Logitech 961410-0403 QuickCam Communicate STX Webcam

(...)I have tried several other web cams over the past few monthes and have returned them all for a variety of reasons. Finally after all this trial and error searching I found a cam that lives up to my needs, the Logitech Communicate STX... -Easy set up, as others have stated just run the included program from the CD. I checked the Logitech web site and found newer drivers and a newer QucikCam package and grabbed that. I had my dad install the full sweet so he could play around with different features and it worked perfectly. I didn't want the extra features and just extracted the drivers, works equally well but you don't get the Control Panel feature, you can only access the cameras fine controls from the application you are using (i.e. Video set up from within your messenger app). -Awesome low ligth filter! As others have stated, it really works and makes a huge difference. My office is right off the living room and I use a lot of indirect light to reduce glare, this puts very little light behind me (i.e. in direct line of the camera lens). With other cams this has created a very dark picture, but the the Communicate STX and it's Low Light boost the image looks great and very well color balanced. -Great Framerate! Again as others have stated, you get a pretty smooth framerate but it does depend on your connection speed. I have tested this cam on MSN Messenger 7.5 and the latest build of Yahoo Messenger, and I would agree with others, MSN Messenger handles video much better with this cam (and several others I have tried). -Good sound quality. The integragted mic is adequate but not stunning, but does work well with no real tweaking necessary. I have read some comments on other sites about noise/feedback issues and I have found that if the mic is physically above your speaker approx. 8-12 inches almost all noise issues disappear. This is easy for those with larger monitors but might not be if you use a laptop or smaller LCD, YMMV. Overall I have been pleasantly surprised by the Communicate STX and would not hesistate to recomend it. It takes little effort to set up and works out of the box with all the major IM apps. If you don't need the tracking and rotation functions of the Orbit models this is the best bang for the buck web cam out right now. Read more

When buying this camera you have to keep a couple things in mind: 1) It is no substitute for a higher end, high priced, professional camera 2) It is relatively simple in design and usage (is that even phrased right?) 3) It has limited capabilities. Okay, now that we have gotten all that out of the way, I will go on to say that this is an excellent camera for someone who wants a laptop camera with no frills or complications. The picture is pretty darn good, bordering on great. It balances out tones and lighting in the picture, and it's pretty clear even in low light environments. I use it along with photoshop and it turns out a decent picture. However, like I said before, it's no substitute for more professional digital cameras. It also has an inbuilt microphone making it an all in one communications device, which is an added bonus. I use it to have video conversations with people halfway across the globe and the resolution holds up admirably. Installing the camera is a breeze: you plug it in to the usb port, slip in the disk, follow a couple o' instructions, a few clicks and you're on your merry way. Perfect for technophobes, computer neophytes, and anyone who hates hassles. It also has two different sorts of stands that can be changed on the fly. I personally use the hook stand that is pictured in the product description because it is so darn versatile. It is flexible and can be bent to fit nicely over a LCD or laptop display, or it could be made to lie flat to sit comfortably on the top of a CRT display. It's pretty darn nifty! The long and short of it is this: it's a great camera that doesn't set out to be anything more than a great camera. Great for online communications like yahoo messenger (haven't tried it on MSN, but the box says that it's supposed to work fabulously on that as well). You'd be hard pressed to find a camera in the same price range that will work this well. Read more

I spent four hours installing and uninstalling the device. When I first installed it asked for five files from Windows 98se. Had to find the files either from the CD or Windows directory or stop the installation and search on the internet. Finally, finally, finally I got the thing to install but I had another problem. When I connected to the internet and tried to go to any website, IE6 would shut down and ask to restart. What garbage. So I had to uninstall all the software and drivers for the camera ( I am an experienced electronic technician and build computers at work and on the side) and still IE6 would not run. Finally, I had to boot to safe mode and run scanreg/restore and restore the registry from a previous date in order to get IE6 to run . I hope i can return this piece of garbage. OH, by the way. this is my first review of any kind on amazon.com. I hope this helps alot; When I googled for the files I was serching, alot of other people were having the same sort of problems. Thank you very much Read more