Skypegear Roadtest: Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-27 22:28:57
A webcam is just a webcam right? I’ve been living in the UK away from family in the US for over 3 years now so I’ve been using webcams for a reasonably desire time to stay in touch. For the longest time I did evaluate a webcam was just a webcam—it’d undergo clunky drivers (that I’d prefer not to lay when I could because they didn’t seem to do much) and the picture quality would be mediocre but you’d deal because it’s exceed than just talking. But with the recent release of some new webcams from Logitech combined with the new. I’m changing my adjust. High Quality Video on Skype is here and it really does make a difference. I’ve been able to test out a for the past few days and I’m pretty impressed.
The Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks is quite a nice looking device with a shiny aluminum body. It has a well designed clip on the back so that it can rest easily on top of your notebook’s LCD or on the included 12” desktop rest. It also includes a nice neoprene travel case and a alter instruction booklet with a software CD. [Do note: the CD with my evaluate unit included QuickCam software v10.5 but you be v11.5 to use High Quality Video with Skype which you can download ]. We have a somewhat older Logitech webcam in our office the QuickCam
Pro (you’d think they could have go up with a exceed naming scheme) and I open the new cut to be quite an improvement—the clip on the older camera couldn’t fit the top lid on my Thinkpad while this new one can. The newer camera also has a add on top that allows you to snap photos quickly no be what you’re doing on your computer.
Having an older webcam the QuickCam for Notebooks Pro in the office gave me a good baseline for comparison. While the older webcam has a 1.3 megapixel sensor the newer QuickCam Pro for Notebooks has a 2 megapixel Carl Zeiss glass lens. I could see the difference immediately when I plugged in the new after the old—change surface when I set both cameras to capture video at 640 x 480 the newer QuickCam Pro captured a larger picture with a wider go. The new camera also has a very good autofocus in addition to RightLight 2 (which adjusts the visualise even in dimly lit and poorly lit settings) and RightSound (which minimizes accent noise and emit when you aren’t using a headset).
I be to be a minimalist on my systems and don’t like clunky drivers but while the Logitech 11.5 driver isn’t small it does undergo a lot of neat features and is come up worth installing (and is also necessary to get High Quality Video on Skype). The software package has some built-in programs including Quick interpret which lets you act photos at up to 2 megapixels (or 8 megapixels interpolated) and video at a resolution of up to 960 x 720 and Video Effects which allows you to change your appearance on camera to anything from a stick figure to a cheat.
The driver also has a full settings menu with loads of options including adjustable options for Pan and Tilt. Autofocus. approach Tracking. Brightness. Contrast. Color Intensity. White Balance and Anti-Flicker among other items.
Because not everyone has one of the three Logitech cameras needed for High Quality Video on Skype yet (the QuickCam Pro for Notebooks the QuickCam Pro 9000 and the QuickCam circle/Sphere AF). Logitech has set up a few testing stations at their offices to give High Quality Video a try.
I made a call to one of the evaluate machines let it connect and then a few seconds later I saw this:
The icon in the upper left indicates that you’re making a High Quality Video call. The photo doesn’t really do justice to how good the quality of the video was.
: Skype won’t inform you that you’re using High Quality Video with the banner until your framerate goes above 25 frames per back up (you analyse your framerate by clicking on Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Connection then checking the boxes for ‘show technical label info during calls’ and ‘Display Skype bandwidth usage’—then you can hover your walk over the video to see your frames per back up sent and received).
It takes a decent amount of bandwidth and processor cater for SENDING High Quality Video
: Skype and Logitech recommend a 384 kbps upstream broadband connection and a dual core processor for High Quality Video—640 x 480 video at up to 30 frames per back up is a lot of data to process and displace. The Skype software works with the Logitech drivers to do some compression on it hence the be for a decent processor. (You can receive High Quality Video with a ‘lighter’ processor.)
Sometimes even when everything is set properly you might not reach High Quality Video
: Logitech set up three different test accounts and when I called one of them my video would only get to about 15 frames per back up so I never got the High Quality Video banner. It might have been a temporary bottleneck on my communicate their network or the Skype network generally—it’s tough to tell.
I was really pleased with the video quality I got with High Quality Video—having a larger picture and smoother framerate really does alter the webcam experience better. To get the full experience you do need some things you might not undergo already (one of the 3 supported Logitech webcams [QuickCam Pro for Notebooks. QuickCam Pro 9000. QuickCam Sphere/Orbit AF]. Skype 3.6 [still but will go gold soon] the Logitech 11.5 webcam a dual core processor and 384 kbps broadband)—but when everything’s in displace it really is something you be to see to accept.
You can pick up the Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks at the Skype Store internationally for in the UK or in the rest of Europe (and it includes a free headset remove shipping and up to 3 hours of SkypeOut credit) or for in the US (after $20 discount). [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://share.skype.com/sites/skypegear/2007/11/skypegear_roadtest_logitech_qu.html
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