Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 review

For around £55, the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 is a great fit for both laptops and desktops. Its flexible, two-hinged stand works equally well resting directly on your desk or atop your desktop's LCD or your laptop's screen.

Design
Unlike other webcams that droop forward or lean to one side somewhat regularly, there were no such problems with the QuickCam Pro 9000. The camera is oriented horizontally, with the lens to the left and the mic on the right.

The two-hinged stand can be manoeuvred to stand up on top of a desk or so that the camera sits on top of a narrow LCD. A rubber mat covers each potential contact point, meaning that the webcam will rest firmly in place in a variety of positions. And the stand is made of thick, heavy plastic, which provides enough counterweight to keep the webcam from being easily jostled.

Features
Logitech's RightLight technology provides a well-balanced, vibrant and clear image -- even in low light. While Creative's Live Cam software has more features, unless motion capture surveillance or time-lapse webcam photography interest you, you're better off with the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. With its easy-to-use software, stellar image quality and sturdy, flexible stand, it earns our praise.

Installation is straightforward. Install the bundled QuickCam software and then plug in the webcam. An audio-tuning wizard lets you optimise the volume for audio input (microphone) and out (speakers).

You can adjust sliders for brightness, contrast, colour intensity and white balance, but we found the best results by enabling RightLight and leaving it at that. We found many complaints online about installation hiccups, particularly with Window XP machines, but we experienced no trouble installing the QuickCam software and drivers on either Vista or XP. The QuickCam 11.0 software that came on the bundled CD presented no such difficulties.

Also, be sure to close out of the QuickCam software when using the webcam to video conference with a program like Skype. We had a conversation repeatedly come to an abrupt end until we noticed the tiny QuickCam icon staring at me from my PC's system tray and closed it.

The QuickCam Pro 9000 also features a 2-megapixel sensor. It can record video up to a resolution of 1,600x1,200 pixels and can snap still photos up to 8 megapixels. Keep in mind, anything above 2 megapixels comes by way of software interpolation, which degrades quality.

The QuickCam Pro 9000 doesn't put AF into its model name like Creative's Live Cam Optia AF, but it does have an autofocus feature. It's slow to react when recording video at any of the available HD resolutions (960x720 pixels and up), but does a reasonable job of keeping your talking head in focus. The microphone does an acceptable job of picking up audio -- just be sure you're not sitting to close to the webcam.