I purchased the Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks (same as model depicted) for $9.99 after rebates on Buy.com. I thought to myself, what a fantastic price. What's there to lose? My original plan was to place this webcam on top of my flatscreen LCD monitor. I thought to myself, well, if it clips to a laptop, maybe it will clip to a flatscreen monitor. After I received the webcam, the first thing I found out is that the clip is does not open very wide. So when they say for notebooks, they mean it! The clip opens to a little less than half an inch. It's designed to clip onto the top of a laptop screen.

The second thing I noticed is that the webcam will NOT stand up on its own. It must be clipped to something. That was a little disappointing since there are many other laptop webcam models that WILL stand on their own without being clipped to a laptop. So again, when they say for notebooks, they mean it! This webcam is not meant to be sitting on a flat surface.

Discouraged, I looked for somewhere to clip the webcam. I brought it over to my other desktop where I have a printer on the table with a "lip" that the webcam can clip onto. So I clipped the webcam to my printer and noticed that the USB cable from the webcam is just a little under 2.5 feet. So the USB cable will not reach from the top of my desk to the bottom of my desk where the CPU is. That's when it hits me. This is a webcam for notebooks... have I mentioned that yet?

So finally I brought it to my laptop. I carry the laptop around my house so it wasn't where I had planned to use the webcam. But since it's got a short USB cord and cannot stand up on it's own, I'm going to try it on my laptop. That's when it hit me... Wow, what a fantastic laptop webcam!

Several things make it a great webcam for laptops
1. The webcam is very very small. The webcam itself is about the size of a 9 volt battery.

2. Very lightweight and sturdy feeling. In my experience, logitech makes very sturdy webcams. The webcam I am replacing is a 8 year old Logitech webcam that still works perfectly.

3. This webcam comes with a mesh pouch to store the webcam in. The pouch is about 3 by 2 inches. I've found it very handy. Since it's a webcam for a laptop, you're going to find yourself putting it away very often. If you close the lid to your laptop and the webcam cannot sit on a flat surface, you'll end up putting it away. So the pouch is actually very very nice to have.

4. Have I mentioned that it's got a short USB? :) The short USB cord is nice for laptops because you don't want 6 feet of cable dangling behind your laptop. The USB cable is also thin which is important. Some webcams have the thick USB cables which are heavy and can make it hard for you to adjust where your camera is pointing. There's a velcro strip attached to the cord so that you can wrap up the cord for storage or for shortening the cord.

5. There is a built in microphone on the webcam like on most webcams. The microphone picks up sound quite well. It's very sensitive and I had to adjust the settings to eliminate background noise. Since it's a laptop webcam, keep in mind that if you're not using a headset, the microphone may be quite close to the speakers which will produce an echo. I would suggest considering using a headset to eliminate the echoing.

6. Standard to most webcams is a picture button. This webcam is no different. At the top, there is a inconspicious little button that can be used for photo snapshots. There's also a little light that lights up when the webcam is broadcasting.

7. Picture quality is excellent! The webcam features a glass lens. Some webcams use a plastic lens so the picture is not quite as clear. The ring around the lens is referred to as the focus ring. You can turn the focus ring to adjust the focus and clarity of the picture. The focus ring feels like it's webcam of great quality. Some webcams out there the focus ring feels loose and junky (like one too many turns will strip out the plastic treads)

8. The camera while clipped to your laptop tilts up and down. The clip is very sturdy. It doesn't feel like it would break anytime soon. The inside of the clip is lined with rubber grips so that it will not scratch or mark your latop.

9. The camera looks great. It's sleek and very compact. The one I got was silver.

10. Easy installation.

Now to the nit-picky...

1. It is a 1.3 Megapixel camera. The standard webcam is now 2.0 Megapixel. Keep in mind that for web video, you are limited by the software anyhow. So most programs only broadcast maximum at 640 X 480 at 30 frames per second. So the megapixel will not effect the quality of your video. The lower megapixel will only effect the quality when you use it to take photos.

2. I did later look on other sites for this product. It turns out that the Logitech QuickCam is also sold in other bundles. I saw a bundle that came with a little stand for the webcam as well as a basic one-eared headset. However, there was no rebate available thuis probably not worth the higher price.

3. The software is mediocre. Logitech bundles with the webcam some software to enhance your webcam abilities. With the software, you can adjust your image. There are also functions to have the webcam follow your face. There are some fun applications to distort your image. I rarely use the software but for some, it may be fun to play around with.

4. It would be nice it there was a shutter that you can physically pull down. Some older webcams have a little cover that you can pull over the lens just to be 100% sure that the webcam is not showing anything you don't want to show. :) There is however a little broadcast light that lights up when the webcam is on. It's just easier to put a sticky note over the camera sometimes. :)

In conclusion, a fantastic webcam for a notebook! If you do decide to purchase it, you can usually find it after rebate between $9.99 to $18.