Logitech QuickCam Orbit VGA Webcam
- Capture Resolution: 640 x 480
- Digital Video Capture Speed: 30 frames per second
- Web Camera Type: Personal Web Camera
- Still Image Capture Resolution: 1280 x 960
- Audio Support: Built In Microphone
- Interface Type: USB 2.0
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Darth Vader's WebCam
Pros
Sleek, futuristic design; functional webcam, mechanical pan-tilt
Cons
Expensive, disappointing resolution and image quality, somewhat flimsy components, poor software bundle, noisy
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
For those who like stylish computer accessories that look better than they work, then the Orbit is perfect. It's an average webcam with killer looks. Instant conversation piece...
CASTING CALL: Seeking futuristic-looking web camera for major science fiction film. Must have whirring noises and colorful lights. Strong camera ability is desirable but will accept a glossy black design in lieu. Send two glossy marketing photos to...
Overview
That pretty much sums up the Logitech QuickCam Orbit WebCam, the latest in a long evolution of Logitech cams, which have always reflected the design styles at the time. From the putty-toned units of the 90's, to cartoon-inspired models, to the two-tone designs, and finally to the alien black designs of the Orbit, you can count on more or less the same camera electronics on the inside from Logitech.
There are three major things that distinguish the Orbit from it's predecessors of the QuickCam Pro line: color scheme, the extension stalk, and the pan/tilt/zoom function.
The color scheme is decidedly black and futuristic, with the base made up mostly of matte black material and most of the rest of the camera decked out in smooth, glossy black plastic. The front of the camera "ball" where the lens resides is a combination of clear and mirrored plastic that completely encloses the camera mechanism and lens (this is a departure from previous Logitech models that exposed the lens itself to dust).
Second, when first out of the box, the Orbit looks like any other webcam: a camera unit on top of a base. You can leave it in this form factor and just put it on top of your monitor, but it's much more striking when you detach the camera sphere and insert the supplied 8-inch extension rod (or what I call the "stalk"). This puts the camera at around eye level when the base is put on your desk. It also looks like something out of Star Wars with the sleek lines, mirrors, and black casing.
The last distinguisher is the pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) function that debuts in the Orbit. Using the software controls, you can move the camera mechanically 128 degrees from side-to-side and 54 degrees up-and-down. There's also an option to use "face tracking," which automatically moves the camera to keep your head centered in the frame. The zoom function is digital, not optical: while you can enlarge portions of the image, the resulting image quality is reduced as the software interpolates (aka guesstimates) the enlargement details.
The Orbit also includes a built-in microphone, eliminating the need for an external microphone attached to your sound card or computer microphone input. The specs say that it will capture video up to 640x480 resolution at up to 30 frames per second. It also takes megapixel resolution photos, although they are interpolated up from the same VGA resolution.
Installation
The installation process of the Orbit is very straightforward. After you install the QuickCam software and drivers off the included CD, you're prompted to reboot your computer. When your system restarts, you'll be prompted to plug the cam into a USB port. Once the camera is detected, you'll be walked through a tuning wizard that adjusts your audio and video settings.
My Observations of the Orbit
It works well as a webcam, but not as a camera replacement. Once the settings are tweaked (especially the color enhancement option), the Orbit's video capture is quite good. I had no problem using it with MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger for XP, and Microsoft NetMeeting. However, still photos, especially at the higher resolutions, look like they were taken on a webcam. The sharpness of the camera's CCD sensor is just not good enough to take anything but snapshots suitable for e-mail.
USB speed is USB 1.1, not 2.0. Although the packaging proclaims that the Orbit is "USB 2.0 Compatible," I was disappointed to discover that it's really just a slow USB 1.1 device. By the USB 2.0 specification, USB 2.0 should support backward compatibility, so this is just a marketing point. Logitech says that the camera is USB 2.0 compatible not USB 2.0 compliant. Semantics aside, this means that there is no improvement in image quality or frame-rate that might have been possible if the Orbit had a 480 megabit per second interface instead of just a 12 megabit per second one.
