Being a closet Web video camera freak, I was immediately attracted to the beige-and-blue charms of Logitech's eyeball-shaped QuickCam Pro. I received the universal serial bus (USB) version - a parallel port version also is available - of the QuickCam Pro for review. The advantages of a video camera with a USB connection are two-fold. Firstly, USB devices can draw power from the PC through the USB connection, sparing an extra power socket and cable - handy when the back of the PC already looks like a nest of vipers. The second advantage of USB is the promise of higher throughput. In theory, USB delivers up to 12 mbps of throughput, making it several times faster than standard serial or parallel ports. In the box of our test unit was a single-sheet addendum to the installation instruction manual that changed the installation procedure. If you do purchase this product be sure to follow the instructions. The correct procedure is to install the QuickCam Pro 4.04 software first, shut down the PC, plug in the camera and restart the PC. Restarting, Win 98 - Win 95 users will need OSR 2 service pack for full USB support - correctly recognised the Logitech camera as a multimedia USB device and adds drivers to the system. The QuickCam Pro software sports a friendly, idiot-proof interface which, on launch, greeted me with my own face. The video image was dark, jerky and blurry initially but the colours improved with a bit by twiddling the focus ring on the front of the camera. A driver patch from Longrand Electronics, Logitech's distributor in Hong Kong, fixed the blur and eased jerkiness, but did little for the lighting. Things improved further by reducing the video size to 160x120 pixels (the maximum is 640x480) but considering the hardware - a Pentium III, 500 MHz Dell Dimension XPS with 128 MB of Ram - the quality was disappointing. Further toggling with colour, brightness and contrast settings yielded slightly better pictures. Admittedly, the gloomy recess of my den might have had something to do with the dark picture, so it is hard to blame Logitech. The QuickCam Pro software allows for taking digital pictures or recording video. A few seconds of video used 6.5 MB of storage, so prepare to gobble up hard disk if you venture into movie making. Images and videos can be saved on disk, e-mailed, inserted in a Web page, printed or edited. For insertion into a Web page or e-mail the software handily converts video into Real Player format - which dramatically cuts the video size (51.1 KB for my video clip) rendering it e-mail friendly. For videos more than a few seconds long, be prepared for a wait as your e-mail program - the software automatically launched Outlook Express - sends it off. The video camera also comes with Adobe PhotDeluxe 2.0, Internet Explorer 4.01, NetMeeting 2.1 (software from Microsoft for audio and video conferencing), iXla Web Easy Lite (easy Web page creation for novices), DAS Corp ImageAxs (software for cataloguing images), RealNetworks Real PLayer and Connectix Desktop Designer Lite (software that allows you to personalise your desktop). The verdict? Despite the driver problems, the camera is attractive, easy to install and, at $1,200, inexpensively priced. I had a lot of fun with it on the somewhat risque public directories for NetMeeting and VDOPhone and both these programs had no problem recognising the camera. This is not videoconferencing as portrayed by marketing brochures, but if you are looking for mindless video fun and if Logitech improved the software driver, this human interface device is not a bad choice. Just don't use it in a darkened room. PROS & CONS Product: Logitech QuickCam Pro Platform: Windows 98, Windows 95 4.00.950B or (later) Macintosh OS Pros: Attractive; easy installation; good for novices Cons: Video tended to be dark and blurry Price: about $1,200
