It’s been a while since We’ve seen a webcam that’s exciting, but the Quickcam Pro 9000 makes me want to revisit that category of devices. Obviously image quality is key for a imaging device so Logitech went to Carl Zeiss, a name that you might have heard before, as their optics are used by Nokia in their N73 or Sony on many of their consumer cameras.

With a good lens, light comes in nicely but you also need a good sensor to actually capture that light correctly. Logitech included a 2Megapixel light sensor, which is quite better than most webcams. However, to get the best sharpness possible, Logitech has included an auto-focus (yes, just like the iSight, although a bit late). The auto-focus is better than Apple’s, according to Logitech. We haven’t done a side-by-side with our iSight, but we can say that the overall image quality is better.

Of course, Logitech has continually improved their software offering and the accompanying webcam utility allows user to apply image filtering effects in real-time. Our favorite one is the “old grainy film” effect that turns your webcast into a classic movie.