The web cam of choice

Having a decent web camera is one of the more important aspects of chatting online. If your camera is of too poor quality, you won’t be able to be seen by the person you’re speaking to. At the same point in time, more expensive cameras come at a high cost. As such, Logitech has come up with a solution in the Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX Personal Web Camera.

Right out of the box, the first thing that I noticed was the flexible stand. My concern with the flexible stand is that over time this would degrade and eventually break. But for the moment to stand allows for a wide array of flexibility so the web cam can fit over the top of most screens, including laptops. On the top of the camera is retractable hood. This can be used for privacy. The side of the camera has a button which can be used to snap individual shots or depending on your software toggle other functionality. The spherical design of the camera is standard with most web cams.

From a technical specification, the camera boasts a 1.3 megapixel still resolution. On top of this, it will stream video at a rate of 640 x 480 pixels. As far as I’m concerned, the camera does a decent job of capturing whatever it’s looking at. I’ve used this camera with Windows Live Messenger and with Skype. So far, my family has been able to see more than I originally wanted to show them off my apartment.

When installing the Logitech Web Cam using Windows Vista, the installation went fairly quickly and easily. As soon as I slipped the CD in to install, the installation wizard provided all the necessary prompts. Installation was a cinch, and at some point, the user was prompted to plug in the device. After this point, there was a standard calibration of both speakers and microphone settings. This goes relatively quickly.

What works with the software is the floating toolbar it offers. The toolbar allows you to adjust options such as the ability to use a picture in place of the privacy shade. In addition to that, there is also an option for face tracking. With face tracking engaged, the camera will track what it perceives to be a human face. The camera can actually track up to two faces at once. The downside is that this is a digital zoom and not an optical zoom. Because of this, at lower resolutions, when the camera zooms in, there is a higher chance of pixilation. Luckily, the average resolution that most chat clients stream at will be the 640 x 480 pixel resolution. From what I’ve been told, there is minimum distortion on the other end. A convenience offered by this software is the ability to launch any video chat client that you currently have installed. Though I personally do not use this, the option is there for those who choose to employ it.

At the end of the day, I would recommend this device. From a user experience is both simple to use and easy to install. My only reserve is that the base could possibly be flexed to the point of breaking. This would be the result of overuse. Other than this, I would recommend this web cam. At about $40, it is definitely not overpriced.