I’ve recently been in the market for decent quality webcams so I picked up Logitech’s QuickCam Pro 5000. The webcam is a small spherical object with a bendable tail that allows you to secure it to a laptop or CRT or sit it on your desk.

I’m using Windows XP, and the software was easy to install, although you will need an internet connection to download the updated software through the Logitech website. Once the software has downloaded, the install wizard will prompt you to hook up the camera via USB when the software has installed.

I’m upgrading from a really cheap webcam that I think I got free when I signed up for Verizon DSL years ago, so the first thing I noticed was how great the video quality was comparably. The pictures are sharp and the camera is pretty good at adjusting the picture brightness accordingly in dim and back lit rooms. In addition, the built in microphone actually dulls background noise so you don’t get echoes and other nuisances when chatting.

As an added bonus, the webcam’s software technology is built to focus on your facial expressions - it will actually transfer your facial features to animated avatars like a 3D shark so if you smile, the shark will look like its smiling. It’s cute and somewhat entertaining for a few minutes.

The biggest issue I had with the webcam was there’s no manual focus, which is odd because there was with the previous model, QuickCam Pro 4000. I recently bought software that will help me catalog my book/dvd/music collection and one of its perks is that you can use a webcam to scan barcodes into the software so no manual typing. The software actually recommended the QuickCam Pro 4000 to do this, so I thought the newer model would also allow this.

Unfortunately, the QuickCam Pro 5000 is awful at focusing on anything close and there’s no way to manually adjust focus so this camera is pretty much useless for anything along those lines. Don’t bother trying to show the person on the other end anything text oriented like the back cover of a book or a printed document because the camera just won’t focus on it. It’s even worse if your printed text is on a white background as whites look horribly washed out in bright light and you can’t read them in dim light.

Overall, this is a decent webcam that is a good choice for those who want to chat with others via the web or skype. It’s not so good if you need to focus on anything close like text.