Customer Reviews

Logitech Quickcam Fusion (961403-0403)

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(75)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I use two other Logitech webcams and have been very pleased with them. My attraction to the Fusion stememd from its size, the 1.3 megapixel sensor, promised improvement in low light situations and the the promised echo-cancelling audio.

On the whole the Fusion is a competent perormer. The form factor is a pleasure. It is very compact and looks good. Best of all is the mounting which molds very nicely to support the webcam on a laptop or can be set up to sit atop a monitor or other flat surface. Overall a very well thought out design.

The camera mounted microphone coupled with Logitech's echo-cancelling technology works extremely well. If you've used other webcams, you know that the audio from your speakers is picked up by the webcam mike and repeated to whoever you're chatting with . . . which can drive everyone crazy. The Fusion microphone appears somewhat directional. Since the echo-cancelling feature works only with another Fusion user, my testing was limited to movies recorded on my computer. I was truly surprised by the quality of the audio.

Image quality gets a mixed review. Overall it is good, but the Fusion uses a fixed focus lens. The near-focus point on my Fusion appears to be set just a few inches further back than where I normally sit while at my laptop. Thus the pattern on my shirt is in sharp focus, but my face being closer to the webcam is not. I have found nothing in the manual, online or Logitech site help files addressing this issue. I am attempting to contact Logitech in hopes that my webcam is simply a bit off and needs to be replaced. If this is not the case, then reluctantly the Fusion may be returned. With all the attention given to ergonomics, it is curious that Logitech provides no manual focus and demands that you sit at an uncomfortable distance from the monitor. I have long arms, but would have to sit still further away than I do to keep my face in focus with the Fusion. This is, in my opinion, a serious design defect.

Logitech's customer support is also a drawback: they really don't seem to have anything than a relatively few self-serving FAQs and a user forum that is poorly organized. I am not lowering my rating of the product because of this since I have owned many Logitech products without ever requiring support. But the novice user might find this lack of support to be a major negative. On the other hand, I don't know if any other webcam manufacturer provides better support. Since webcams are essentially commodity items, I kind of doubt it.

Logitech claims the lens is wide coverage and they aren't kidding. For those of you with the need to include more than just yourself in the picture, it's a great feature. You, the significant other and all the kiddies can fit into the frame and wave at the grandparents. The downside is that if you are the grandparent and want to fill the frame with just you, you have to rely on an inconvenient digital zoom function. I've found no keyboard shortcuts for the zoom function. You have to open a separate window and then click for each level of zoom you want. I needed at least three or four to provide just a shot of my head and shoulders. That's a lot of clicking and since it is a digital rather than an optical zoom, you lose some image quality at each step. The image is still good, but I wonder if Logitech didn't go a bit too far in providing wider coverage.

The Logitech software is version 9. Functionally it provides a simpler interface than earlier versions. They've added avatars and what they call digital effects, such as overlaying a crown on your head. It's interesting for perhaps 2 seconds. Kids, however, might like it.

Overall, the Logitech Quickcam Fusion is a solid product. Were it not for the focus issue (which I hope can be successfully resolved), I'd give it 5 stars rather than 4.

Jerry

NOTE: I've spoken with Logitech tech support (pleasant, informed folks who answer promptly) and confirmed that the Fusion lens is fixed-focus. I also ran some tests of my own and found that I was mistaken. The critical focus is not set improperly. Rather the image is soft throughout. The beneefits of the higher-resolution (1.3 Megapixel) sensor are negated by the wider angle of view of the lens. My final conclusion is that the Fusion is best suited for people who often webcam with two or more people in the field-of-view (i.e., couples with kids chatting with grandparents, etc.) Individuals may find that the wider field-of-view leaves them appearing "too small" in the image. Using the digital zoom will increase the size of the person in the image, but will amplify the generally soft focus.

