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Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

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Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#121

Post by ClumsyPilot »

Overall, this is a pretty good article, and I always found the supply chain difficulties and sourcing as a bit of a black art.

My only criticist is, if anyone is going to do this, please just focus om the camera. Forget some neural processing chip or microphones - just get the video right. A 4K webcam that does nothing but video has value in and of itself, but if you dont nail that, all the bells and whistles don't matter.

'camera with an ugly protruding lens as a thickest part of the phone'

Never understood this attitude, give me a decent camera, I don't care how much it protrudes unless it stabs people.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#122

Post by yarcob »

lmilcin wrote: post #41

If you are looking here to improve your webcam because you started to do remote work, don't. First try to improve lighting and audio. Any camera will look bad in bad lighting. It is always better to first improve your lighting before you invest in a new camera. Use high CRI lightbulbs and ensure even source color temperature in your room (ie. all lightbulbs should be emitting same color temperature). Audio is also ve…

Here's a trick how to get beautiful studio-like lighting for less than 50€:

- buy two large sheets of white styrofoam (1m x 0.5m or bigger)

- buy two cheap bright floodlights (the brighter the better)

- get some mounting materials (eg. wood and screws, or cardboard and duct tape)

- Place the two styrofoam plates right and left behind your laptop.

- point the floodlights at the styrofoam, carefully positioning them so they are not in the picture

Enjoy beautiful bright soft light. Optionally add a 3rd floodlight that shines on you from the side/from behind for highlights, and optionally another one to illuminate the background as needed.

Now you'll look amazing even with the cheapest, crappiest webcam.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#123

Post by einpoklum »

lmilcin wrote: post #41

If you are looking here to improve your webcam because you started to do remote work, don't. First try to improve lighting and audio. Any camera will look bad in bad lighting. It is always better to first improve your lighting before you invest in a new camera. Use high CRI lightbulbs and ensure even source color temperature in your room (ie. all lightbulbs should be emitting same color temperature). Audio is also ve…

--== CRI ==--

As a service to the readers who aren't familiar with the term:

"The Color Rendering Index (CRI) measures the ability of a light source to bring out the true colors of an object. Without a high CRI light source, objects can appear faded, dull or inaccurate. "

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#124

Post by augustk »

pembrook wrote: post #40

The reason you can’t buy a good webcam is the same reason you can’t buy a high quality monitor outside of LG’s unreliable apple collab. The lazy conglomerates who sell these peripherals often don’t actually produce the parts in them. They simply rebrand commodity cameras and IPS panels in a crap plastic housing and slap their logo on it. Then they give the product a hilariously user-hostile product name, like “PQS GR…

Another thing I find really annoying is when I browse a website and first have to choose a product line when I don't even know what the difference between the product lines are.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#125

Post by another_kel »

pembrook wrote: post #103
muro wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dell sells good monitors.

Dell used to have good offerings, but all they seem to push now is the same 27” not-quite-4K 3,840 x 2,160 panels everybody else does. Now even the 22" inch LG ultrafine that used to be 4069 x 2304 is bigger at 24" and a worse 3,840 x 2,160. The only good option for mac is the 27 ultrafine 5k. 27 4k a bad size & resolution for the current computer market. Windows scaling looks like crap, and MacOS has to do more reso…

>Windows scaling looks like crap

Huh? I'm using LG's 27 inch 4k and scaling looks good. It can bug and force you to relaunch app but that's not something you encounter often.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#126

Post by roel_v »

blablabla123 wrote: post #66
pembrook wrote: post #40

The reason you can’t buy a good webcam is the same reason you can’t buy a high quality monitor outside of LG’s unreliable apple collab. The lazy conglomerates who sell these peripherals often don’t actually produce the parts in them. They simply rebrand commodity cameras and IPS panels in a crap plastic housing and slap their logo on it. Then they give the product a hilariously user-hostile product name, like “PQS GR…

That seems a bit drastic but I agree with the sentiment and would also include laptops. Maybe I'm wrong since I didn't check all hardware but Apple still seem to be the only ones that have rigid quality controls, make sure parallel parts are parallel, mechanical parts stand a reasonable amount of movements. (At least as long they are not testing a new "innovation" like butterfly keyboards... ;)) That said, I buy stuf…

If you want to go bargain basement yes. If not, get an XPS or a Thinkpad (of the 'pro' series) and you'll have great hardware. Of course there will always be someone who finds something to complain about, but overall, these are fantastic machines.

Thing is, people complaim about there not being high quality gear, but when someone then makes it, they balk at the price. Yes people, a great laptop will cost you $3000.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#127

Post by arvinsim »

mattowen_uk wrote: post #20

I've also investigated this quite deeply. As I'm sure most of us know, the main problems with 'webcams', either the built-in ones or USB ones that you perch on top of your monitor, are the lens size, and the CCD/CMOS image sensor size. Manufacturers spouting specs like '4k' are deliberately misleading the public if the sensor and/or the lens aren't also upgraded. The only cost-viable methods to get 'broadcast quality…

I tried to use the Elgato Camlink with my Macbook and Sony ala6400. But everytime I use it, the fans would ramp to a noisy level.

Turns out that processing is still being done by the Macbook.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#128

Post by tomaszs »

I had the same exact problem when starting Summon The JSON project. The best comment I read was it is the most niche project he ever heard of. And in reality it is a rather small market for it. Moreover, the price has to be higher than what normally card games cost. Because when you don't order millions of decks, it is more expensive to manufacture, and moreover basic costs are also split into a smaller number of orders. It makes very hard for any innovation to go to the market. It really depends on if you will find a way to manufacture it in small quantity (what increases the cost) and if you will have market for it. Fortunately I have found an ambitious manufacturer that prints on demand. But it is a card deck. Hopefully there will be more manufacturers of electronic part willing to support startups with small order numbers. It blocks the market we don't have them enought

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#129

Post by another_kel »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #120
pembrook wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dell used to have good offerings, but all they seem to push now is the same 27” not-quite-4K 3,840 x 2,160 panels everybody else does. Now even the 22" inch LG ultrafine that used to be 4069 x 2304 is bigger at 24" and a worse 3,840 x 2,160. The only good option for mac is the 27 ultrafine 5k. 27 4k a bad size & resolution for the current computer market. Windows scaling looks like crap, and MacOS has to do more reso…

> not-quite-4K 3,840 x 2,160 But...that is 4K. It's what 4K is defined as, exactly 2x 1080p resolution in each dimension. > Windows scaling looks like crap I don't understand. 2x each dimension (so 1 pixel in the old resolution is 4 in the new) is, like, the easiest possible scenario when it comes to scaling in software.

4k on 27inch requires you to do 175%. 200% is too big.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#130

Post by numpad0 »

For me the most immediately noticeable difference between a webcam and a dSLR setup is FOV.

Every webcam use lenses with dSLR equivalent focal distance of 24mm to 12mm, which fits the user's upper torso naturally when placed atop a display, but lens that wide technically isn't suited for portraits. Portraits are usually taken from a distance with lenses with narrower FOV[1], typically 50 to 90mm in 135 equivalents or 45 to 25 degrees in FOV diagonally.

So to make a "good" webcam, the first step is to give it a "longer" lens if I'm going to do it. Trying a cheap clip-on "macro zoom" lens on a existing webcam, etc.

1: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-dona...

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