Logitech C920 vs C925e vs C930e vs C922
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Specifications
Build Quality
Image Quality
Microphone Tests
Summary and Verdict
Specifications
Logitech C920
1080p, 30 FPS. MJPEG. Field of View: 78 degrees. USB 2.0 Type A.
I bought my C920 for $50. Click the Amazon link to see its current pricing.
Logitech C925e
1080p, 30 FPS. MJPEG. Field of View: 78 degrees. USB 2.0 Type A.
Notes: The C925e is advertised as supporting H.264, but I wasn’t able to select that at any resolution in OBS. In addition, I was able to get 720p 60 FPS to work on the device even though that functionality is not advertised.
I bought my C925e for $70. Click the Amazon link to see its current pricing.
Logitech C930e
1080p, 30 FPS. Field of View: 90 degrees. USB 2.0 Type A.
I bought my C930e for $109. Click the Amazon link to see its current pricing.
Logitech C922
Build Quality
All 4 of these devices are made of plastic. They have a monitor clip and also 1/4th inch tripod threading on the bottom. Each device has a non-detachable USB 2.0 Type A cable.
The C920, C922, and C930e have very similar builds with the main difference being the color scheme.
The C920 and C922’s wires are 60 inches, while the C925e and C930e’s wires are 72 inches. This improved length helps a lot when using a desktop PC.
Built in privacy cover of the C925e.
Detachable privacy cover on the C930e. Tripod not included.
The C925e has the best build in my opinion. There’s a built-in privacy cover with a slider at the top of the device, and it’s very wide to ensure maximum separation between the stereo microphones. The mics on all of these devices are still terrible as expected for webcams, but hey I like the idea.
Image Quality
Daylight only, automatic settings
With daylight only and fully automatic settings, all 4 of these devices look pretty similar. There's not enough light to really see the difference in color reproduction here, and the sharpness on all of them is about the same. Meh.
The only real advantage (or disadvantage depending on your use case) is the C930e has a wider field of view.
Autofocus can be a bit slow on all of these devices, but it's pretty standard for webcams. Sometimes it's great, sometimes not. I almost always keep autofocus turned off.
Moving down to 720p, 60 FPS on the C922 and C925e, you can see that it really degrades the image quality. It's smoother and has less motion blur when there’s adequate light, but it's really pixelated and unclear. I find 720p/60 to be useless on these.
Studio lighting, manual settings
I controlled the settings of these devices in OBS. I turned off autofocus, adjusted the exposure and gain manually, but left the white balance on automatic. The auto white balance does a better job of preserving yellow than anything you can get with manual.
With studio lighting and manual settings, finally we see a difference. Sharpness is still just ok on all of them - standard for devices around this price range.
But the colors of the C930 make it stand out from the other 3 devices. It's much more vibrant. I wouldn't use the phrase more accurate necessarily, but the other 3 are quite washed out.
Comparing these really made me wonder why the C925e even exists. It doesn't seem to offer up any improvements over the C922 at all. Logitech says it can do H.264 but that wasn't the case in my experience.
Image Quality Summary
The C920, C922, and C925e are hard to tell apart and are all passable with daylight only. They look much better with legitimate lighting, and suffice for conference calls.
The C930 wins in the image quality department. Even though it doesn’t get a sharpness boost, the colors are much better and it has a wider field of view.
Microphone Tests
A microphone analysis? They’re all pretty terrible, but the C930e has the most clarity and background noise rejection. Getting a cheap USB mic will beat all of these every time.
Summary and Verdict
I recommend… getting whichever device is the cheapest. In my case it was the C920.
The C920, C925e, and C922 look so similar at their maximum resolution that if they weren’t labled it would be difficult if not impossible to tell the difference.
The only real improvement comes from the C930e which has a wider field of view and more vibrant colors. But I commonly see this priced much higher than the C920. If you find it on a major sale, that’s great, but the improvement is too marginal to make it worth the jump.
Product Listings
Logitech C920: https://amzn.to/3cTUoCX
Logitech C922: https://amzn.to/3uXI2CA
Logitech C925e: https://amzn.to/3FuwdZa
Logitech C930e: https://amzn.to/3iKie82
