As a result of Circuit City's demise, I picked up a Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF for 10% off.  It turned out to not be that great a deal - and there are no returns (all sales final blah blah).

I had checked out the Linux-UVC compatibility list prior to the purchase - and the green checkmark indicated that I wouldn't have any issues.  Unfortunately, the list is apparently old and I ran into the same problems that plague the rest of the newer (but not newest) Logitech webcams.  The model I have has a new ASIC that causes issues with some USB controllers (mine), and results in camera hangups that require a replug to fix:

[566667.326280] usb 5-2.1.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 16
[566667.582562] usb 5-2.1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[566667.584565] usb 5-2.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=046d, idProduct=0994
[566667.584572] usb 5-2.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=2
[566667.584575] usb 5-2.1.2: SerialNumber: FEDD0620
[566667.708117] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device <unnamed> (046d:0994)
[566667.741844] input: UVC Camera (046d:0994) as /class/input/input11
[566667.749022] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[566667.749028] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)
[566668.192587] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
[566984.156115] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[574923.429272] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[574939.219807] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[574941.630850] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575011.593460] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575016.990770] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575018.980173] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575020.213718] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575021.501584] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575022.806163] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575024.072497] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575025.360760] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575028.903207] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575030.059617] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575035.453251] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575037.144294] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575038.364545] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575039.878514] uvcvideo: Failed to query (1) UVC control 1 (unit 0) : -110 (exp. 26).
[575108.063789] usb 5-2.1.2: USB disconnect, address 16

I got the above from luvcview and MPlayer randomly, and have to replug in the camera to get it to work again.  mjpg-streamer didn't work at all, which I thought was odd.

So, without the return option, I connected it to my Mac mini.  iChat recognized it without much effort, and I was able to get one of the CLI image grabbing utilities to work, wacaw.

Overall the 2 MP CCD seems to be of high quality, allowing me to capture at the maximum native resolution of 1600 by 1200 pixels.  I'm ont going to worry about the pan/tilt/zoom right now, because I have a feeling I'm not going to get anywhere with it.  If it did work in GNU/Linux, I'd use the uvcdynctrl stuff.

Here's a sample image (click on it for the full PNG):

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