If you happen to went to high school earlier than the 2010s, you would possibly’ve been taught with the assistance of an overhead projector. These gigantic gentle cannons blasted photons upward via usually clear worksheets, via a lens and a mirror, projecting the picture onto a display so everybody may see. I can solely think about my lecturers again then wishing they’d one thing like Logitech’s Attain to make that course of a lot simpler. Properly, largely.
The Attain is a singular product in Logitech’s lineup. First introduced in September 2023 as an Indiegogo undertaking and efficiently funded inside 5 minutes, it’s transport to backers in July for a retail value of $350. The Attain is an articulated digital camera arm designed to make it simpler to get overhead views of objects sitting on a desk whereas holding your palms free. It’s helpful for displaying off books and worksheets in a classroom, demonstrating methods to do crafts for a YouTube channel, or giving a hen’s-eye view of a board sport.
The arm itself is superb. It’s simple to tilt the digital camera arm up or down, lengthen it farther from the bottom, and even slide it larger or decrease off the desk. It’s a really perfect method to get overhead footage of just about something, apart from one fairly substantial downside: It’s designed to work solely with Logitech’s Streamcam, a webcam that’s not nice.
A Considerate Digital camera Arm
First issues first. The arm is the star of the Logitech Attain and it’s an absolute delight to make use of and useless easy to put in. There are two mounting choices: a sturdy clamp that attaches to the aspect of a desk or a heavy base plate you may set on prime of a desk.
And after I say heavy, I imply heavy, which is an efficient factor. The bottom plate is so hefty that it counterbalances the load of the complete arm and digital camera, even when absolutely prolonged. This retains it from falling over and even tilting. It’s so efficient that the one purpose I can consider to make use of the clamp is for those who don’t have house in your desk for the bottom.
The arm slides into the bottom with a steel peg that rotates freely and may spin 360 levels. The USB-C cable that runs to the digital camera matches right into a ridge alongside the size of the digital camera arm so neatly that it’s virtually invisible. For the reason that digital camera and its cable are already arrange, it takes solely a few seconds to position the bottom plate on a desk, slide the arm into the bottom, and plug the cable right into a laptop computer, and also you’re able to go.
The arm itself is so clean it virtually feels unreal. You’ll be able to rotate the highest part of the arm ahead to a 90-degree angle from the decrease part with out twiddling with any controls or locks. It simply strikes simply into place. Likewise, the highest part of the arm can slide ahead and again, extending as much as round 18 inches away from the bottom, and it stays in place. Once more, no additional buttons, knobs, or clamps concerned.
{Photograph}: Eric Ravenscraft