Pan-tilt mechanism is loud, flimsy, and ugly. The camera electronics mounted in the Orbit's sphere make a noticeable amount of noise when moved. There's also a loud power-on test that happens as your computer boots up. Shaking the unit at all makes the camera assembly rattle in a very disturbing way. Finally, the lens itself is mounted on a green circuit board with numbering stamped on it, and the whole thing is visible through the clear plastic of the camera sphere. It's an eyesore, especially when the rest of the camera is so striking.
Privacy light is red and there's no manual privacy shutter. Previous Logitech cams either didn't have a light that notifies you that the camera is active or their light was green. Orbit's is bright red. While this may help avoid someone becoming the victim of a voyeur (a deaf one, if the peeping tom pans or tilts the camera), the lack of a privacy shutter is disappointing. Older Logitech models come with a pivoting plastic cover that can obscure the lens.
The included software leaves much to be desired. While you still can capture video clips and take still photos, gone are the motion-sensor and internet webcam applications that the QuickCam software suite used to include. You must now buy third-party applications to set up a "nannycam" or share your webcam with the world. Most of the QuickCam menu is devoted to download links to MSN, Yahoo, and AOL instant messenger software. Two of the more interesting applications, VideoCall and MobileVideo, are not readily available. VideoCall, which lets you make two-way video calls over broadband, is still in development and requires you to sign up for the beta program. MobileVideo, which streams your cam video to a cell phone, works only for US Cellular (the company) subscribers. The menu option to install the program says, "View LIVE video on your Cellular Phone (US only)"--to me, I thought that meant that it only worked in the United States, not just for that specific carrier.
Overall Impressions and Recommendation
This camera is about 80 percent form over function. You'd want to shell out the $100 for this camera just for the "conversation piece" quality that its striking design offers. It's not a bad webcam, but for basically the same camera as a Logitech Pro minus the pan-tilt function, you're better off paying half as much for another Logitech. To me, this is just like, say, the iPod, that may not be technically superior, but it sure does look good. It's for that reason that I'm still willing to recommend this product, since I'm a sucker for good industrial design.
I've got to go now--Lord Vader called and wants his webcam back...
Product Specifications and Photos
Available on the manufacturer's web site at http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=4,contentid=7172,detail=2
Overview
That pretty much sums up the Logitech QuickCam Orbit WebCam, the latest in a long evolution of Logitech cams, which have always reflected the design styles at the time. From the putty-toned units of the 90's, to cartoon-inspired models, to the two-tone designs, and finally to the alien black designs of the Orbit, you can count on more or less the same camera electronics on the inside from Logitech.
There are three major things that distinguish the Orbit from it's predecessors of the QuickCam Pro line: color scheme, the extension stalk, and the pan/tilt/zoom function.
The color scheme is decidedly black and futuristic, with the base made up mostly of matte black material and most of the rest of the camera decked out in smooth, glossy black plastic. The front of the camera "ball" where the lens resides is a combination of clear and mirrored plastic that completely encloses the camera mechanism and lens (this is a departure from previous Logitech models that exposed the lens itself to dust).
Second, when first out of the box, the Orbit looks like any other webcam: a camera unit on top of a base. You can leave it in this form factor and just put it on top of your monitor, but it's much more striking when you detach the camera sphere and insert the supplied 8-inch extension rod (or what I call the "stalk"). This puts the camera at around eye level when the base is put on your desk. It also looks like something out of Star Wars with the sleek lines, mirrors, and black casing.
The last distinguisher is the pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) function that debuts in the Orbit. Using the software controls, you can move the camera mechanically 128 degrees from side-to-side and 54 degrees up-and-down. There's also an option to use "face tracking," which automatically moves the camera to keep your head centered in the frame. The zoom function is digital, not optical: while you can enlarge portions of the image, the resulting image quality is reduced as the software interpolates (aka guesstimates) the enlargement details.
