Logitech QuickCam Orbit
February 2004, $130
This camera has been an interesting experiment. It has a really nifty shape and when mounted on its extension pole really attracts attention. The camera itself is in a detachable eyeball with a standard mini-USB connector in the bottom. That plugs either directly into the camera base, which contains the microphone component, or it can be attached with an 8 ½ inch extension pole to bring the camera up closer to face level. The base is solid and doesn't move around like some of the lighter cameras.
The camera is mounted on a motorized gimbal inside the eyeball section and it's quite interesting to watch it rotate, following you as you move.
The software that tries to track your face has some serious problems. The camera seems to try to center on my forehead most of the time. Then occasionally it will, for no apparent reason, slowly wander off and point at the ceiling or a table lamp which was totally out of the frame when it started moving. In the long run I have given up even trying to use the auto face tracking, which makes the prime selling feature of this camera useless.
The camera has no focus control. I'm not sure if focus is done with a motor or if the camera simply has a fixed focus lens.
Another thing that I find lacking is a manual color balance slider. The software only has auto, incandescent, fluorescent and daylight. It does have a "freeze" feature, but trying to get the balance where you want it then hitting freeze is very difficult.
Overall, the camera performs well with good picture quality. However, unless you are one who loves the unique shape and just has to have all the latest gadgets, I would recommend going with the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000. To setup the Orbit for webcam broadcasting over the internet with all motorized pan & tilt features accessable to your visitors you must signup with Logitech's Hosting service and pay a monthly fee. That was a huge shock to many owners whom eventually moved over to the SmileCam which is freely hosted. So my advice is to take a pass on the Orbit unless you only want it for non-broadcast purposes. This one isn't worth the extra money.
Product Specifications
- High-quality VGA CCD sensor
- Video Capture: Up to 640x480 pixels
- Still image capture: Up to 1280x960 pixels, 1.3m (interpolated)
- Frame Rate: Up to 30 frames per second
- Motorized 128 degree Pan and 54 degree Tilt feature
- Interface: USB 1.1 compliant
- no focus control
- 3x Digital zoom
- Built-in microphone
- Works with both PC and Mac OSŪ X
- detachable 9 foot USB cable, 9 inch extension stand
- Software Included:
- Live video enabled Yahoo/MSN/Windows Messenger
- One click video e-mail , Web Album Creator
- Video Broadcasting , WebCam Broadcasting
- Automatic face-tracking software
- Logitech Desktop Messenger for automatic updates
- ImageStudio on CD-ROM, QuickStart guide
Minimum System Requirements
- Windows XP, ME, 2000 (not Win98)
- PII 400MHz, Celeron, AMD Athlon proc (500MHz or higher rec)
- 64 MB RAM
- 200 MB free HDD space
- Available USB port
- CD-ROM drive, 16 bit colour display adapter,
- Windows compatible sound card & speakers (full duplex sound card rec)
Pluses
- Very good quality and a sharp image
- Works quite well in low light
- Extension pole helps get the camera up at face level, or the pole can be removed and the camera set on a desktop
- Twain driver works well and is stable
- Camera can be separated from base and connected directly to your computer using a mini-USB cable; however, there is no way to mount the camera in this condition, so you would have to build some sort of a support
- Motorized face tracking feature (the camera actually pans and tilts mechanically)
Minuses
- Rather expensive and not quite as good an image as the cheaper 4000 model
- Face tracking software has some serious problems
- No fine adjustment of color balance, only preset settings
- Pop-up assistant won't minimize to the taskbar or taskbar tray, it sits on top of taskbar taking up part of the desktop
- If one closes the pop-up assistant, I haven't been able to get it back without rebooting; however, the same controls are available by right clicking the camera icon in the taskbar tray
- no focus control
- Horizontal manual on screen pan controls work backward from what I would expect
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