The Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 is a CCD webcam with some grunt - it's capable of capturing video at 640 x 480, images at 1,280 x 960. This will come in handy for video calls, home monitoring and even as a makeshift short-range camera. It even has an inbuilt microphone - so don't hold your breath, and a face-tracking feature means that you don't have to hold yourself either.
Looks-wise, this camera is a winner (as long as you are not scared of Borg). The spherical 'eye' sits on a solid stand allowing for decent tilt and pan motion. Combined with the zoom function, this gives makes for flexible shooting. And just in case you got scared watching 2001 - A Space Odyssey, there is also a detachable visor to cover the lens. There is also a quicksnap button on top of the button if you want to snap. . . quickly.
For a webcam, the QuickCam Pro 4000 captures good quality video; the USB connection will handle the throughput to your computer, but if you want to make better use of its higher quality settings, you're going to need a broadband connection. Image Studio 7.3 and Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator Lite, and QuickCam 5.01 are included in the bundle. This bundle features motion detector software if you want to use your camera as a security device, a web-page-setup tool to let you feed live video to the internet.
The QuickCam Pro 4000 supports both Mac and PC. The requirements of PC (400MHz CPU, 64MB RAM) are fairly modest, and if you are using a Mac, you will need OSX 10.1.5.