Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac (Black)

First thing is that this is new technology which works with the built in UVC drivers. I know Leopard includes them for Intel Macs, I'm not sure about earlier versions of the OS or Power PC Macs so users of older machines/software are advised to do a bit of research or even post on the Logitech forums. If you have fairly recent hardware and are running Leopard this camera gives the best picture I've ever encountered on a Mac. I'm using it on my Mac Pro quad core. Excellent picture, as good a frame rate as the using software allows. For iChat that's about 15 fps which is enough for reasonably responsive image. Skype can be better, up to 30 fps but the cost is greater bandwidth needed for transmission. You will find that products which you might expect to work such as PhotoBooth don't or only give you about 5fps. That's because the software was written to use a built in web cam or FireWire and the UVC compliant camera isn't yet fully supported. You can take stills but not movies except with the jerky 5 fps limitation. You can use a third party little app called WebcamTweaker.app to capture movies from this camera. Prior to this cam I was using a Logitech 9000 Pro which gave an equally good image but lacked the built in auto focus and light adjustments. It was limited to the 5 fps which this QuickCam for Mac has eliminated. We are only limited any more by applications which fail to make use of the abilities built into this cam. For me it was a five star purchase.

This is a great webcam. We use it with Skype and the beta FaceTime application, allowing us to chat with iPod/iPhone users over FaceTime. Image quality is great, and the camera does indeed adjust automatically for light level. Even in a very dark room we get a good image. Auto focus works well, too. Note that image quality depends in part on the computer the camera is attached to. We originally used this with a 10-year-old 1 GHz PowerMac G4, and the image quality, while not bad, wasn't as good as it could be. We recently upgraded to a more modern computer, and the image quality is vastly improved. Sound quality is decent. It's more than adequate for chat uses. People do not have difficulty understanding us when talking using the microphone. If you're an audiophile, even for something like chatting, you'll probably want to get a dedicated mike. The microphone can also be used by itself to record audio (using Audacity, for instance), which is nice. The camera is Mac-compatible, true, but all Logitech sells you is the camera. It's up to the built-in drivers in MacOS to use the camera. There's no other software provided by Logitech that would give you more features or "bells and whistles". So there's no software control: you can't manually adjust settings. There's a button on the side of the camera that does nothing. My understanding is on the PC version of this camera that button allows you to take still photos. It'd be nice if Logitech gave us software that provides more control.

I'll start by getting all the PROs out of the way. In terms of sharpness, picture quality, color, this is the best webcam I've ever used. Definitely better than iSight cameras. I just plugged this into my USB port and all of my video apps, instantly recognized it. Zero set up required. (I tested this with iChat, Skype, FaceTime, GoogleTalk, Yahoo Messenger, Quicktime Player) The autofocus usually keeps me in focus and my background soft. (sometimes I need to my my face really close to the camera and wait for it to focus on me) It automatically senses low-light environments, and boosts the brightness/contrast of your image so you are visible. Now for the bad news. All the great features only work some of the type. There is definitely a glitch/bug with this webcam that has affected several users (check out logitech's forums). There is no rhyme or reason of when the webcam works or not. I can open up iChat, and the webcam will work fine. I close iChat, and open it up 10 minutes later, and instead the image is 80% black...barely visible. Other times, I will just get an error message saying that no webcam is detected. Since the autofocus and light-sensors are all hardware based, there are no software updates or patches for this device. The only solution I (and others) have found is to unplug and plug the webcam into the USB port. You have a 1 of 3 chance that it will work fine. (the other choices being super dark, or not recognized at all) My webcam is plugged into the back of my desktop tower, so I have to crawl under my desk to unplug and plug it in. A pain in the butt. Also, this product claims to have 720p video recording. The resolution is indeed 720p (although picture quality isn't as good as a 720p YouTube video or 720p on an iPhone 4), but the real problem is that the webcam doesn't have the horsepower to shoot 720p at a normal framerate. So you end up with a stuttery, strobe-effect...which essentially makes the 720p video useless. There aren't many webcams available for the Mac (besides Apple's own iSight) This webcam is still the best in terms of picture quality and hopefully Logitech releases some type of fix from their website.

Very good video and sound quality. Plug-and-Play installation. Easy to test and configure on a Mac using Skype or Yahoo Messenger. I'm glad I waited for this Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac instead a Windows cam. All I needed was a quality combined webcam / microphone for my G4 PowerBook - no need for special effects. This cam had to work well in low light conditions, and with slower internet connections when I travel. I've been using it for 5 days with Skype on DSL, and both my US and international contacts are receiving very good quality sound and image. Although it has no built-in stand, it can actually be set on a flat surface or gently clipped above the screen. Since there is no driver software, it is missing the face-tracking features of the Pro 9000, and there can be lags with a lot of movement. Not an issue for me since I'm using this in a static setting. It also is missing Logitech's RightSound, but my contacts are hearing me clearly. No snapshot button or digital zoom. HD video can be up to 1600 X 1200 pixels, which may be a little better than the 9000. I haven't tested video recording using third-party software. No travel pouch. In all - not many extra bells and whistles, but an excellent choice for Mac users who want an instant set-up, quality webcam.

