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I guess I'm a glutton for punishement as I'm now trying out a Logitech Pro 9000 and it is only marginally better. Zeiss lens, or not, this webcam would not focus in either automatic mode or in manual mode. I spent hours uninstalling and reinstalling, trying different ports, and trouble shooting my PC, as I followed the instructions from Logitech. AF failed, face following failed, auto-exposure control failed, and I repeatedly lost all manual control through the Logitech software. Please, someone else, start building a truly great webcam. It was clear that Logitech wanted to make my system (modern, powerful, LOTS of memory, etc) the scapegoat without any thought that their hardware/software/firmware might be defective.
My antique 3Com Home Connect webcam, as cheap and as simple as it was, had tack-sharp focus. It was as if there was grease on the lense. Logitech may get high ratings; but, my opinion is that they have a great product image based on older products and strong marketing whereas the actual products don't live up to the hype. In the final analysis, Logitech gave up, and so did I. Fortunately, I was able to return the Orbit as the defective piece of junk that it proved to be. Unfortunately, it is no longer supported and does not work natively with Skype.
Forget the bells and whistles until you can provide sharp focus and a crystal clear image.
They always do great in daylight, but poorly in low light situations. I own a Logitech Quickcam 4000, two 5000s, this orbit plus just ordered a 9000. This one is pretty much worthless if you've got any daylight at all (even muted behind curtains), behind you when you're attempting to use it, but at night it works fantastically. I fought with myself for quite some time on whether to order the cheaper 9000 or the orbit with the pivoting internal movement capabilities, but in the end evidently made the wrong choice.Don't get me wrong, the quality's nice, and comparable to my 5000's, it's not bad, however I ran into one major flaw (other than the whole it cannot be mounted on your screen, so you have to move it elsewhere thing) - It cannot handle brightly lit rooms. This is the complete opposite of what I've experienced with every other webcam I've ever owned. I'm stuck only using it once it's dark outside. :(
The tracking motion is very abrupt and jerky, with the camera making large, quick successive movements. There is no settings to slow the motion down or make it less abrupt, but you can turn it off. Before I bought this webcam I imagined the face-tracking feature to be smooth and seamless, like a movie camera following your face. When you are about to exit the frame, it would jerk again to put you in the middle of the frame, then stop. I wonder why they don't incorporate a "stabilizing" feature like you see in camcorders, but software driven. Say you are moving across the room. But if you do, or if there are other people with you, the motion would easily give the other person vertigo.
It even jumps around when you're not moving but your hands and arms are, such as when typing or using the mouse.Other aspects of the webcam works great, as other reviewers can tell you. I was disappointed. I've had people ask me to stop the face-tracking because it made them dizzy. The camera would jerk to follow you, then stop. It does not track you smoothly across the room.It's fine you don't move around much when talking to someone. But the killer feature is the face-tracking, and it fails to deliver. Maybe I'm asking too much, but if I had known about its shortcomings, I would have gotten a decent regular webcam that is much cheaper.
This camera is easy to set up and has good resolution and great audio quality.
Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF Auto Focus System (Black) As received the optics worked great, but the software caused major system problems in VISTA. Now the automatic brightness control works. Logitech support provided a fix for the VISTA problem, but that still left the automatic brightness control, and face tracking not working. Just received a software update from Logitek. It appears that Logitek is making progress on the software. Outside of these software problems the QuickCam seems to be working very well.
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