Logitech QuickCam Orbit MP Webcam 961422-0403

I had two of these web cams in 2007 and, at the time they gave beautiful images, but were temperamental, cpu intensive and difficult to install. Recently I tried again to use one of them on a windows 7 system for internal surveillance of my second home. The cam is exquisite. You can move it remotely and the image is clear. You can even zoom. Thus I decided to buy more of these old web cams. However, there are some caveats. The orb cam is capricious to install. You need to make sure that your windows system has all the last updates. You then boot without the web cam usb inserted. When the computer is stabilized you plug in the usb and wait (forever) that it finds the drivers automatically. I tried to manually download the drivers from the Logitech website, to be frustrated with finding out that there are no official drivers for windows 7. The automatic drivers installation, however, works for me. I think it works by running a Windows Vista shell. I was very upset by all those glib comments that I read on various forums that advised to just buy a new cam. A final note. If you run the orb on a very long usb cable, or the cable is not good, you will get a usb error message. This is because the orb requires short of 400 mA, and the current falls on long usb cables because of resistance. A self-powered usb hub (placed away, not near the computer) will help. Finally, you may have to disconnect the virus checker during instsllation, because it may feel that the drivers--which write on the registry--are some kind of malware. Oh, I was forgetting to say that one should never force the globe to turn manually: it will break. Read more

Didn't realize this cam wasn't supported under Windows 7 x64, but a bit of googling shows that to be the case. However, a workable driver can be found at https://driverscollection.com/?H=QuickCam%20Orbit%20MP&By=Logitech&SS=Windows%207%2064-bit This re-enabled tilt, pan, zoom, facial recognition and all else. after (manually, pointed to driver folder after extracting with 7zip) installing this driver, the cam works great and is top quality for the price i paid. Read more

The Logitech Orbit MP that I ordered and received through Amazon.com works exactly as expected. The webcam is capable of being aimed upwards, downwards, left, and right simply by clicking on arrow icons that appear on your computer's monitor after the software is installed. If you have a wireless mouse then you can be just about anywhere in a room and still be in the picture just by dragging the mouse on the carpet, your jeans, and just about anything else. The webcam is also capable of automatically tracking your face while you are at your PC. Better yet, the webcam can also track two or more faces while a number of people are at a PC. This little thing is amazing. The resolution is quite high and the framerate hits about 30fps at the most. On average though, the framerate of this webcam is very fast and may be used to make Internet phone calls without having to worry about choppy framerate. The framerate of this webcam may appear to be dramatically reduced by certain messenger services such as Yahoo Messenger...in this case the framerate is very choppy. One last comment about the Orbit MP can be made about the Logitech packaging it came in. The Logitech packaging containing the Orbit MP is poorly designed causing the clear plastic "bubble" protecting that protects the interior camera equipment to become scratched by slight abrasions that are directly in line with the webcam at some times. This causes a small blur from time to time when the camera pans past the scratches on the clear plastic bubble. Once again, this has nothing to do with Amazon.com, the Logitech packaging in general will cause this damage and to just about every Orbit MP webcam they have produced...unless you are lucky you may not have a small scratch in this area. Of cousre, the scratches can be removed with a professional plastic light scratch remover...which I still have not yet tried. Well, that is pretty much all you need to know about the Orbit MP. Read more

The instructions/directions are not very helpful, and we had to download the software because the cd did not work. But once we got it installed -- which ended up being super fast and easy, we use it all the time with NO problems. It changed our lives and allowed grandparents to be a regular part of our lives, even though they live across the country. I would recommend this product to anyone with highspeed internet access who has long distance family or close friends. Read more

orbit mp cam itself is very good. Installing the software is another story. Quickcam software from cd never installed properly, only partial install so the video effects didnt work. I had to go the website and wait for a newer version of the software to fix the problem. The video effects is the only reason I bought the camera. Since then, two more updates to the software have been released, each one with their own set of problems from not installing properly to 100% cpu usage during web effects. I have never had so many problems with webcam software. I am afraid to upgrade software due to the fact that it might break something. Good thing I have a Creative Labs Live Motion cam too. I will never buy another Logitec cam. The Creative Labs cam software installed correctly the first time and updates are very simple and dont break anything. For my money Creative Labs cams is the way to go. Don't waste your time or money on a Logitech Cam. Their support is very bad too. Read more