I can't say much, because I only used it once so far. Much to my surprise though, this Logitech Quickcam Vision Pro for Mac worked just fine. I am surprised because almost everything I have read, said that it doesn't work on a Mac that's running Snow Leopard. Saw something on a Logitech help site that gave me the impression that it just might. As soon as I got it, I just plugged it in to the USB port on the front of my Mac Pro (early 2009 version,quad core, running Mac OS 10.6.2), restarted the computer (which may not have even been necessary), and went to a chat site. Oh, I don't know if it makes any difference to anyone that I have internet through my Bright House cable. I clicked on the button to turn on the webcam, selected the option referring to USB webcam, and it came right on. The picture looked clear and sharp. I moved around and didn't see any significant blur or jerkiness to how I looked. I turned the light down to see if it bothered the webcam any, but it still seemed fine and the picture was good. Unless I am missing something, there doesn't seem to be any sort of option for setting controls with regard to the picture. Right now though, I'm not sure if that even matters. I'm just happy that it seems to work fine on my Mac, without me having to use a Windows webcam inside the virtual PC I have running in it. Believe me, if this thing disappoints me, you will all hear about it. For now though, looks good to go. (update 12-5-09)... Ok, now, not so happy with this webcam. I haven't tried the microphone yet. The picture is decent. The video is pretty smooth. In low light, it corrects the picture and it ends up looking good. BUT, so far, finding that it doesn't work that well with the chat site I have tried it on. Either my cam shows black, or I don't show up in the room list as having the cam on when it is, or if I turn it off and on the cam stops working right. I don't know if it's the chat site, or it's because of the less than complete compatibility with Mac's Snow Leopard that I have been reading about wherever I can find a review. It works, SOMETIMES. For me this goes down to 3 stars, and I can't honestly recommend it to anyone wanting a webcam for a Mac. I'm also a little disappointed that years later, after my first Mac long ago, and after spending a TON of money on this computer, that Apple STILL has these compatibility issues. Because Apple has webcams of its own built into their own very expensive (horribly glossy) monitors, I do have to wonder if there is a profit motive behind this poor compatibility issue between Snow Leopard and anyone's webcam other than their own.

I received this product in a hand wrapping of bubble wrap around the cam in a store bought ziplock baggy type bag. It was not in the factory sealed Logitech box. The vendor puts a picture of the Logitech box right on the webpage and had a section of "What's in the box?" The list below are items that you do not get other than the camera and the cable. This is clearly false advertising. Package Contents Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam with 6-foot USB cable Universal clip Logitech Vid for Mac software 2-year limited warranty The camera came from a distributor called NetSalesDirect.com. I emailed the vendor, Bergkamp and he stated that it was overstock. After ordering from Overstock.com for over 10 years, I can say that I have always seen overstock in it's factory sealed and original packaging. Here are the catches: 1) There is no proof that this is new. It did not come in the Logitech box. It came in a non-factory bag (you can buy product bags in bulk when you want to make your own products and this is what he used) and it was not factory sealed - just glue sealed. Catch-22 here, if I open it and it does not work then I cannot prove that it was broken before I received it like you can with a factory sealed item. For the record, I did not open the baggy in hopes that he will see that the glue strip is intact. 2) I cannot get my warranty because there is not a registration card that normally comes with Logitech products. 3) There was no CD to download the software. I realize that I can get it off the internet but again, this shows that it probably is not new. I sent it back to Bergkamp and am awaiting my refund. He said that he has to check to see if it works first before he sends my refund. I am crossing my fingers that it does since I did not use it at all and could not verify that it worked. He received it on May 27th. I called Amazon to verify that they have had satisfactory business from him and was not pleased to hear that they do to inspect vendor creations of their webpage template. I would imagine that of they did, they would have caught that he is not truthful about the "in the box" claim. Amazon had no complaints about him so again, I will wait to see if he refunds my $200. I will update this after I receive word from him.

i found this product to be exactly what i wanted something new enough but not too new to use on skype at this point. i have a mini mac running snow leopard 10.6.6 it literally just plugs into a usb port on my mac and starts working with quicktime or skype once you set up the account first. but yeah you can use quicktime and just attach your little videos to emails which will be huge file size because its video, but it works great. the universal clamp works pretty good too yet i taped mine to the back of the monitor just with clear box tape. the only reason i did this is because i'm turning my monitor 180 degrees a lot to watch movies so i did not want the webcam to fall. but if your not doing that the arm works just fine on top of my flat panel hanspree hdmi monitor. the price and the ease alone is worth the purchase. don't know about the pc world of it but probably works well if you get the one made for the pc specifically. my images look clear and I can add a little light in my room or go without it works good either way. mic works fine, so great job logitech on this little webcam good day

The video is very good and the ease of setup awesome. I have the Mac version and it worked excellently. The audio is OK. There were some problems but I don't know if it was because of Skype or the webcam. The problems were that sometimes the video would stop and the audio was a little choppy but my brother on the other side had the same problems and a different webcam so it seems to be a Skype problem. Overall I like this product. I really like the way it sits on my computer and I can get great video by just sitting in front of it and seeing myself so I know it is working well and the video is really clean and clear.