Read reviews on Logitech QuickCam Communicate Personal Web Camera 

Logitech QuickCam Communicate Personal Web Camera
Author's Rating: 3/5 stars

About the Author

yellowshock
a member of Epinions.com

Reviews written: 22
Average quality optics, BAD drivers

Pros: Cheap, reasonable quality (still better than most Labtec entry level junk)
Cons: Bad Drivers Mediocre road optics
 
The bottom line: If you can find this under 30$ then go ahead and buy it. For 30$ it is not worth it.
 
Full review

This camera is of reasonable quality given the price range (around 30 bucks). There is an STX version, I don't know what the difference is, that goes for more and apparently is better quality.
The optics are 'fuzzy' meaning that if I compare it to my other cams (I am a cam fetishist), then the Intel Pro and the Philips Vesta are of considerably better optical quality.

The housing is also kinda flimsy: the head won's stay int he proper position and requires frequent twisting and repositioning. Also, the head-to-foot connection is not very solid. Sometimes, when readjusting the can, the ball pops off.

My real grief is the drivers: they are sooooo top heavy for a simple webcam that they noticeably increased the response times of my P3 1.2ghz laptop.

What is also annoying is that they load a ton of start up drivers that make my cpc boot take twice as long and for no reason: this is a WEBCAM, people, not some critical hardware that needs to be in memory 24/7.

When I removed the driver none of my other cams would properly connect without removing them from hardware and re-loading them, making me think Logitech removes shared DLL's when uninstalling.
All in all I rate this cam low because of the low quality optics and the crappy-drivers.

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