Thumbs Up For Logitech's Desktop C910 HD Cam

If 2011 is going to be a year of major advances in video conferencing and video chat, it's all got to begin with video cameras and quality microphones.

Logitech has been building a steady business for more than a decade in this space, so among all the companies with a stake in the growth of video and audio communication, it's got among the biggest. But until recently, Logitech has been struggling to break through barriers into true high-definition technology on the client side. And that's been important because quality counts in this area as much as any.

So with Logitech's Webcam C910, which launched late last year, the company can take pride in knowing they've delivered a product poised to take advantage of big growth in a strategic segment. The CRN Test Center examined the Webcam C910 for more than a month and found the HD audio and microphone to be the best we've seen in a sub-$100 device.

The Webcam C910 (priced at $99.99) provides 1080p HD video recording capability with HD 720p video calling quality. It supports not just Windows PCs, but Mac, and services including Apple's FaceTime (still in beta), Skype, and Windows Live Messenger. We've also tested it on Webcasting services including Livestream.com and Ustream.tv, and both worked well on those platforms, too.

The 1080p video capture, at up to 1920-by-1080 pixels, is supported by Carl Zeiss optics with autofocus. It's one of the only Webcams in Logitech's lineup with Carl Zeiss technology. From an audio perspective, this is where we were perhaps the most pleasantly surprised. Logitech has built the Webcam C910 with two, built-in microphones with what the company calls its Logitech RightSound technology.

Logitech describes RightSound, essentially, as noise-reduction technology that also eliminates what it calls the "flat" sound to a person's voice. The company says it deploys an algorithm that cuts out ambient noise, improving overall sound quality. During our use of the Webcam C910, we found it to work and, frankly, provided crisper voice quality than some $100 USB microphones.

The Webcam is built to either clip to the top of an LCD display, regardless of depth, or could even be configured to stand or lay on its own depending on the scenario. The included software allows for zooming in our out, and panning directionally up or down and to the right or left via keyboard-based commands.

What does this mean, in real terms? It means that on Skype and FaceTime calls, for example, the camera is able to provide television-quality video for calls on a standard broadband network. It also means that, from an audio perspective, those on the other side of an audio call receive audio as if the person speaking is right next to them -- with no echo, humming, or tinny sound.

The bottom line: the explosion of software and services that permit client-side video conferencing and video calling will only intensify interest in this segment. The Logitech Webcam C910 has proven itself to us to be the best in its class.