The hardware industry has several very good examples of product naming. The Intel Inside campaign and iPhone naming immediately come to mind.

At the other end of the spectrum one of the eager contestants is Logitech’s webcam lineup. It got off to a promising start in 2012 with the Logitech C920 – the best webcam of it’s time – but across the next 5 years, Logitech’s top webcam lineup bewilderingly grew with 7 puzzling names:

5 business webcams: the C930E , C920-C , C925E ,the Pro Webcam and the Brio

, , ,the and the 2 consumer webcams the C922 Pro Stream and the 4k Pro

To clear up some the confusion I’ve made a comparison table:

C920 C930E C920-C C925E C922 Pro Stream Pro Webcam 4k Pro/Brio Launch Q1 2012 Q1 2013 Q1 2014 Q2 2016 Q3 2016 Q3 2016 Q1 2017 Consumer/Business Consumer Business Business Business Streamers/Gamers Business Consumer/Business FOV 78° 90° 78° 78° 78° 90° 90°, 78°, 65° Shutter none included external internal internal none included external external privacy shield UVC 1.1 1.5 1.1 1.5 1.1 1.5 ? H.264 AVC yes yes yes yes yes yes no H264. SVC no yes no yes no yes no MJPEG & YUY2 yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Max resolution 1980x1080 1980x1080 1980x1080 1980x1080 1980x1080 1980x1080 4096 x 2160 (DCI native) Max fps 30fps 30fps 60fps@720p 30fps 60fps@720p 60fps@720p 30fps 90fps@720p, 60fps@1080p, 30fps@4k Windows support XP/Vista/7/8/10 7/8/10 7/8/10 7/8/10 7/8/10 7/8/10 7(1080p only)/8.1/10 Mac support 10.6.x or later 10.7.x or later 10.7.x or later 10.7.x or later 10.9.x or later 10.7.x or later macOS™ 10.8 or higher Linux/Other support Chrome OS, Android v 5.0 or above - Linux Linux Chrome OS, Android v 5.0 or above - Chromebook 29 Glass Lens yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Zeiss® certification not anymore yes - - - yes - RightLight 2 2 2 2 yes 2 RightLight 3 with HDR Cable Length 6 feet or 1.83 meters 6 feet or 1.83 meters 6 feet or 1.83 meters 6 feet or 1.83 meters 6 feet or 1.83 meters 6 feet or 1.83 meters 4.9 ft (1.5 m) or 7.2ft (2.2m) Auto Focus yes yes yes, 20 steps yes yes, 20 steps yes yes Microphone Dual Stereo 2 omni-directional mics 2 omni-directional mics 2 omni-directional mics 2 omni-directional mics 2 omni-directional mics 2 omni-directional mics Noise reduction yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Other - - - - Background replacement, tripod included Background replacement, infrared sensor+LED for Windows Hello Part number 960-001055 960-000972 960-000945 960-001076 960-001088 960-001070 960-001178 4k Pro 960-001105 Brio

Here’s the PDF version.

A few notes:

It took Logitech more than 4 years after releasing the initial C920 to release a new consumer webcam, the C922 Pro Stream

Carl Zeiss certifications

The newer C920 seem to have dropped their Carl Zeiss certification as noticed by @mjgraves. C920 which bears the Carl Zeiss certification on the webcam.

60fps (May 8th update)

Logitech has 3 webcams advertised as being capable of 60fps:

the business oriented C920-C the streamer oriented C922 Pro Stream 4k PRO/Brio

But the C-925E also supports 60fps. We have a C-925E in the office and, out of the box, we were able to record 720p@60fps in OBS, XSplit and in Chrome when recording through WebRTC.

Microphone quality

The sound quality coming from the C920-C and C925E (wide form factor) is superior to that from the C920 C930E and C922 (classic C920 body). The difference can be easily heard in YouTube comparisons. I am not sure it it’s the wider space between the 2 mics, the different grille, different hardware or all 3.

The Logitech 4k Pro/Brio

Logitech has 2 names (and 2 part numbers) for the same webcam. Consumers get the 4k PRO with a nice looking packaging to attract buyers in stores while businesses get the Brio in a simple box. It’s the same webcam.

H.264 Advanced Video Coding

The 4k Pro /Brio is the only high end Logitech webcam that doesn’t include hardware H.264 AVC video encoding. Thus it uses all the 5Gbps bandwidth of USB 3.0 (equivalent to USB 3.1 Gen 1) to stream MJPEG (equivalent to USB 3.1 Gen 1) video which has to be decoded and reencoded by whatever video calling/streaming/recording solution you use. It’s sensor can record at max 4096 x 2160 (DCI native) and 3840 x 2160 (UHD).

E stands for H.264 Scalable Video Coding

The C930E C925E and the Pro Webcam support hardware H.264 SVC (Scalable Video Coding) encoding (which is different than H.264 AVC (Advanced Video Coding)). SVC is especially good for live streaming if your end point also supports it. All 3 are business oriented webcams.