Logitech HD Pro Webcam for Windows, Mac, & Chrome

The camera itself is very nice for a webcam. With a maximum resolution of 15 MP, it is one of the highest quality cameras you can buy in this price range. The resulting photo quality is quite sharp, and well balanced. The downloadable software (more on that below), allows for automatic focus and gain, or manual control. I suspect most people will use this for video. In that setting, the software controls are rather limited. There is an option to pan the image in the software, and zoom in or out. Depending on the capture resolution, the range of zoom is varied. For example, at full 1080p, the zoom range is small (10mm maybe?) and only one step. However, at 360p, the zoom levels are much more granular and offer 15 steps with a much greater zoom (75mm estimated). Speaking of resolutions, the video capture resolutions are 360p (wmv, 15 fps, 330 Kbps), 480p (wmv, 15 fps, 840 Kbps), 720p (mp4, 30 fps, 3000 Kbps), and full 1080p (mp4, 30 fps, 4000 Kbps). The software also offers an option to follow ones face. It works pretty well, tracking fairly slowly, but still tracking. This feature only works in 360p or 480p resolutions. The camera has a nice grippy articulating monitor mount, that is a triple fold. It basically folds out as shown in the pictures and allows a pivot at the camera mount point, the base (that the camera is attached to), and the arm which rests on the back of the monitor. There is a little rubber foot at the bottom which also folds out to fully rest against the monitor and prevent slipping. In addition, the articulating mount also has the ability to mount the camera a small tripod. The camera unit itself is only 3.5 x 1 x 0.9 inch in size, much smaller than the image portrays, and only weighs a few ounces. The non-removable USB cable is approximately 6 feet in length. Speaking of the software, and everything just described, none of it is included. The package basically contains a single sheet of paper with some pictures showing how to fold the arm, and plug in the USB port. Any small child could figure that out. The other 8 pages of paper are the usual regulatory and warranty pages which make for great reading! The test PC was a dual 16 core Xeon setup with dual GTX 970 video cards, and 64GB of RAM running Windows 10 Pro. The part of setup was exactly as the hieroglyphics described - plug the thing into a USB port. In this case, it was plugged into Sabrent Premium 7 Port Aluminum USB 3.0 Hub (powered). First stop, Windows 10 picture for the logon. Click on Camera under Create your picture, and up pops the video preview. The image actually moved for a second or two, then froze. Hmm, close the window and re-open. Now it's black. Hmm, reboot, and try again. Same exact thing. Okay, it must need updated drivers. Off to Logitech's website and 5 minutes later, the drivers are located and downloaded. Run the setup. Error - your system doesn't meet the minimum recommended specs. Really? A super high-end, state of the art workstation is below spec? Reboot again. Try the install again. This time it doesn't complain (that's consistent). Now there is a pretty Logitech Webcam icon on the desktop. Yeah! Run that - there's a moving image now! It froze again. Close and re-open. It's black again. There is a theme here... Lets bypass the hub. Same result. Let's try a USB 2.0 port. It works now! Too bad they didn't put all of that in the hieroglyphic sheet! But wait, there is no recorded sound. Hmm, another reboot and now Windows is complaining about additional security setup is required. Ugh, okay let's wait for another dialog to churn on checking for updates (there weren't any). That didn't help. Drill into Windows sound settings. The camera microphone is selected and enabled. The level is set to 50% - still not audio recorded to video. Cranking the level up to 90% seems to show sound activity. Back to the recording screen and try again. Success. Now let's review the masterpiece. Hmm, sounds like it was recorded in a coffin. Check the Logitech settings and yes, it is set to DVD quality (48 kHz). However, the microphone level is set to near zero. Guess what? The control is disabled. Now that it's working, run some more tests. Why isn't the zoom working? Clicking does nothing, why is facial tracking greyed out? A long story even longer, the GUI is terrible. Often, there is no indication why something is not working or is disabled. Eventually it can be figure out through trial and error but do I really want to spend 30-60 minutes trying to debug something that should work out of the box? If an IT person has to mess with to figure it out, what chance does someone's grandparents have? Okay enough, let's just get the facial logon in Windows working (one of the Amazon answered questions said it would work). What, what? Windows Hello isn't showing up in the logon options. Guess what? It is not capable of using Windows Hello. After researching this, it is apparent it wouldn't work, because it lacks the required infrared sensors that Windows 10 Hello facial recognition requires. In summary, the camera is good, the connection interface however, is not. The audio is terrible relative to the camera, and relative to any cheap PC microphone. The lack of software or even basic instructions for getting it working are glaring. The sheer amount of technical effort to get it to work reliably means it is not reliable. For nearly $100 retail, one would think that this camera should incorporate realsense so it would work with Windows 10 Hello. While the physical form factor is good, and the camera quality is good, it is a very unstable, and therefore a poor recommendation. One star for the form factor, and one star for the camera quality. I do not recommend this camera for anyone running Windows 10 (as of the time of this review). Perhaps software updates will address these issues but I encourage any prospective shopper to drop in on the Logitech support forums to see the myriad of other users complaining about the same problems.