Logitech QuickCam® Sphere AF

A better way to video call

Webcams let you see and talk to your friends and family—wherever they are. But with most webcams, you need to wear a headset or you’ll get a distracting echo.

Neither option sound appealing? With Logitech RightSound™ technology, you can avoid both. Acoustic echo cancelation software means the whole family can gather around and have a more natural conversation—without passing around a headset.

See all webcams with RightSound™ technology.

The echo explanation

You’re on a video call with your friend. You’re both using webcams with integrated microphones and typical computer speakers. Here’s where the trouble happens:

Your friend says something to you. His voice is captured by his microphone and sent to your speakers. But then your microphone picks up his voice from the speakers and sends it back to him as an echo—which can really ruin a conversation.

The RightSound™ fix

You use a webcam with RightSound technology. The software identifies the sound wave featuring your friend’s voice as it comes through the speakers. When your microphone picks it up, the software filters out the repeated wave so it doesn’t get sent back to your friend. And that means they don’t hear an echo.

Two-way talk

Other webcams eliminate echo by muting your microphone when the person on the other end is speaking. It’s kind of like talking on a walkie-talkie—not a very natural way to have a chat. RightSound technology doesn’t mute your mic so you can both talk whenever you want. It makes your video calls just like talking to someone in the same room.

Playing around

Looking to add a little entertainment to your video calls? Logitech® Video Effects™ can really spice things up.

You can be a talking shark one minute, an Elvis impersonator the next, and a chalkboard drawing after that. When you download Video Effects, you’ll get:

• Avatars
• Face Accessories
• Video Masks
• Fun Filters.

See all compatible webcams.

Download Video Effects now.

Make your move

These aren’t just plain-old static effects. Video Effects technology uses face tracking to find your face and track its moves. Then it either maps a Face Accessory over your real face or completely replaces your video with an Avatar that moves like you.

So when you choose a dinosaur avatar, the dinosaur moves its head the way you do, talks when you talk, and winks when you wink. When you put on glasses, they stay on your eyes—even when you move around.

Avatars

Feel like being someone or something else today? You simply pick out a character and watch it become you. We’ve got an avatar for every mood and season. You can be a sock puppet, cat, alien, dollar bill, Santa, and lots of other people, animals, and things.

Face Accessories

When you want to be you with a little something extra, you can just put on a Face Accessory. You’ve got options galore, including a pirate hat, crown, scuba mask, vampire teeth, antlers, and a pig nose. Or you can put on a full mask.

Fun Filters

Ready for a new twist on the real you? Fun Filters apply photographic filters or manipulate your video in real time. You can transform into a comic book character, get all twisted, alter the colors, and more.

See all compatible webcams.

Download Video Effects now.

Seeing the smile on your grandson’s face or the glitter off your daughter’s engagement ring is so much better than a phone call. And a webcam can really make these experiences possible, even when you’re separated by thousands of miles. But getting the right webcam is more than just a matter of finding the one with the most megapixels.

At Logitech, we’re not just trying to dazzle you with more megapixels. Megapixels are only part of the picture. Image quality—especially when it comes to making a video call—depends on at least five things: the webcam lens and sensor, your computer, your Internet connection, and the video-calling program.

Power and connections

Most computers sold today have no problem handling a video call. But if your computer is a little bit older or you’re not using a fast connection, you might run into difficulty. To get good clarity and smoothness, your computer needs to meet the minimum requirements to support a video call.

We recommend that your computer have a dual-core CPU with 1 GB of RAM and that you’re using a broadband connection of 256 kbps or higher. (Most broadband connections are at least twice as fast as 256 kbps.)

Just the right light

Video calls make it feel like you’re right in the same room with your family and friends. But if the lighting isn’t right, it might just feel like they’re talking to a shadow or a faceless ghost.

That’s where Logitech® RightLight™ 2 technology comes in. It’s a system of hardware and software that delivers high-quality video in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.

You can let RightLight 2 technology automatically do its thing—or you can make manual adjustments whenever you want.

See all webcams with RightLight™ 2 technology.

About face

RightLight 2 technology identifies your face in the frame and uses that to determine the light and color settings.

Face too dark? It brightens the whole image so your countenance can be seen clearly.

Too bright? It will darken everything to put your face in the best light.

Most webcams simply measure the amount of light in the entire image. If there’s a bright window or lamp in the frame, your face might appear dark and shadowy. That’s good for people trying to hide their identity—but not so good for video calls.

More light, less noise

Low light can be tricky for the average webcam. They generally only use software adjustments to increase the brightness, which means your video might be filled with digital noise that shows up as dark specks or digital garble.

But why go artificial when you don’t have to?

RightLight 2 technology adjusts the frame rate to increase the exposure time of the camera so the sensor can capture more light and improve the image quality you start out with. And it dramatically reduces background noise by identifying static areas in the image and refreshing them less often.

In contrast

Add a lot of rich color to low light and your typical webcam tends to get confused. All that saturated color adds extra weight to an already dark environment—often resulting in dark, flat images. On top of that, the camera introduces more noise by trying to create contrast where there isn’t much.

There’s no need to change your outfit or décor with RightLight 2 technology.

RightLight 2 technology slightly lowers the level of color saturation in low light to produce sharp images with greater detail and contrast—and a whole lot less noise. The result? The person on the other end can see you better without seeing specks. RightLight 2. Put yourself in a better light.

See all webcams with RightLight™ 2 technology.

A focus on the lens

If your webcam’s lens isn’t good, your image quality won’t be good either—no matter how many megapixels you’ve got.

At Logitech, we want you to have the best image quality—not just the highest resolution images. That’s why we teamed up with Carl Zeiss, a leader in the optics industry since 1849, to bring you a better webcam lens.

More light, better images

A webcam lens captures the light that the sensor then transforms into the image you see. You need a high-quality lens to capture more light and produce the best images. Together with Carl Zeiss, we created an advanced lens design to give you more clarity and less distortion.

An updated classic

Our Carl Zeiss webcam lens is a new take on their Tessar® lens design. While the original Tessar design was patented back in 1902, it’s the most famous camera lens for a reason. It delivers sharp images in a compact, lightweight form—which also happens to make it perfect for webcams.

To bring you the best webcam images possible, Logitech and Carl Zeiss turned the classic four-element Tessar design into a five-element design. Two of the lenses in the lens stack are cemented together to focus the light onto the sensor with maximum detail and minimal distortion. You can see the difference in your images.

Bye bye, blur

A lot of webcams out there want you to stay put. Move or get too close and the camera can have a tough time automatically focusing on you—even if it’s got a good lens. That can leave you looking hazy and out of focus. And that’s probably not the look you’re going for.

At Logitech, we don’t want your video to become a blur. So we created an autofocus system that lets you move around. It zeroes in on whatever’s in the center of the frame, like your face. When you move, the webcam automatically tracks your motion and refocuses the image. You’ll be crystal clear in less than three seconds

See all webcams with autofocus.

Ready for your close-up

Want to zoom in for a kiss? Or hold something up to the camera? Our autofocus system can handle it. It focuses in and out automatically with precision and speed—even if the item is only 10 cm from the camera. No choppiness. No blur. Just a clear, sharp image.

How’d we do that?

We used the same type of motor used in mobile-phone cameras, a voice coil motor (VCM), and optimized it for webcams. They’re compact, don’t use a lot of battery power, and can handle shock and vibration. The lens moves back and forth to adjust focus until the webcam gives you the sharpest image possible. It also helps stabilize the webcam so your video and photos are in focus and have low distortion. So, you can go ahead and make your move.