Overall, given the improvements in the audio and low-light capabilities and the smaller form factor, I think the Fusion is a keeper. But solo webcammers may find that the other Logitech webcams without the wide angle lens and higher resolution sensor may do the job better at a lower cost.

I am new to webcams and perhaps I expected a bit too much. Knowing that webcams have been around for several years and computing power keeps accelerating at a rapid pace, I thought all the technological quirks of webcams (i.e. dark pictures, grainy / choppy video, audio/video synching, etc.) would have been thoroughly tweaked by now... I was wrong.

I was specifically looking for a good cam that would work well with a Pentium II, so the first webcam I tried was the Creative Webcam Live which received decent reviews on Amazon, but like one other reviewer, I found the audio and video to be out by about a 1/2 sec on not only a P2, but a P3, and a P4... all three systems I tried had the same 1/2 sec. delay. Creative tech support was unable to help.

The next cam I tried was the Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX and it had only slightly better synchronization than the Creative cam... still practically worthless in my opinion... it would be better just to have audio than to have every single syllable out of synch with the video which I find to be very distracting.

I decided to forgo my Pentium II compatible webcam search and shelled out the money for the Logitech Quickcam Fusion, which requires a minimum of a P3, 700 MHz, with a P4, 2.4 GHz recommended (I suppose for the animated Avatars, face tracking capability, and echo free audio feature). I decided to try it first on the slower of my two systems: a P3, 860 MHz with 512MB RAM and slow USB 1.0. To my delight the camera worked excellent. The built-in mic was adequate, the automatic light adjustment is well done, and most pleasing was the audio / video synchronization... almost perfect in my opinion. I may get even better performance on my P4 with Hi-Speed USB 2.0. The only problem I encountered was that after installation and the required system reboot, Norton Antivirus was disabled because "The Norton Antivirus auto-protect driver could not be loaded." After running Norton's LiveUpdate however, the problem was fixed.

This is my second Logitech camera, and I highly recommend it. I bought a lower priced Logitech webcam last year. It served the purpose, but I often battled with noise feedback.

I bought this one around Christmas, and bought my children one. they live in another state and we talk online each night after dinner. This one has the auto tracking, so if my kids move around, it can follow. It has great video and audio. the headset works great. Finally, the video effects are a lot of fun with my kids. If they start to lose interest, I turn my face into a shark or martian for a sec - and they rejoin the conversation quickly, after laughing hysterically. Finally, the price is great. Everywhere else I checked, charged $20 more.
Bottom line, don't waste your time with lower priced cameras. They'll work. But this one is best for staying in touch with family, friends or business associates.

This is a very high quality and stylish webcam. My parents visited from India. I bought a lap top for them and then I bought two Longitech Quckcam fusion webcams. I installed one on their lap top and one on mine. When they returned back home, we use video conferencing to communicate with each other between USA and India on MSN messenger using Longitech Quickcam Fusion. WE talk for hours and can see each other with a crystal clear image and audio. It is so amazing and overall the communication is always free as it uses VOIP technology.

I highly recommend this camera for everyone who have family overseas or anywhere else. The echo cancelling feature takes out all the background noise and provide clear audio. Video quality is very good. Sometimes MSN messenger gives trouble in establishing connection because of network traffic, but that has nothing to do with webcam. I can not complain as the communication is always free. Overall its am amazing product.

Updated 04/22/2010: With an upgrade to Win7 Ultimate and the Win7 compatible drivers, the CPU utilization issues are a thing of the past. Also, at the ~$50 price it is current available at, it is a pretty good value. Because of the above, I'm increasing my score from 4 stars to 5 stars. Oh, I DID end up keeping the camera... :)

***** Original review is below *****

In the interest of full disclosure, this is my first webcam. Given that, I was mildly disappointed that the framerate was not the 30fps advertised (smooth motion, like watching TV or a video camcorder), but closer to 20fps (my system is better than the "recommended" system on the box). Acceptable, but not spectacular, especially at the price.

