Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision USB Webcam Review

The front of the USB camera is decorated by an overly wide opening for the recessed glass lens on the left, and a silver Logitech logo on the right surrounded by a blue ring that lights up when the camera is active. Between the two is a reflective microphone grill that wraps around the entire circumference of the camera, separating white from silver.

When standing up, the QuickCam Ultra Vision is the size of two stacked shot glasses.

The mount on the QuickCam Ultra Vision is much like that found on the QuickCam Fusion, a flexible loop that serves as a counterweight to the bulk of the camera that's hooked onto the front of a monitor with a small edge. The mount works remarkably well on both CRTs and desktop LCDs, simply by flexing the loop so that it lies flat on a CRT or hooks to the back of the LCD to prevent rocking. Where the Ultra Vision differs from the Fusion however is the ability for the camera to tilt a total of 45°, allowing for a perfectly framed shot no matter how the monitor is positioned.

Unfortunately due to the inability of the loop to bend inward less than an inch, the QuickCam USB webcam is unsuitable for laptop users, as positioning the camera becomes a balancing act instead of firmly hugging the monitor, and it jitters just enough for an unstable picture when typing or tapping toes.

Streamlined Software
I'm happy to say that Logitech has improved their QuickCam software significantly since I last reviewed version 9. Logitech provides v10.0 on the installation CD, although a newer v10.4 is on their website that I have been using as the basis for this review. Rather than using the bulky tan windows that plagued the older version, the new QuickCam software is essentially nothing more than a colorful toolbar with a silver gradient background and slide-out windows for configuring a multitude of settings.

Three large icons dominate the compacted interface, providing a shortcut for launching the QuickCapture software, changing video effects, and changing the privacy shade. At the bottom are two smaller icons for muting audio and enabling the privacy shade, which essentially replaces the video stream with a static image of your choosing. A decent number of stock nature images are provided for this, although I found myself using my own Photoshop creations more frequently. When expanded, two additional large icons are revealed, one for opening the settings, and one for choosing applications, which is really nothing more than advertising a number of video editing, calling, and blogging services that are presumably Logitech's partners.

QuickCapture has also received a healthy interface refresh, while providing the same easy access to taking video clips and photo snapshots, then quickly emailing or printing them from the embedded gallery. In addition to basic photo and video capture, a number of small extra features are available for enhanced functionality. For example, photos can now be taken with a small timer that goes off after a configurable number of seconds, while the indicator ring blinks before the photo is taken. Unfortunately it does not blink faster or give any audio cues as the countdown approaches zero, but it's a nifty feature nonetheless. Additionally, watermarked timestamps can be automatically inserted into each snapshot in the bottom left corner.

Capturing video has a number of enhanced features as well, including recording after xx seconds, recording for a duration of xx seconds, whether or not to include audio, and the ability to add a watermarked timestamp (This doesn't show the time the video was taken, just the duration of the video). Also, it's possible record using motion detection with an adjustable threshold and a number of seconds to record after that threshold has been breached, although the software will still split the video by that number of seconds even if the motion is continuous. Captured video is outputted to WMV using the WMV2 codec.

Video may be captured at 320x240, 640x480, and 960x720. Photos may go beyond this at either native 1.3 Megapixel 1280x960, or interpolated (stretched) up to 2MP 1600x1200, 3MP 2048x1536, and 4MP 2304x1728. Noticeably absent from the resolution menu is 160x120 that appeared in previous versions of QuickCapture, as it's the only resolution with a default frame rate of 30fps. Other resolutions can be captured at 30fps, although only when manually specified through a 3rd party program such as VLC. Otherwise, they will default to 15fps.

Digital Enhancements
The QuickCam Ultra Vision continues the trend of face tracking, and judging by the improvements since last year's models, Logitech hasn't lost any focus on it either. There's a number of features that utilize this technology, the simplest being the aptly named "Face Tracking" that automatically zooms in on your face. Single and multiple user modes exist, for when you need to automatically frame the picture on more than one head. Stability for this has improved and as can be expected is more reliable when there's adequate light, although when even bordering on dim the face tracking becomes more a distraction than anything as it continues to zoom in and out like some poorly put together music video. That's why there's manual zoom and panning controls.

The other two main features are more funny than functional, and have likewise seen a great number of new additions since last year's QuickCam for Notebooks Pro review as well. I'm talking about Video Effects, and they're here to stay apparently. For those new to the trend, these include funky facial accessories such as pirate hats, novelty 2007 glasses, masks, roses, eyes, noses, horns, etc that constantly line up to your face, and fullscreen 3D avatars of yourself with everything from emo kids to skeletons and santas that mimic your every movement, including speech, eyebrows and winks. You can view them all at Logitech's site.

