Home Gaming Digital Lifestyle Cheats Downloads Upcoming Product Finder
79%
PROS
Great audio, fluid video locally and when using Windows Messenger, good face tracking feature, excellent design.
LOWS
Hit or miss depending on computer, light filter made everything too choppy, poor IM capabilities.
OVERALL
With a new set of drivers, the Logitech QuickCam Zoom would be a killer. For IM programs, the QuickCam won't work out.
 |
|---|
Being able to see the person you are instant messaging to is a real step up from just typing to them. Most of the people that I instant message with do not own web cams or are just too lazy to set one up. What they don't realize is how much they can change the way you interact with people over the Internet. If you get a new guitar, why not use your web cam to show them in real time instead of taking a picture? Web cams with microphones add in the multimedia option of sound, taking interaction to new heights. Logitech makes many web cam devices, but today we are going to talk about the QuickCam Zoom. Proving web cams have flaky tendencies but can also work out great in the end, the QuickCam Zoom is one webcam you may want to consider buying.
Before I get into the actual testing of the QuickCam Zoom, I would like to talk about its physical characteristics. This is quite possibly the best designed web cam I have ever seen. There are so many good physical features about it that make it easy to use and practical. The circular camera ball sits on a triangular base. The circular ball is the part of the web cam that actually contains the lens, the snap button, and the microphone. The triangular base has three pads on the bottom of it which allow the surface the webcam sits on to receive no scratches. There is a slight neck that attaches the ball of the webcam to the triangular base. This is one of the best parts about the QuickCam Zoom. This neck can rotate and move, allowing you to manually rotate the camera or tilt it to focus in on anything you would like. This neck can rotate a full 360 degrees, so your friend won't miss a thing!
 |
|---|
There is a removable “privacy shade” included with the camera. In case you are doing something you would not like your friend to see, slip the privacy shade over the lens, and all they will see is a comforting black. If you have nothing to hide, you can simply remove the privacy shade and be done with it. Because of its simplicity yet practical design, the QuickCam Zoom does a great job in its physical characteristics.
Now on to the testing. I tried three different instant messaging programs with the QuickCam Zoom: AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and Windows Messenger. All three had very different results. I tried the QuickCam Zoom on two different computers; one didn't work at all, and the other worked perfectly... well kind of. Once again, the word flaky comes to mind.
The first computer I installed the QuickCam Zoom on was a desktop PC running Windows XP with an AMD processor. It truly surpassed the minimum system requirements. My first step was to install the included quick cam software. I then rebooted the computer and plugged the camera in following the on screen instructions. I got the heart-warming message that my hardware had been installed successfully, and got ready to start instant messaging. Before trying out a program, I went to My Computer and clicked on the icon for QuickCam Zoom. This went to an explorer window with a picture screen for the webcam. Everything looked great; the picture quality was decent and the video fluid. I was excited to test the programs. My first test was AOL. I tried using the camera to no avail; I got nothing. I tried to connect with multiple users, and each time, an acceptance for video chat would come up, and then just go away. There was no picture whatsoever. After feeling a bit discouraged, I tried Windows Messenger. This time around, I still got nothing. Users were able to accept my invitation for a video chat, but the picture was black. I made sure that the camera was working locally and tried the My Computer ordeal again. Everything looked perfect. Then I went on to Yahoo Messenger. Similar to the Windows Messenger test, Yahoo allowed users to accept my invitation, but only showed a black picture. I was going to cry.
