Author: Edd

Webcam: Logitech QuickCam Communicate Deluxe (V-UBE43)

Rating: Poor (2 out of 5)

Date: 6 November 2024 at 20:08

Advantages of the webcam:
+ dirt cheap (albeit I found mine at a thrift store) + Works without issues, simple plug & play operation despite being so old (if Amazon is to be trusted, it first came out in 2007) + has a physical sliding privacy cover for the camera lens + the monitor mounting mechanism works quite well + camera can adjusted decently well, having both left/right rotation and up/down tilt

Disadvantages of the webcam:
- poor picture quality (granted, it is an old device) - only has manual focusing - specs flat out lie: apparently this should have a 1280x1024 (1.3mp) resolution, but all I've ever gotten out this thing is a measly 640x480, 0.31mp (unless the full performance is for some reason locked behind Logitech's software, which I haven't installed) - same for frame rate: should have 30fps, but the highest I've seen reported is 17fps - abysmal low light performance: drop the lighting even a bit and the frame rate quickly sinks to single digits - the device's main body is coated with the oh-so-fashionable rubberized grippy coating of its day, which with age goes sticky at best, and degrades to a horrid gloopy mess at worst

Author’s comment:
This test here reports there being no built-in microphone, but Windows does recognize the camera's mic as recording device and it seems to be working. No idea of quality though, presuming poor. While not *THE* worst thing ever, this is still pretty terrible by even last decade's standards. Though it does have its own sort of blurry, low resolution retro charm, I have to admit. Anyway, not something I'd be using in a serious manner. Taking the device's age into consideration, I feel it would be unfair to just slap it with an 'awful' rating, so 'poor' it is. If you want blurry lo-res retro, this could well be worth picking up for a few euros/dollars/what-have-yous, but for any kind of proper webcam, stay far, far away.