The Orbit also includes a built-in microphone, eliminating the need for an external microphone attached to your sound card or computer microphone input. The specs say that it will capture video up to 640x480 resolution at up to 30 frames per second. It also takes megapixel resolution photos, although they are interpolated up from the same VGA resolution.
Installation
The installation process of the Orbit is very straightforward. After you install the QuickCam software and drivers off the included CD, you're prompted to reboot your computer. When your system restarts, you'll be prompted to plug the cam into a USB port. Once the camera is detected, you'll be walked through a tuning wizard that adjusts your audio and video settings.
My Observations of the Orbit
It works well as a webcam, but not as a camera replacement. Once the settings are tweaked (especially the color enhancement option), the Orbit's video capture is quite good. I had no problem using it with MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger for XP, and Microsoft NetMeeting. However, still photos, especially at the higher resolutions, look like they were taken on a webcam. The sharpness of the camera's CCD sensor is just not good enough to take anything but snapshots suitable for e-mail.
USB speed is USB 1.1, not 2.0. Although the packaging proclaims that the Orbit is "USB 2.0 Compatible," I was disappointed to discover that it's really just a slow USB 1.1 device. By the USB 2.0 specification, USB 2.0 should support backward compatibility, so this is just a marketing point. Logitech says that the camera is USB 2.0 compatible not USB 2.0 compliant. Semantics aside, this means that there is no improvement in image quality or frame-rate that might have been possible if the Orbit had a 480 megabit per second interface instead of just a 12 megabit per second one.
Pan-tilt mechanism is loud, flimsy, and ugly. The camera electronics mounted in the Orbit's sphere make a noticeable amount of noise when moved. There's also a loud power-on test that happens as your computer boots up. Shaking the unit at all makes the camera assembly rattle in a very disturbing way. Finally, the lens itself is mounted on a green circuit board with numbering stamped on it, and the whole thing is visible through the clear plastic of the camera sphere. It's an eyesore, especially when the rest of the camera is so striking.
Privacy light is red and there's no manual privacy shutter. Previous Logitech cams either didn't have a light that notifies you that the camera is active or their light was green. Orbit's is bright red. While this may help avoid someone becoming the victim of a voyeur (a deaf one, if the peeping tom pans or tilts the camera), the lack of a privacy shutter is disappointing. Older Logitech models come with a pivoting plastic cover that can obscure the lens.
The included software leaves much to be desired. While you still can capture video clips and take still photos, gone are the motion-sensor and internet webcam applications that the QuickCam software suite used to include. You must now buy third-party applications to set up a "nannycam" or share your webcam with the world. Most of the QuickCam menu is devoted to download links to MSN, Yahoo, and AOL instant messenger software. Two of the more interesting applications, VideoCall and MobileVideo, are not readily available. VideoCall, which lets you make two-way video calls over broadband, is still in development and requires you to sign up for the beta program. MobileVideo, which streams your cam video to a cell phone, works only for US Cellular (the company) subscribers. The menu option to install the program says, "View LIVE video on your Cellular Phone (US only)"--to me, I thought that meant that it only worked in the United States, not just for that specific carrier.
Overall Impressions and Recommendation
This camera is about 80 percent form over function. You'd want to shell out the $100 for this camera just for the "conversation piece" quality that its striking design offers. It's not a bad webcam, but for basically the same camera as a Logitech Pro minus the pan-tilt function, you're better off paying half as much for another Logitech. To me, this is just like, say, the iPod, that may not be technically superior, but it sure does look good. It's for that reason that I'm still willing to recommend this product, since I'm a sucker for good industrial design.
I've got to go now--Lord Vader called and wants his webcam back...
Product Specifications and Photos
Available on the manufacturer's web site at http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=4,contentid=7172,detail=2
