Logitech has announced a new family of webcams. I accepted an invitation to visit Logitech while I was in Palo Alto for Skype Night in California last week.

Karen Hoskins, a Public Relations Specialist at Logitech kindly hosted my visit. She hooked me up with Andrew Heymann, Senior Product Marketing Manager and Todd Hernandez, Software Marketing Dude.

I can best sum up the demo with this comment, “I want one NOW!”

I own a Logitech 4000 Pro. I have tested it against many other web cams both in the Logitech family and Creative Web Cam family. I have always been impressed with my 4000 Pro. But the new Logitech QuickCam Fusion left me speechless.

Two big breakthroughs made by this webcam family─
1. Light sensitivity
2. Wide angle view

Those who have followed my posts on The Ultimate Skype Video Experience know that the three most important parameters are lighting, lighting and lighting. The QuickCam Fusion dramatically changes your lighting requirements. Logitech brand this a RightLight. All three webcams achieve this extreme light sensitivity by using 4T CMOS technology (four transistors per pixel).

The second breakthrough is wide angle view. A wide angle view turns your office space into a personal video studio. Two people can comfortably share the same screen. You now get space to achieve what Martin was talking about in his post “Proof by arm waving”
Hopefully I will have my QuickCam Fusion soon so I can do some in-depth testing and show you more about why I am so excited about this new product. At $99 it is a steal.

These pictures speak for themselves. On the left you have my Plantronics headset. Not expensive and not the cheapest. On the right you have Bill's headset. He paid a lot more for his USB powered Plantronics. The problem is both of these headsets are broken.

The adjusting mechanism is just poorly designed. Bill's is taped... my fix was stuff some paper into it to jam it and ensure it stopped slipping and falling off my head. Despite the price difference in these two Plantronics versions they both use the same crappy plastic adjusting slide. In Bill's case he says this is the second Plantronic's USB he's had and the sound has failed in one ear now both times. Why blog it. The sound was spotty in one ear for me too today. Neither of these headsets has seen years or even many months of wear. They get used in an office environment. They get grabbed when a Skype call rings and quickly shoved on. They both fold up to travel the same basic way. These are still the basic corded kind. Nothing special.

Plantronics is not alone. I had a Logitech headset in the behind-the-ears format. It worked and was more comfortable for about six months before one ear failed. Prior to that, one of the fold up hinges lost its pin and I ended up fixing that with a paper clip. I don't want to wear military tank standard and yet as a simple user I'm finding that headsets don't stand up very well to anything.

So how long should a headset last? Three years?
How many headsets and how much has your Skype habit cost you so far?
Do you have a favorite?
Did you break it or let the the dog eat yours too?

I'd also like an enhancement. I'd like to be able to answer and hang up on a Skype call from my headset. I'll pay the little extra for the feature. I'm yet to see this on a basic headset although the feature is built into some bluetooth ones. Hanging up the call is too difficult for everyone. Make it easier regardless of what IM app one is using.