Logitech

First posted Feb 5, 2007
Last update Mar 15, 2015

Complaints and Compliments, Logitech

December 12, 2008

Logitech continues to improve their latest driver. Release 11.80 has a substantial improvement in efficiency. The newer cameras use much less of your system resources than version 11.00. If you are using any of the newer cameras, 2007 or newer, I strongly recommend you upgrade to the latest driver. The download is smaller too, 29 megs rather than the 46 megs of version 11.00. They have also added the ability to not have the application automatically start up on your desktop when a camera starts.

November 28 2008
Update on the Logitech cameras with Carl Zeise Tessar lenses. There definitely seems to be a problem with the focusing on the left side. All the cameras I have purchased with these marvelous lenses have either started off with a focus problem on the left side or eventually developed the problem. See this image as an example. I still think these are excellent cameras, at this point I have purchased 7 of them and will continue to use them in various places. The overall sharpness is excellent. Hopefully when Logitech comes out with the next series they will have solved whatever is causing this problem.

August 9, 2007
Logitech has redesigned their website. The new look is quite pleasing however, it has become a bit of a chore to find drivers for older cameras. I finally found the link after about 10 minutes of searching, and of course it was right in front of me, I just wasn't looking in the right place.
Go to Logitech.com. Click on Support + Downloads at the top of the page. Chose Downloads. On the right search by Image and chose webcams and click View All Products. If your camera is not in the list, look at the upper right (above the Orbit MP as of this date) and click on "Still can't find your Product?" You can find older drivers there.

June 9, 2007
The latest driver release (11) has a number of improvements. More stable, less of a system hog, and what appears to be a compleate intregration of all camera models which are compatable. If you have several Lotitech cameras installed on the same computer you only have to deal with one application interface to deal with all the cameras. The spot for selecting which camera to control is in an out of the way location (Tools, Advanced settings, the owl icon) but once you find whre it is, all control is much easer.

(Feb 06, 2007)
I am particularly impressed with the latest drivers from Logitech (10.5x). When you first run the install process, after asking some basic info, it checks the Internet for software updates BEFORE the install process, rather than having to install the software, then REINSTALL it because of an update. Way to go, Logitech.

Oct 14, 2006
Camera Software

The intial release of version 10.00 of Logitech's camera software, has a bug which will occupy 100% of a Pentium processor, (50% of a dual core or dual processor computer). I first installed version 10.00 with the Ulltra Vision camera on a Dell Optiplex SX260, Pentium 4, 2.4 ghz, 1 gig ram (3 years old) and a clean install of Windows XP Pro with service pack 2. According to the Windows Task Manager Performance Tab, between the camera and the operating system, 95% to 100% of the computer resources were in use.

December 12, 2006
The software system hog problem has now been resolved, but you will need to download the latest software update, 10.04 or above, highly recomended. Logitech has fixed the Avatar problem. As of this date they work fine, even with my beard. I don't think much of the feature, but I bet the kids love it.

March 2006

The Logitech software for higher end camreas includes Avatars which are supposed to change you into an animated charter. In the earlest versions, I was unable to get them to work for me. It kept giving me an error message saying it can't track my face. I took the camera to my trailer for a weekend and was trying the avatar software again with the same result. Then a lady acquaintance happened to stop in and sat down on the sofa next to me. All of a sudden the camera found her face from across the room and I could see red circular areas highlighting her eyes and mouth in the preview window. The avatar software had found her without any effort and she was showing as an animated dinosaur in the screen. This almost guarantees that my beard and mustache were preventing the software from finding my face. I had another viewer write back in and comment that he couldn't get the avatars working with his long hair. This reminded me of an item in Bill Gates book 'The Road Ahead'. His software designers thought they had their hand writing recognition software working and ran to Gate's office with the device. It couldn't understand a thing Bill wrote. They had forgotten Bill was left handed.