Just a Few of the Facial Accessories

I'm glad to say that Logitech has added a significant amount of these accessories and avatars to choose from, a testament to their long-term hilarity. In fact, throughout the duration of my review Logitech added no less than nine new accessories and 6 new full screen avatars, many geared towards the winter holidays. Again, these require decent lighting to be effective, otherwise the accessories will continuously blink on and off and avatars will just gaze away, but when working they always produce a laugh from the other party. Use them in moderation of course... :P

RightLight 2
One of the new features touted by the QuickCam Ultra Vision is RightLight 2, the successor to the original RightLight that's meant to cope with dim lighting. The new version is even more robust, taking on backlighting and even sidelighting to create the perfect picture. Why would someone care about this? Oh, I'm not sure, maybe it's because the majority of home users don't have halogen lights lining the walls and actually care that their face is more than a murky shade of black.

In any case, I'm delighted to say that the system works. Mostly. Well, there's an automatic mode that does a fairly decent job, but in some situations it's best to just turn RightLight 2 off and adjust the settings manually. There are 4 main sliders to fiddle with: low light saturation for de-saturating the extreme colors produced in dim lighting, low light boost, video noise for reducing the jitter in a dim environment by refreshing the rarely used areas of the picture less often, and spot metering, which adjusts the backlighting compensation and colors to best look at your face. RightLight will also automatically adjust exposure and gain to compensate for dim lighting at the expense of framerate as well.

Left to behave automatically, RightLight performs well, although the spot metering can be a bit off depending on your head's relative position in the picture. The GIF below is a before and after demonstration RightLight 2 automatically compensating for too much forelighting, with the brightest source of light being the East window in front of me in the morning. As you can see, when my head is towards the top of the frame, RightLight 2 will overcompensate and make me look like a pasty Michael Jackson. When my head is centered, the light is moderately tweaked and the end result does indeed look better. It should be noted that I can reproduce the results from the centered RightLight image manually, so changing the camera angle isn't necessarily a requirement.

Automatic Forelighting Compensation, Centered and Not

With the bright window behind me, RightLight 2 improved the picture with its backlight compensation so that I no longer looked like an informant's silhouette.

Automatic Backlighting Compensation

Sidelighting also saw a minor improvement, although not nearly to the extent that Logitech's website implies.

Automatic Sidelighting Compensation

Overly dim lighting saw a huge improvement as exposure time was automatically increased, although my framerates suffered as expected.

Automatic Dim Lighting Compensation

While not perfect, it's evident that RightLight 2 does indeed improve the picture significantly in a wide variety of lighting environments. The fact you're able to adjust each of the RightLight settings manually makes it that much better.

A/V Quality
In case you haven't noticed already, the picture quality on the QuickCam Ultra Vision is absolutely stunning. I have yet to see a webcam with the same sharpness and ability to adapt to a multitude of lighting environments (even with RightLight turned off). This can be attributed to the 5-element lens that Logitech is using in place of the usual plastic lenses that just about every other consumer webcam uses. Not only does it allow more light in, but the picture and color clarity is stunning, to the point where people actually point that out to me without my asking on Skype.

The only drawback to the lens is the fact that it's still fixed focus, making me wonder if Logitech ever plans on releasing an automatic or ring focus webcam again. This effectively ruins the ability of the QuickCam Ultra Vision to be used to take macro photos, although the focal range is still finely tuned for users sitting at arms length and other guests passing behind you.

Audio quality is also a treat, echo and noise cancellation doing fine jobs of masking the James Bond marathon in the next room and reducing hiss, while echo cancellation stopped one friend from hearing himself through my speakers on Skype, although he claimed to be able to faintly hear the beginning and end of a few phrases of his. That being said, it's safe to assume you can use the camera without the need for a headset. Unfortunately, audio quality was has slightly degraded since my last QuickCam review, as hissing produced from S sounds are more apparent than usual.

Recap
In the end I was left with nothing but good impressions of the QuickCam Ultra Vision. RightLight 2 did a mostly good job of sorting out a variety of extreme lighting situations both bright and dim, and when set manually is nothing short of excellent. The glass lens made a huge improvement in clarity while increasing the available light to minimize exposure time, allowing for higher framerates. The wide assortment of amusing face-tracking video effects saw improved stability, and audio quality, while degraded slightly, remains in the above average category. Highly recommended to any PC desktop user.