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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?

#361

Post by izacus »

postalrat wrote: post #351
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #329

The real reason is buried in the article: You can’t buy a good webcam because the number of people willing to pay a lot of money for a high end webcam is very small. At the lower end, people are satisfied with their built in laptop parts or a cheap webcam that sits on top of their monitor. At the high end, people go down the rabbit hole of buying a do-everything mirrorless camera that they can use for so much more th…

A camera off a $50 budget phone will probably beat every $100 webcam on the market. So why can't I get that same camera module, minus the phone parts but plus a usb interface, for $100.

Most likely because most of the difference is in the Qualcomm DSP attached to your phones SoC, not the actual camera module. The mobile phone images contain a lot of postprocessing which the webcams don't do.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#363

Post by jonpurdy »

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…

I wrote an article a few months back about this(1) and post when it's directly relevant. Main takeaways: audio is more important than video; get that correct first.

Easiest thing is using a cheap headset microphone. Advanced noice cancellation algorithms with a great microphone placed far away can't complete with the physics of having a mic close to your month.

Since publishing, I also found Webcam Settings, an app for Mac that lets you adjust specific settings on UVC webcams. I use it to correct the horrible auto white balance on my C920 (naturally looks way too blue).

I just wish Apple would make a new version of their iSight camera. Something with a similar physical shape with a cropped DSLR sensor and a fast lens. Basically, same quality as a mirrorless with a fixed f/2 lens but in a single small package.

1 - https://jonpurdy.com/2020/03/how-to-improve-your-zoomskype-t...

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#364

Post by chadlavi »

sambroner wrote: post #358
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #329

The real reason is buried in the article: You can’t buy a good webcam because the number of people willing to pay a lot of money for a high end webcam is very small. At the lower end, people are satisfied with their built in laptop parts or a cheap webcam that sits on top of their monitor. At the high end, people go down the rabbit hole of buying a do-everything mirrorless camera that they can use for so much more th…

I'm just not sure I buy this... The number of people willing to pay significant money for a high end webcam was very small. Now my parents and their friends are talking about better lighting and camera angles. It seems like this industry is unusually ripe for a "better webcam" that "just works"

and unfortunately Amazon and Facebook's spy-on-you-all-the-time FaceTime call-style communication products are going to dominate, especially with that demographic.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#365

Post by philjohn »

tmountain wrote: post #328
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…

It seems like some company there (besides Apple), should seize the opportunity to differentiate themselves on quality, and deliver supply-chain controlled "boutique" hardware, which I'm certain many would shell out for.

There are already companies who do this, such as Eizo.

They cost multiple thousands (or tens of thousands for reference monitors with built-in calibration and Dolby Vision certification).

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#366

Post by jablan »

SergeAx wrote: post #225

When this pandemic fuss was at the beginning in January, I've decided to buy a webcam just in case I got sick and have to work from home. It was Logitech C310 HD[0] for like $40 including delivery. When we became full WFH in april, people in working chats started asking me what kind of that super nice camera do I have. Our company is issuing MacBooks for workers. Turned out that internal webcam of MacBook is so crapp…

Now that camera costs ~$100[0].

[0] https://www.amazon.de/Logitech-C310-720Pixel-Schwarz-Webcam/...

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#367

Post by 02020202 »

partiallogic wrote: post #18
02020202 wrote: post #2

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.

Can you recommend any dslr models or what to look out for when buying used with the intention of only using it as a webcam?

DSLR will be larger than mirorrless. go for MFT mount(panasonic/olympus), they have smaller lenses. like the panasonic gh series. if you get older dslr make sure the hdmi is 1080p, not 720p. since you won't do any recording there is nothing else to worry about. you will be piping the image straight into computer via video capture card. if you would want to use it for video elsewhere, make sure you get "video camera" and not "photo camera" because due to import taxes they have limited recording time for 5-15 minutes. the gh series is a sure bet and cheapest option. gh4 is old but will do the job. used gh5 can be got for cheap and if you want to up it a bit get the gh5s.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#368

Post by ramraj07 »

postalrat wrote: post #351
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #329

The real reason is buried in the article: You can’t buy a good webcam because the number of people willing to pay a lot of money for a high end webcam is very small. At the lower end, people are satisfied with their built in laptop parts or a cheap webcam that sits on top of their monitor. At the high end, people go down the rabbit hole of buying a do-everything mirrorless camera that they can use for so much more th…

A camera off a $50 budget phone will probably beat every $100 webcam on the market. So why can't I get that same camera module, minus the phone parts but plus a usb interface, for $100.

You can https://www.e-consystems.com/13mp-autofocus-usb-camera.asp

I bought one of these for using with my lab microscope since the alternatives from thorlabs was 10x more expensive for no reason. It worked fine for a year then it stopped working. Maybe I spillled something on it? Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#369

Post by izacus »

MrApathy wrote: post #319
arendtio wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the LG monitors outside of the Apple collaboration are not good? Recently, I bought two 27GN950, which is a 27" 4k@144Hz gaming monitor with good colors. So far the worst part is the fan and in the long run the absence of HDMI 2.1 might be disappointing, but overall I have the impression of a good product. Yes, it doesn't have the same PPI as smartphones, but I am not sure if we are going to see that…

I think it's in part related to fractional scaling, which hasn't been sorted everywhere. Text at 4k on a 27 inch is too small to run at 100%, too much of a waste to run run at 200% (equivalent to 1920x1080). So you're running 150% or 175% and that can be an issue if you're running something that doesn't like fractional scaling. 27 inch is perfect for 1440p 100% or 200% (i.e., 5k), but it seems like no one other than…

Since Windows these days handles such scaling just fine, this doesn't seem to be a big deal for consumers.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#370

Post by Foivos »

I can not understand why I can not use an iPhone, as a webcam for a MacBook without third party tools (eg. epocCam), that require installation of drivers.

To me this is an obvious thing to do since Apple is so proud of its ecosystem. Especially in the time of corona when all the dslr / mirrorless camera manufacturers are releasing software to do just that.

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