam for most personal home computer users
Summary: 5 Stars
I have tried numerous different webcams made by various different manufacturers and none of them compared to this webcam. We primarily use the WebCam for skype, youtube, some video recording and the Logitech pro 9000 works like an absolute dream once you get the software installed. There have been a lot of people who have complained in the past about troubles installing the software, but luckily we have and had such difficulty. My main complaints with the other webcams I've tried in the past were picture quality (contrast, hues, color etc..),choppy video ( despite claims that the product achieves 30 fps), lack of motion detection. This is where the Logitech quick cam pro 9000 really shines; I have no complaints with any of the complaints I've had in the past with other products. The picture quality and smooth transitions between pictures is on paralleled. We were so happy with the performance of this product that we bought both sets of grandparents one of these so that we could video conference via skype. At first,they were amazed is video conference at all, but then once they installed this video camera they were dumbfounded by how clear a picture was even when we video conferenced with grandparents in Japan. There were no delays, and they said that the picture quality was 10 times better than it was when we were using a Microsoft Lifecam. I would say the only negative comment we have regarding this product is the difficulty of installing the software on some systems. I believe we had difficulty installing this camera on our laptop, but since it is not our primary computer we use to video conference it is of little consequence to us and does not affect our review of this product to the extent it would if like some people have reported. Up to this point, I have not had the pleasure of using a web cam better than this one and if someone has a recommendation of a web cam superior to this one,I would welcome any information they have.Customer Review: Good quality webcam, some software issues
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, the quality of this camera is very good. The RightLight technology works extremely well and makes our picture much more visible. The sound quality is also very good.
For reference, I am running Windows XP Pro on a P4 desktop that is a couple of years old, with 2 gigs of RAM.
The video quality received at the other end of a video conference call will depend on both your hardware and software, but is generally good. While the camera is capable of sending high-quality video instead of the standard low resolution video used by Windows Live, you must also use software that is capable of sending the higher quality video (such as Skype) and you must have at least a dual-core processor (for Skype high quality video).
I ran into some installation issues where Skype calls would drop off after 20 or 30 seconds. I downloaded all the latest drivers/software from Logitech's website, but this didn't completely resolve the issue. I then moved the USB plug from the USB hub built into my monitor to plug directly into the computer, and now my issues are resolved.
Recently (I've had the camera for a few months), the auto focus has stopped working with Windows Live, but works fine with Skype so this is really a non-issue for me.
I have this mounted on a LCD monitor, and it stays put just fine. It seems like it would sit on a laptop OK, but it does not actually clamp on to the monitor so if you move your laptop the camera will probably move / fall off.
There is no shutter to protect the lens or block the camera's view, but the video is only being captured when the red circle light around the Logitech logo is illuminated, so you at least know when video is being captured. There is also a software controlled "privacy shade" that swaps your video for a still picture of your choice.
I would recommend this camera for anyone who uses webcams frequently.