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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?

#371

Post by postalrat »

izacus wrote: post #361
postalrat wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Include the DSP then. You have twice the budget of the phone to produce the USB camera.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#372

Post by notretarded »

Swizec wrote: post #355
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…

You can turn your old phone into a webcam. An iPhone X has camera quality that competes with a cheap DSLR in a webcam situation. Main thing real cameras are better at is bokeh, but you won’t get that in a webcam. And software can passably fake it these days.

How?

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#374

Post by usrusr »

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…

> 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.

And the subset that is not easily fooled by proclaimed premium versions of the same cheap junk is even smaller.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#375

Post by philjohn »

gaudat wrote: post #107
huhtenberg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a look at Eizo (pun intended).

I think LG makes their own panels but Eizo doesn't? I think it's probably better buying a digital signage display from LG, Samsung or the likes.

There are a small handful of panel manufacturers, that's true.

Companies like Eizo typically have agreements where they will take the cream-of-the-crop panels though.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#376

Post by redler »

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.

It would be a hobbyist endeavor -- and look like one -- but a Raspberry Pi plus camera module would hit the mark.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#378

Post by jpsalm »

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 get an IP camera app and just use gstreamer to pipe it to v4l2loopback. Perfectly usable webcam available on /dev/video1.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#379

Post by mitch-snipline »

iamacyborg wrote: post #144
riho wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fuji does something similar with their cameras. I can use their webcam software and get clean video output when I connect my Xt3 via usb to my pc or laptop. No need to purchase extra unnecessary dongles.

I was quite excited to try this when Fujifilm first announced it, but then immediately dissapointed when I found out it does not support the x-t30.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#380

Post by HPsquared »

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.

Phones can already be used as a webcam, e.g droidcam app. No need for special hardware.
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