Why can’t you buy a good webcam? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#231

Post by randallsquared » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:10 PM UTC

remlov wrote: post #188

Hamuko wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there a chance that the assembled Chinese monitors actually use second grade panels that the big makers wouldn't accept? I remember getting a 27-inch 1440p display from a Chinese manufacturer for really cheap back in high school. It should've been the exact same panel as was in Apple's iMacs. However, the were some quality issues with it long term and it's definitely suffering from burn-in that I don't think th…

FWIW Planar makes 27" monitors that use the same 5K and 2K panels used in the iMacs, down to the bonded glass surface. The Planar IX2790 and PXL2790MW respectively. I have the PXL2790MW and if you look closely you can see the glass peephole for the nonexistent iSight Camera. Not sure if it's B grade panels that Apple rejected but it's flawless, maybe I just got lucky.

I have a couple of these from 2014-15, and they are very, very nice (and as a plus, they matched the dpi of some macbook models at the time, at least). One surprise: they were very heavy compared to other, similarly-specced monitors.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#232

Post by LoSboccacc » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:11 PM UTC

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…

Eh, do really consumer want them? Like not pros that do streaming for a living etc, but the people doing conferencing or the occasional capture?

They will hit local, isps or teleconferencing bandwidth cap well before sending all the bits a webcam captures, with subsequent recompression to crap quality.

Why would they bother then?

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#233

Post by marcosscriven » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:11 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #226

yarcob wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Buying "pro" entry-level photographic lightning equipment is about the same cost and much simpler to set up.

Can you recommend a good brand? I tried buying something from Amazon UK but contrary to reviews it turned out to be awful.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#234

Post by JansjoFromIkea » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:11 PM UTC

One I've been using recently is a Kinect v2; the image is a decent 1080p but with OBS I'm able to give a way better green screen effect than the one built into Zoom. Has the added bonuses of being a 3D scanner, and semi-functional full body tracker for VR. Cost £70 including the PC cable, which seems to be the going rate.

A Pi Zero with the high def camera module is probably a decent shout too, although I've not used it.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#235

Post by ghaff » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:13 PM UTC

riho wrote: post #137

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…

Finally made an account, just to reply to this. With newer Canon DSLR bodies you can use the Canon Webcam Utility[1] to directly get the video feed show up as a webcam, with just a USB cable. I've been using the EOS R as my webcam with the RF 35mm F1.8 lens and it's working pretty great. I just hook it up with the USB-C cable and it shows up as a webcam. The only annoyance that I haven't been able to get around yet i…

I know a couple people who are doing the DSLR or mirrorless to HDMI->USB thing. The results are indeed nice. But, to be honest, I have a Logitech 920 webcam and some decent lighting and that handles even making video recordings pretty well. "Can't buy" seems like a stretch.

And for anything I'm streaming I'm frankly more likely to have issues because my Internet upload sputters than anything to do with the camera. And with the Logitech webcam attached to my monitor, the whole thing "just works." If I had a newer model of Canon, I might have tried it but as it is I'd need to buy a converter.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#236

Post by lmilcin » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:14 PM UTC

murkt wrote: post #48

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…

It seems I needed to include a couple of shots - one is from my laptop webcam, and the other is from my phone. What "bad lighting" is changes very much based on the camera capabilities (lens, sensor, post-processing).

Obviously if you directly compare good camera vs bad camera the good camera is going to win.

But if you compare good camera in bad lighting and bad camera with good lighting the bad camera will almost always win unless it is really, really shitty.

It is also usually much cheaper to improve lighting. If your face is a shadow while the rest of the room is brightly lit there is only so much that the camera can do, regardless of how much you invest in it.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#237

Post by Too » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:16 PM UTC

What about a Gopro? They are quite sensitive to good light conditions but otherwise lens and resolution is very good, not DSLR grade but lots better than webcam/phone. Fisheye can be disabled. Audio is also decent, maybe not studio-grade indoors but when moving in the wind outdoors it's a lot better than phones or other non-professional gear. Lots of avilable mounting-gadgets and tripods available. Price is just above 300€ for last years 8-black model or sub 200€ for used or older models. Then you can use it for other fun stuff as well.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#238

Post by dirtyid » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:16 PM UTC

Do we need good webcams anymore?

Take a few selfies with phone -> reasonable deep fake avatar that commodity 720p sensors can animate. Bonus massive bandwidth savings. I think there was a 2m paper on such research. Isn't Apple already redirecting eye gaze to mimic staring at webcam when staring at screen.

Also get a tripod and use app that turn phone into webcam, feature should be baked into OS.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#239

Post by yarcob » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:16 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #226

yarcob wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Buying "pro" entry-level photographic lightning equipment is about the same cost and much simpler to set up.

To be honest I have no idea what photo and video lights cost now.

When I looked into it a couple of years ago a minimum set of two strobes, mounts and a reflector would have cost more than 300€.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#240

Post by ratsimihah » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 1:18 PM UTC

Got a Sony hybrid camera that's basically plug and play after you install some software. It does 4k and event though most video conf tools only allow 720p, the image comes out stunning.