Webcams

[r0tt3n]

Hello Logitech,

I have a request to make on behalf of your consumer base - MAKE BETTER MAC OS X DRIVERS!!!  I trust this is appropriate venue to reach your elite technorati staff.

I happen to have a Logitech QuickCam® Orbit AF, which features mind-blowing face-following auto-pan, tilt, and zoom functionality, and light adjustment - it's just wonderful.  The only problem is... it only works on a pc, and like many of my collegues, I have a mac (a hackintosh to be exact, but let's not split hairs here).  There is a growing movement among enthusiasts to "dip our toes" in the mac pool and build hackintoshes, and well, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we are loving what we're seeing.  Unfortunately, a thorn in our collective side is the nightmare that is poor driver support for otherwise excellent devices.

Logitech, you have fantastic customer service, revolutionary R&D, wonderful universal mouse drivers for both macs and pcs, but I beg of you ...PLEASE.... PLEASE... write some solid universal webcam drivers that support the incredible functionality your webcams boast - auto-pan/tilt/zoom/colour/brightness correctio

I'll end on a thought - I and my collegues believe that 2009 will be the year of os x... and with that, will come a rapidly growing portion of your consumer base who will all join me in unison in this thread - c'mon people, let your voices be heard!!

[KachiWachi Distinguished Logi Legend]

Welcome to the Logitech Community Webcam Forum r0tt3n!


http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logitech_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=6471



Thanks.

[r0tt3n]

Hi Kachi, thanks for the polite welcome.

Your response implies that you either didn't read my message, didn't understand it, or just don't care.

This line is exactly what I'm talking about: "Currently, Logitech does not provide additional Web Camera software drivers for Macintosh."

A better response would have read something like:

"yes. you are right, we don't currently support pan/tilt/zoom/colour/brightness, which is a glaring shortcoming in what we're offering with the existing UVC drivers (which are discussed here).  Thank you for your input - you opinion will be passed on to the relevant parties internally."

[KachiWachi Distinguished Logi Legend]

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r0tt3n sez -

A better response would have read something like:

"yes. you are right, we don't currently support pan/tilt/zoom/colour/brightness, which is a glaring shortcoming in what we're offering with the existing UVC drivers (which are discussed here).  Thank you for your input - you opinion will be passed on to the relevant parties internally."

---

Since I do not work for Logitech, I cannot respond to questions in this manner (Ref: FAQ #3915, Legal Version, Discussion Forum Rules, Item #3).


However, Community Moderator pedroc recently responded to a question similar to yours in this post.



Thanks.

[r0tt3n]

You're welcome?

[r0tt3n]

By the way - sorry I mis-took you for a Logitech employee - your post sounded like a typical site-moderator response in how it ignored the bulk of the message and deferred the conversation somewhere else.  I'm pretty sure it's common knowledge that good OS X webcam drivers don't exist and aren't planned.  The point of this thread was to encourage the Logitech forum-going populus to voice their opinions about their desire to have this situation be remedied.

[KachiWachi Distinguished Logi Legend]

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r0tt3n sez -

By the way - sorry I mis-took you for a Logitech employee - your post sounded like a typical site-moderator response in how it ignored the bulk of the message and deferred the conversation somewhere else.

---

NP.


For reference, the QuickCam® Vision Pro already includes the autofocus and RightLight™2 Technology features built-in.



Thanks.

[r0tt3n]

Yup - that's the solitary OSX-supported device.  It's a start I suppose... I mean, it doesn't do pan/tilt/zoom, just focus/brightness, and its drivers are hardly universal.  So again, the call to action here is universal OS X drivers much like those of the universal OS X mouse drivers that exist (and that I am currently using I might add), only for webcams, to enable the three major selling points of logitech webcams - auto-face following (pan/tilt/zoom), auto-brightness, and auto-focus.

You're welcome =]

[colbygk]

Not defending Logitech's previous record of Mac OS X drivers (or lack their of), I believe the following helps explain the situation once UVC compliant cameras started entering the market.

UVC, USB Video Class, is a USB API that defines how an OS can reliably communicate with a UVC compliant web cam.  This means that it is up to _Apple_ to write drivers that are usable by software under Mac OS X (or a third party who feels like writing a kernel module that can do it).

This is why Logitech says any UVC compliant camera is usable by Mac OS X, as today (Jan 9 2009), limited UVC drivers are on Mac OS X and have been since 10.3.

The UVC 1.1 spec was finalized in in June 2005 and includes support for  pan-tilt-zoom features.  It is a *shame* that Apple has not included an updated API that can allow UVC aware applications to pass those commands through to products like the Orbit AF.  That is not Logitech's fault.  Infact, kudos to Logitech for being part of the standards process that lead to UVC in the first place.  It's probable that updated UVC drivers will become available in 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

It's probably reasonable to note that *linux* has better UVC support for the extended functions of UVC (including pan,tilt,zoom (PTZ) etc...) than Apple does currently (see: http://www.gumstix.net/wiki/index.php?title=Webcam_drivers_-_Mini_Howto_Part_2_-_Linux_uvc_cameras ).

In essence, complaints should be going directly to Apple at this point to get them to update their UVC APIs to allow deeper use of all UVC compliant devices on the market (not just Logitech's).

- Colby

Message Edited by colbygk on 01-09-2009 11:49 AM

Message Edited by colbygk on 01-09-2009 11:58 AM

Message Edited by Pegasus on 01-09-2009 07:21 PM

[ysureican]

Ditto... much agreeded with...but I'm not holding my breath with Logitech's timely (if any) developements to your request.