Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 Mini Review
Tired of my long lasting Logitech “Orb” webcam which which worked but the mechanical movement broke I decided to replace it with Logitech’s latest web cam. The old camera was pre carl zeiss lense but it did the job. What failed was the physical rotate and panning. Every time I started the computer it would centre itself but make a very loud clicking sound like two plastic cogs slipping against one another.
There was no natural successor with real advancement on that model and I hardly used the electronically controlled rotate / face tracking feature so the next main thing I use a web cam for was it’s microphone. The C910 has stereo recording which means there are two separate microphones built in to record left and right sounds independently.
Another factor I considered was it must be able to sit / mount on top of the monitor. I have two flat screen monitors which means there is not a lot of perch space on top like a CRT. With the Orb, I had to place it to one side (which a friend did complain about). so that it would not obscure the monitors or the controls of the monitor.
Enough of my reasoning of the purchase and lets get down to the product itself. The Camera is proclaimed to be HD where my first Skype season was immediately noticed by the other person. I only had a small PIP so the quality once shrunk to fit the PIP window looked the same as the previous camera. There was not much difference in terms of quality from the audio stand point.
The Camera has a three point folding stand so it can be bent into a triangle like shape for free standing or folded over a the top of the monitor. The camera’s stand was not very practical over the monitor. The pictures on the website shows the camera on top of a monitor using it’s stand folded into a non complete triangle. In my case the monitor depth was too deep but luckily fitted in the cut out grove of the stand. It sits in the grove quite sturdily but I’m still concerned it will fall off. A bit of blue tack should do the trick.
The software for the camera also contained controls to pan and rotate as well as face tracking. This seemed odd because there did not look like there was any mechanical movement available in such a thing unit. As it turns out it did not physically move but in order for it to work you need to (digitally) zoom in cropping the picture and the movement is purely to show the cropped part of the picture.
Other software features include effects such as black and white, sepia, etc and also ability to change the background.
The start up and initialization time was very quick. The old camera took ~30 seconds before it was operational. The C910 is more or less instant.
Overall it was a good buy but I wish the mount was more sturdy and flexible in design.
