Gadget User Blog

Here is an interesting web camera from Logitech. I have been a bit late coming to the web cam craze, preferring to use voice only across the web. But with several family members in far flung places, it makes sense to try and send images across the net, so we can have a laugh and see each other live on days such as Christmas Day.

So, what’s the upshot of using this beast? Overall, not too bad but I guess the experience is what I pretty much expected. The Internet is not yet fully ready to deliver live images for most people.

Family members have varying degrees of speed on their Internet connections. GUB is the fastest, and in Japan they are also very fast. My mother in Adelaide has the slowest connection at 256/64 - not surprisingly the quality and reliability of the live video connection here was the greatest difficulty.

The other frustrating this is you can’t really see the image your camera is transmitting across the web. We all have different cameras and so you can’t really know if the image is any good across the net. You can however see the image the camera is producing on your computer, and the images the QuickCam Fusion produces are pretty good. In this sense you can be sure that if the images being received at the other end are crappy, then it’s more likely the connection and Internet speed rather than the camera itself.

We waved and chatted a bit and it was very nice to be able to see each other if it was only pretty blurry and difficult to make out facial expressions! Nevertheless, just knowing that you were looking at live images was kind of cool.

The feature set of this cam is quite good. We were using Skype but I was still able to send an avatar image across the Net and was pleasantly surprised that it worked. What you would use any of this for in the long term, when the novelty has worn off, is not clear.

The sound produced was crystal clear although the mic is sensitive and you need to watch the feedback factor.

Set up was easy with the driver and camera software loading without fuss. The camera has a cool blue light that switches on when it’s being used, so you’ll always know if you are ‘on the air’. Additionally it means you won’t be caught out going live if you’re not aware the camera is on — you can also block the lens with a little privacy door as added protection.

One very clever design element is the stand for the camera that works equally well on a desktop or laptop screen. I was a little dubious at first as far as the laptop screen went, but it seems to hang there quite securely providing you don’t jump about with the laptop too much (which I rarely do).

I used this camera with both Skype and Windows Live Messenger. Both work well, although I’m not sure which I would recommend. Skype for familiarity and ease of use. Windows Live Messenger is catching up fast.

So overall I am pretty impressed with this camera. It does what it says it will do, although I don’t think the Internet is really ready for a huge uptake in this technology just yet. Perhaps when Broadband speeds are universally good will we see this technology really take off.