Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX by Logitech
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List Price: Our Price: $5.96 You Save: $44.03 (88%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX
Digital camera Review: A Good Product
Summary: 5 Stars
I liked the product. Easy to use and cool features. Good image quality. Buy it from Amazon to get a other webcam for free. I got two, gifted one to relative.Digital camera Review: A Very Good Cam
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very good camera for the money. Great image, very easy set-up, very compatible with all online messenger services. Logitech just needs to work a little more on the white balance, and this cam would be the best.Digital camera Review: As expected
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this camera for the built in microphone and face tracking capability.
I had no problem installing and using it. Worked as expected.
Digital camera Review: As seen on Star Trek
Summary: 4 Stars
First of all, this is probably what you are looking for, unless you want to be able to take photographs above 640 x 420 resolution, zoom, focus, wide angle lenses, but then you are looking for a pro webcam, and there are one or two here, but you are better spending your $100 in a digital photography shop. For the rest of you that just want a plug n' play digital camera that not only looks great but doesn't smash to pieces by the end of the week because it fell off the monitor, at an affordable price, actually very cheap for what it does, then the Logitech Quickcam Communicate WebCam is exactly what you need... and what everyone else owns.
This dark grey orb is a nice upgrade from its black sphere processor (a revolution for its time), just bigger than an egg with a claw grip that you can bend around almost anything but is especially designed for LCD monitors, but has no problem with CRT or desks. In fact it has the same grip as the Quickcam pro model from Logitech and maybe if you look at this products photographs you can see it. Okay, so that is your stand. The original camera looked like HAL from 2001 but now looks like HAL combined with a Transformers look. Pity the central camera lens doesn't glow red, ha aha. Instead of lighting up blue on top there is a small green/yellow light that turns on at the side. There are additionally two new features. The cam comes with a cap that you can open and close and a button on the side that you can press to take pictures. To be honest the button is not good because it's hard to hold the cam steady and when you close the cap you sometimes press the button by mistake. While the cap is good it opens up Logitech cam software automatically so you can select a cap image. This conflicts with some chat software clients and I can't seem to be able to turn it off. All round these new features are very nice but the cam gets docked a star because this design could have been much better. It looks great, fantastic looking technology, but the implementation of the cap plus button is bad. Also the front rim is curved not flat. If you sit it flat on the desk it moves from left to right like a rocking chair!
Instead of the parts coming in two pieces (where you had to click into the stand before) it is all in one. The cable is a direct camera to USB2 that runs about the height of an average person, so if you want it to see further you need a USB2 to USB2 extension. However the cable is adequate for most.
The old model does not work with Vista, but this one does. Do not plug in the webcam. Insert the CD. Install the driver software. Then you are prompted to plug in your webcam and follow what Logitech tell you to do. Okay, now you have the camera set so you can take photographs and camera video with it.
They have updated the lighting quality and image quality dramatically. The boost in image quality is considerable. The autofocus is near perfect for the price. You will not have to adjust this camera except to move it. There is a learning curve with the settings. People who don't know how to use it properly don't use these settings. You need to fix the settings like most cameras. There is a default button if things bleach out. I would still say get this cam for the price and look but Logitech should have done better.
In short, this is what you should have unless you want zoom, focus and high quality photographic images. You can use this for free with Yahoo messenger or MSN. 320 x 240 is a fine resolution to run at. This camera can do 640 x 420.
Just get it, call home, force them to upgrade to broadband and end those $100 transatlantic phone calls. FREE VID-PHONE if you have a microphone! In which case, see into getting yourself a headset from the same people who brought you this great product.
Pros
Maybe the best cheap cam around
Image is very good for the price
It looks amazing
Cons
Button on cam is in a bad place
Software has bugs
Rocking cam on the desk
Digital camera Review: Average performance, not very good focus
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok so I've now tried quite a few at that price range...
Like the microsoft in that range, the focus range and syncing are disappointing. Especially the focus. If you're 1 foot away from your screen, it performs ok.
Plus:
Light technology. That's pretty cool, except that if you keep going back/forth, the other person gets to see greyish/whitish every 2 seconds, which my best friend in France is finding annoying more than helpful. Tip: go into manual settings and adjust the exposure yourself so it won't bounce like you're having your private disco club going.
Not too expensive for the light adjustment: let's admit it, we don't want to shell out $90 for a webcam we'll use to sell our $10 bracelets with on eBay. So this is reasonable for chatting, but there are better devices out there for the price for selling on eBay (I'm using the IPEVO PoV webcam for that).
Minus:
- The stand: not very practical, and very, very easily breakable. OK so I thought that the little balancing thing in the back looked cool, until it broke when I put it in my computer case :-( I guess I should've thought of that one seeing as it's not flat. And guess what - after that, it can't balance.
- The focus range: man this is a wide problem throughout webcams. Basically, you can't show anything you care about to your friends. Your engagement ring, that new application on your iphone, all of that is too small for the focus - it's super blurry. Don't feel bad, though, all the webcams have that problem. Only one I found that solved it was the IPEVO PoV, because it's got a manual focus, so you can go under 2 inches.