Microsoft Q2F-00013 LifeCam Studio

--- BEWARE I DO NOT RECOMMEND UPDATING THE FIRMWARE IF PROMPTED --- I give Microsoft a C-minus for effort on this one. The good is that it worked when it was first plugged in to the PC. The bad is that I installed the newest software Microsoft released since the manufacturing of the device, and it left the webcam broken. My customer support experience was terrible. Read below for details, or click over to the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, 1080p Webcam for a device that is not only functional, but actually has some major features that this Microsoft Lifecam Studio is lacking. It arrived, and does not include a disc with drivers or software. The packaging encourages you to hop over to Microsoft.com to download their Lifecam software (not worth the money they paid their software engineers to develop it). I plugged in the webcam before installing the software, and it worked great. Then I followed Microsoft's instructions and installed the latest firmware. Ordinarily I wouldn't have bothered, but firmware updates are released to fix bugs encountered after distributing a hardware product. The bad thing is that firmware (in lay computer user terms) is the software stored INSIDE the hardware. It is the programming that allows it to actually start-up and function for you. As you read earlier, I performed the update and it broke the camera so that it no longer displays video. It outputs a solid black picture to any device it is connected to. There is no solution to this, with exception to Microsoft releasing a newer firmware update that outlines it fixes their faux pas. You know, mistakes happen. I was just a little bummed out and thought "shoot, well guess this has to go back." Then I decided I should have due diligence and research the topic. Surely if I had this experience another customer must have. This left me very disappointed because on Microsoft's own support site they have forum posts describing this EXACT issue for this exact model. Just no resolution or even reply stating they're working on a solution. One post was from a Top Contributor (maybe MS employee??) that said "I suggest you start a new thread due to the age of this one" ... This made me lose all hope, so I am having to return the camera to Amazon. The other stuff you should know; The cheaper and supposedly lessor capable Microsoft LifeCam Cinema actually will leave you with the same quality video experience with most programs. I can't say that the advertising for the Lifecam Studio model is false, but it's borderline. This model, the "studio", boasts being 1080p HD (True High Definition). This camera only takes single frame photos at that resolution/quality. In most situations this camera will only provide you with a 720p HD experience, just as the afore mentioned Lifecam Cinema model. Unless you have a HD computer screen with a resolution of 1600x1080, the video recipient on the other end needs to have this technology, otherwise they'll never see the difference. For highly technical people this matters (and they wouldn't have read this far). For the normal office video conference of 1-2 guys to someone in a remote office, or to video call your kid in college - a 720p camera is great. If you still want to have the absolute best quality video, so that just in case the person on the receiving end gets the sharpest quality video of you ... You'll want a camera like the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, 1080p Webcam. It's stereo microphone, and true 1080p video recording/live streaming ability at 30 frames per second is far superior. From what I read this Logitech model handles the High Definition processing on the 'hardware side', inside the camera. In the long run this makes me believe it will take longer to become dated technology, and have a wider compatibility of uses. It's also in the same price bracket.