Product Reviews

Webcams are nothing new. They've been around for almost a decade now. What is new, is that you can finally use one to have a decent video conversation over the Internet - as long, that is, as you have broadband. Old dial-up connections are too slow to transmit all the data you need to create a convincing and detailed video picture with sound. You end up with a jerky picture and stuttering audio. Not so with broadband, which has the capacity to send lots of information at once. The trouble is that many webcams are designed with dial-up in mind. They produce low-quality video that doesn't take advantage of your broadband connection's capacity.

According to Logitech, the Quickcam STX is specifically designed to provide

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high-quality video for webcam conversations over the Internet. We were surprised, this being the case, to seethat it's top video resolution is only 640x480, which is no higher than most webcams already on the market.

Our cynicism was, however, unjustified. The STX produces beautiful, clear, colourful video in a large screen area. Colours are natural and detail is well picked out. Even rapid motion doesn't cause the picture to break up or blur. This is the best webcam we've seen to date. Setup was easy too. You simply install the driver software, plug the camera in and you're done.

You don't get many extras with the STX, and the software provided is minimal. Logitech's QuickCam Centre allows you to take pictures and video, and to organise your clips and footage on your hard disk. You'll have to use MSN Messenger or another third-party program such as Yahoo! Messenger for video-conferencing - but these are available for free. You do, however, get a built-in microphone and a 2m USB cable. Between them these are far more important than any gimmicky software.

Despite not coming with many extras, the Logitech Quickcam deserves a Best Buy award on the strength of its video quality alone. Whatever purpose you want a webcam for, but especially for video-conferencing, we recommend you buy the STX.