Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision Webcam

Posted by John P on February 26th, 2007 Comments Printer-Friendly

Logitech’s history of webcams goes way back to 1995 when the QuickCam was originally developed by a company named Connectix. Logitech later purchased the QuickCam product line in 1998 and has been innovating in the webcam industry ever since. Today, I take a look at their latest high-end offering, the QuickCam Ultra Vision.

The QuickCam Ultra Vision is a high-end webcam from Logitech that aims to be the best in every aspect, and it does live up to the hype as we expected from such a great company. In the box is the webcam unit, a CD with the QuickCam software, and a user’s guide. The QuickCam Ultra Vision can be attached to your flat-panel LCD monitor through it’s built in mount, or positioned on top of your CRT monitor by flexing it back. The Ultra Vision was easy to setup: mount it on top of your monitor, install the software, and plug it in via the attached USB cable. Once that was done, we were up and running.

The UltraVision has a 1.3 megapixel sensor, with super-fine and accurate detail, an activity light when the webcam is active, a built in microphone, as well as a snapshot button for taking quick snapshots.

Some unique technology is built into the camera, dubbed RightLight 2. This technology automatically adjusts the video settings for the webcam in low and uneven lighting, adjusting it for the best possible quality during your video chat between you and a friend. The QuickCam software includes the basic photo and video capturing, but also has some great fun effects. The first effect allows you to transform yourself into a full animated character, such as a shark or cat and synchronizes your face and mouth movements with the character. The second allows you to add face accessories to your face, like a scuba mask, eye glasses, a mustache, or a crown.

We found that these features were somewhat flaky depending on the lighting in the room, even if the RightLight 2 technology was used. The face accessories and animated characters often jumped around on screen looking for a face to “attach” to, cool concept nonetheless. The video quality was amazing, and crystal-clear, one of the best quality webcams we’ve seen within the past say, two or three years. On the flipside of things, the audio quality was great and easy to hear.

In conclusion, the QuickCam Ultra Vision from Logitech is a must-buy for computer users that often find them wanting to step out of the box and video chat with friends and family. Logitech also offers lower-priced webcams for users on a budget, sacrificing quality and features. The QuickCam Ultra Vision is available for $129.99 at all major brick-and-mortar stores, as well as online at Amazon.com.

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