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Post pandemic, however, webcam prices seem to have at least tripled (if not quadrupled). As I type, the C920 is going for £140. I can understand this as a supply/demand thing, but surprised that things haven't started to level out yet.
Nope. You can get a mirrorless camera set up (with mic and lights) for around $500 to $600. There are plenty of 1" compacts as well in that price range.
I have literally never seen anyone suggest using your webcams /laptop mic except as a last resort.
So maybe it's a matter of time until these "good" sensors reach the open market, can be bought in smaller quantities and become commoditised. Then, we may see a good upmarket webcam.
From all the video calls I had this year, people either used
* their notebook's built-in webcam that's complete garbage
* any other webcam, and their image is clear as day, or at least video quality is limited by lighting or bandwidth.
Of course a bigger sensor and a bigger lens (DSLR, Mirrorless, etc.) is something different.
oh yeah, the webcams suck big time. even the expensive ones. just get a dslr over hdmi. it's 100x better and used dslr is cheap these days. you can even get panasonic gh4/5 which is a real video camera.
I think the author lost me when they said that a good webcam has to have "decent sound quality" and uses the MacBook as an example. I have literally never seen anyone suggest using your webcams /laptop mic except as a last resort.
The only cost-viable methods to get 'broadcast quality' imagery for streaming/recording right now is to buy a second hand DLSR or mirrorless camera that has 'clean' HDMI out that works without the camera auto-shutting down after X amount of time. There are a few sites out there that list the preferable models[1]. I've got a couple of old Canon DSLRs (That don't do clean HDMI) and a load of lenses, so I've been watching Ebay for a newer model Canon DSLR that I can afford. The lowest cost Canon DSLR body I've seen with unrestricted clean HDMI or that can take the Magic Lantern[2] firmware is about £150.
However... You also need a HDMI-to-USB dongle. This converts the cameras HDMI output into a standard USB Webcam input. I've already got an Elgato CamLink[3] (bought for a different reason a couple of years ago), but you can get cheap China knockoffs for about £15, I don't know how good they are though. My Camlink cost WAY more than that, so I have my doubts about the knockoff quality.
Finally, you need good audio capture that importantly is in sync with the picture. The HDMI to USB conversion adds a tiny delay to the image which can put your audio out of sync if you are using a standard USB microphone. Good software like OBS[4] can correct for this though.
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[1] https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/cam-link/camera-check