Review of Logitech Quickcam for Notebook / Driver Downloads

The Quickcam for notebooks is built around the same chipset as the quickcam messenger (see review here), and so has quite a similar performance. In design, it's reasonably similar to the ZCO301PL camera we sell, in that it will clip on to your laptop screen or LCD monitor. This short review will outline the features of the Logitech Quickcam for Notebook and provide a download for the webcam drivers.

Quick Links:
Drivers
Installing
Picture
Sound
Software

What to expect:

The notebook webcam comes in blister packaging that's quite hard to open...

Inside the box you'll find:
- Webcam
- Carry Case (pretty smart!)
- CD
- Instruction manual

Driver Downloads

The CD that comes with the quickcam notebook webcam says that Mac drivers are only available for Quickcam Zoom, Quickcam Pro 4000, Quickcam Orbit/Sphere or Notebook Pro. That means there's no mac driver for the Quickcam for notebooks I'm afraid.

Click here to download the Windows Driver for Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks

Installing the product

One of the good things about Logitec cameras is that they're really easy to install. Put the CD in, follow the instructions and then re-start your computer.

When you first re-start your computer, it asks you to plug in the webcam to your USB port

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New hardware found! Hooray!

Once installed, you've got these desktop icons on your screen. The one in the middle will launch the camera and enable to you do things like send video mail and take snapshots.

Picture Quality

The Quickcam Notebook does need a reasonable amount of light to get a good picture. I tested the camera at varying levels of brightness and came to the conclusion that in general, the more light there is the better the picture will be.

Clicking the small button on top of the webcam will launch AMCAP - a programme designed to work with any webcam.

The camera coped very well with showing light areas in the distance. Here it's capturing the view from my window.

When you plug the webcam after installation, the software will check to test the webcam is working properly. This was earlier in the morning when there wasn't any sun around. The webcam will perform much better in daylight, as I mentioned before. So if you're going to be stuck in a dark office this webcam might not be for you.

Sound

As with the other webcam I reviewed from Logitech, the sound quality is excellent. It's provided by a USB microphone which is heaps better than the microphone jack plugin type.

The mic is installed at the same time as the webcam

You also get a recording settings option within the Logitech software module:

V.useful.

Software

The software that comes with the Logitech cameras is actually very good. I'm always a bit sceptical installing software alongside drivers, but this stuff is well thought out and makes changing settings on the camera much easier than doing it through Amcap or the control panel.

When you open up the Quickcam software, this is what you see. I've just clicked on the VideoCall option there - it's a piece of software you can download as an option. Logitech then charges you about £30 a year to use it, you can make video calls to other people. I'm not sure what it's like, but I'd probably say it's just as easy to use MSN (the option above) which is free. Skype is also a pretty good alternative.I went on their website to have a look at the Videocall page and found this demonstration picture:

If it's even half as fun as that, then I'm tempted to buy it. (!)

What else can I tell you about the software, other than it makes everything a lot easier?

You can change the settings quite easily using that software module I showed before

There's a handy Logitech video email thing that helps you capture pictures, videos and send them via email to people.

Summary:

Overall, I'd say the camera is great if you're looking for a budget webcam that fits your laptop and you're not too concerned about using the webcam in dark situations. The microphone is a major bonus, and the software makes this webcam worth having in itself. If you're not terribly confident with installing hardware, or are buying the camera for someone who might not be, the logitech quickcam for notebooks is a good choice simply in virtue of its ease of use.

Recommendations:

- for a better picture quality you might consider the ZC0301PL (though the software and microphone isn't as good, although it is half the price and still clips to your laptop)

- for a cheaper Logitech, you might be interested in the Quickcam Messenger which has the same software but won't clip onto your laptop.