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Before all this, I was in IT supporting Windows NT on Wall Street in the late 1990s. I realized I’d much rather play with technology and write about it, than support it 24/7 and be blamed for everything that went wrong. I grew up playing and recording music on keyboards and the Atari ST, and I never really stopped. For a while, I produced sound effects and music for video games (mostly mobile games in the 2000s). I still mix and master music for various independent artists, many of whom are friends. Logitech has been making great webcams for years, but it's possible the Webcam c930e is its best one yet. Thanks to various built-in encoding technologies in the hardware, it enables 1080p over-the-Internet HD streaming at 30 frames per second, at least with business-class apps like Microsoft Lync and Cisco WebEx. And it's compatible with Skype, Google Hangouts, and several other Web video chat services. You also get a 90-degree view, so you can show off a conference table or whiteboard behind you as you speak. Thanks to its excellent video and audio quality and unusually flexible mount, the Logitech Webcam c930e is our new Editors' Choice for consumer-level webcams, replacing the HP Webcam HD 5210 .
I also tested audio quality during Skype calls. My voice sounded clear and crisp on the other side of the call through the c930e's built-in microphones, and the noise cancellation circuitry did a nice job suppressing the sound of an office fan on my desk while preserving my own voice.
For controls, you get Pan, Tilt, and Zoom options within the 90-degree field of view. But it's all digital; there are no motors. Logitech claims the camera offers 4x digital zoom, but as with point-and-shoot cameras, it's pretty useless unless you don't mind a serious degradation in sharpness.
Logitech's earlier webcams like the c920 and the HD Pro Webcamc910 have been solid, and the c930e doesn't disappoint. For this review, we tested the webcam on a ThinkPad running Windows 7, and on a MacBook Pro 17-inch running Mac OS X. We tried a variety of tests, including with and without some professional lights on stands, and in darker settings.The c930e has an upgraded version of the company's RightLight system, which combines autofocus with light detection to improve low-light quality at multiple distances from the sensor.Video quality is sharp, clear, and well balanced in most situations. The c930e always compensated well and stayed in focus. The mount is pretty ingenious; I got it to stay put on a laptop lid, several desktop monitors, and I was able to mount it on a high shelf above a desk. It also has an embedded thread on the bottom for a standard or desk tripod. Thanks to the third, smaller portion of the mount at the bottom, you can extend it a bit so that the webcam tilts down at you from atop a large desktop PC monitor. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. Read our editorial mission & see how we test.
Give your video conferencing apps an instant upgrade with this top-notch 1080p webcam.
Indeed, when I switched over to the LG Gram’s webcam, it looked like I was using a grayscale filter in comparison, and there was an immediate drop in audio/video quality across the board. Installing the c930e is as simple as can be, since it doesn't require a driver. You take a PC or Mac, plug it in, and tell whatever app you're using to find it and use it. All you need is a Windows 7 or Windows 8 PC, or a Mac running OS X 10.7 or higher; the USB port needs to be at least 2.0 compatible.
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