ianlm's Full Review: Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 Web Cam
The Logitech Quickcam Pro 4000 is a great webcam. The first thing I noticed after opening the box was the unit's modern good looks and sturdy build quality. Silver and black in design, the cam is made from high density plastics, and its weight is quite substantial for its size. The unit comes in 3 pieces, the cam, the base, and the privacy visor.
The cam attaches to the base with a somewhat loose "snap-in" type mechanism. While it is certainly stable enough for general webcam usage, it can be easy to detach when aiming the camera. The camera swivels 360 degrees on its base, and aims about 50 degrees up and maybe 40 down. The base itself is very well designed, and there is no wobble or movement at all when manipulating the cord, as is a problem with some other cams.
The privacy visor is a great feature, it simply flips down to cover the lens when not in use. When the cam is on with the visor down, you can discern movement in the video, but no details whatsoever. There is a button on top of the cam for snapping still shots, which can be very convenient when making use of the cam's 9 foot cable.
Installation was a breeze. Upon inserting the included installation CDROM, the program walks you through setting up all of the software, and for those who feel the need, there is an instruction manual included which details each step of the process for both Windows and Macintosh users. The CD installs the camera drivers, the ImageStudio software, and the IM Video Companion, which can be used to stream video from the cam through instant messaging applications such as Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger. Both parties involved must have the Video Companion software installed for it to work, however, since it is a free download from Logitech's website, this is not a major drawback. After the installation of the software is complete, the setup program instructs you to plug the cam's USB cable into your computer. It then recognizes it, and (for windows users at least..) after a reboot, you are good to go.
The cam comes with MGI PhotoSuite SE and VideoWaveSE, for editing photos and video respectively. I have not had the chance to use these, since I already had software to do both, but they are a nice addition for the newcomer to these worlds.
The camera comes with a nice monitoring and options tool which resides in your system tray, allowing you full control over the zoom level, brightness, contrast, saturation, and when zooming, the pan and tilt of the image. These can be set and will carry over to even 3rd party cam software, such as WebcamXP. The ImageStudio software allows you to record video, take still images (at 1 megapixel resolution!), and set up your own webcam broadcast. It is thorough and easy to use, although I found it to be crash-prone on my Windows 2000 machine(see bottom of review for machine specs).
Logitech claims that the cam can capture video at up to 30 frames per second at 640x480 resolution, and on my test machine it had no problem fulfilling that. Video was smooth and rich in colors. One of the best aspects of this cam is its performance in varying levels of light. It can be set to automatically adjust to light levels, and does so with flying colors, putting out a truly impressive image and video quality even in very low light.
All in all, this is a fantastic webcam, probably the best consumer webcam on the market right now. Great image and video quality in all light conditions, a comprehensive software suite, and easy to use.
Test Machine:
1 Ghz AMD Duron
512MB PC133 SDRAM
40GB 7200RPM Maxtor HD
32MB GeForce2 MX400
32/10/40x TDK VeloCD
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