One note of warning. With many systems Logitech's latest software revision (10.0.0.nnnn) has CPU utilization issues. When you access the Quickcam, the CPU jumps to 100%, the framerate to <5fps, and audio all but quits working. For some Fusion boxes the 10.0.0.nnnn sofware is included on the CD and some come with 9.5. The 9.5 software does not have the CPU utilization issue and is MUCH better, IMO. The 9.5 software cannot be downloaded from Logitech's site (as of this date), so if you get the 10.0.0.nnnn software in the box, you will have a problem.

The Fusion is pretty good, but I may return it and see if the Orbit MP or Microsoft's VX-6000 webcams work better.

I own this camera at my office. At home I tried Microsoft LifeCam VX-3000, which had an auful audio quality.
The video quality of this camera is also very good. The audio/video synchronization is very good as well - no echos at all, no return sounds.
Is it perfect? Maybe not; but one of the best on the market.

I like the camera, but I was disappointed when I first install the software and got the blue screen of hell...again, and again, then try to fix the problem myself reading the logitech online support about the actually same problem that people heve been having, and fixed it... then audio problem, called logitech tech support, and they told me that is a problem between Dell computers and Logitech software (my case), and the fix is on the way...so I was a little bit mad with the experience, but after using the camera a litle bit, I really like the quality of the picture... and I can't wait to update the audio software.

The webcam is working well. However, there are a problem at the beginning. Since the webcam software has a conflict with Dell computer, the monitor turns blue when connecting the webcam to the computer. The problem was solved by changing a file type in system32 (use google to search for the similar problem).

The Quickam Fusion is a very solid and well designed webcam, at least externally but after a day of fiddling with various bits of software I've decided that it is really a bit of a waste of the 1.3 MP sensor.

The first problem is the USB 2.0 interface. Unless you have a full on USB 2.0 interface the bigger images are very pixellated and compressed because the computer's interface can't cope with the amount of data the webcam is sending. My system: a Shuttle FX43G dating from a couple of years ago claims USB2.0 but I suspect it is really just a 1.1 interface and in this case the images are about the equivalent of a 320x240 webcam.

As a comparison I tried the camera in my wife's new Dell notebook running XP and the images were really good quality. For webcamming you will only use 640x480 and again the images will be no better than a 3 year old webcam costing 20 bucks unless your computer's USB port can cope. If you read the specs Logitech do make it clear that you need a real 2.0 interface for megapixel image capture.

If you want to use the still feature there is very little software that can capture 1280x960 images. I tried 20 webcam applications and none went anywhere near this resolution. Maybe a problem with the drivers but you are left with Logitech's quick capture application which is very limited.

So it is a good camera (4.5* for hardware) if you have the latest, powerful computer to match. The Fusion is let down by a lack of any applications for the 1.3MP sensor which has reduced my overall rating. Depending on your application you may be better chosing a 640x480 CCD sensor such as the Philips Toucam.

I am a hardware guru; however, this is my first set of webcams. I did a lot of research before I made my decision with the Logitech Quickcam Fusion. There is no room for mistake because I have to leave one at Hong Kong for my family.

I own this product for four months and I couldn't be happier with it. I bought two quickcams, setup mine up at home and took other with me on my trip to Hong Kong. I set it up on my aunt's computer along with a new MSN Messenger account. When I returned home, we tried the video conference with MSN Messenger; the audio quality is very clear, I notice no lag with my DSL connection while getting about 10 to 12 fps with the video. The multiple faces tracking feature is a big bonus. While chatting with my aunt I have my one year old on my lap, with the multiple faces tracking, the Quickcam zooms automatically to capture both of us without having me to hold him up to the Quickcam. The built-in microphone can pick up voice across our bedroom.

Overall, I really enjoy this Quickcam. The installation and setup process is very simple. I couldn't hesitate to recommend to my family members who want to enjoy the video conference.