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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?

#451

Post by save_ferris »

ed25519FUUU wrote: post #448
save_ferris wrote: post #440

Tangent: I really wish that Apple would make it easier to use the iPhone camera as a webcam when using a Mac. It would be a killer feature since so many people are in the ecosystem and iPhone cameras completely outperform webcams these days. I tired EpocCam but I wasn't completely satisfied with it. This seems like a missed opportunity for Apple, given their seamless integration experience mantra.

There’s an app called EpocCam that lets you turn the iPhone into a webcam. I was disappointed with the results. The colors get washed out easily, especially in strong direct light. It’s nothing like the image quality you get when taking a video (which was what I expected).

Same, I tried it and was disappointed in the results. Nobody is better-positioned to wirelessly integrate the iPhone camera and a Mac better than Apple is, and it would encourage folks to stay in the Apple ecosystem.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#452

Post by ramraj07 »

dekhn wrote: post #438
ramraj07 wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wanted something to capture transmitted light images on a real-longterm setup. Turns out the best method is to wheel a simple tissue culture microscope to a warm room and put a cell phone on the eyepiece :) made some cool movies for sure!

Currently I'm playing with this: https://github.com/bionanoimaging/UC2-GIT which does a lot of that (mainly for educational purposes- I think most scientists should focus on getting grant money to buy professional equipment).

That's a candidate for sure, my efforts slightly predate the 3d printed microscope revolution slightly, and I had to MacGyver my way to prove I can image cell cultures long-term without spending 2-300k (since I was doing wild goose chase hypotheses) and hence this solution.

Are you playing with it in a garage or in an academic / industrial setting?

I'm not yet ready to start but my goal is to try and set up an actually productive garage lab - maybe use some neighbouring univ core facility on occasion but not to set up a lab there. Not a fan of academia in general and hope to not contribute money/ideology towards perpetuating that ponzi scheme!

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#455

Post by jandrese »

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…

Webcams have been a race to the bottom product for many years now, just like optical drives. All of the quality manufacturers were driven out the market ages ago and all that's left now is the absolute cheapest garbage sold to people who just need to check a box.

You would think there would be a secondary market for all of the fancy phone cameras now being made, but sticking one in a box with a USB connector hanging out the bottom (or Bluetooth) seems like too much of an ask when you can just put an absolute garbage 720p sensor in the same box and save a few bucks.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#456

Post by siverson914 »

Reedx wrote: post #432
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 don't know, a $400 Apple Cam™ might do the trick.

iCam. :)

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#457

Post by goldcd »

marta_morena_9 wrote: post #439
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…

This doesn't make any sense. Mirrorless cameras cost a couple thousand dollars (I have one) and the last thing I am going to wear down/abuse this equipment with, is to jump into daily meeting lol. At the low end, there are decent webcams, like Logitech HD 1080p, but it costs over 100$ and honestly, it's a couple of years behind the current. There don't seem to be webcams of around 100 to 200$ that are state of the ar…

Logitech Brio is probably the most "state of the art" webcam you can find (and it's a few years old). Decent quality 4k (or 1080 at buttery FPS) with all manner of gubbins to correct lighting - amount, flicker, hue etc Oh, and does have depth sensing - with separate lens that'll scan your face and log you into windows (or out when you walk off).

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#458

Post by Tepix »

I ended up using my Micro FourThirds mirrorless camera.

At first I used a Panasonic DMC-GH3. There is no official way to stream the image to a PC so I ended up using a HDMI capture box (costs around $50). The image quality with a nice prime lens is fantastic. You get a blurry background and some nice bokeh, something no Logitech camera can give you and it looks great. The camera and the capture box support up to FullHD.

I recently bought a better camera, the Panasonic DC-G9. Panasonic offers a (beta) webcam software for this camera so you can use it as a 1280x720 webcam via USB 3.0. It also looks fantastic. The resolution is high enough! There is no audio though. For now i use a separate microphone.

If you care about your webcam's image quality, here's my main advice:

- Put the camera at eye height (using a small tripod)! This alone makes a big difference

- Put some light sources behind the camera and not behind the user

- If you want to use the virtual background feature of Zoom etc, use a real greenscreen behind you. They are very cheap and the quality of the virtual background with chroma keying is just so much better!

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#459

Post by shaicoleman »

FeistySkink wrote: post #427
shaicoleman wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's terrible out of the box. With a firmware update and bit of tweaking it's not bad. Under Linux, you can use guvcview to play with the settings to your liking. Here's an example command line for Zoom purposes: v4l2-ctl --set-fmt-video=width=1280,height=720,pixelformat=MJPG --set-parm 30 --set-ctrl=contrast=32 --set-ctrl=sharpness=176 --set-ctrl=zoom_absolute=133 --set-ctrl=tilt_absolute=-36000 -d /dev/v4l/by-id/us…

I've been trying to find PW513, but it doesn't seem to exist anywhere last time I checked. Is it out for sale already?

PW513 is available on US sites (e.g. amazon.com/bestbuy.com), but not globally yet.

See also my comment here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25506629

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#460

Post by marvion »

Bought a Logitech Brio 4k Streaming before Covid, because I wanted to try out YouTube and using my DSLR was a pain.

Its 200€(pre lockdown) and is just a webcam on steroids.

Now I'm glad I didn't sold it. Almost anyone comments on the image quality - especially when I turned on my 4000lm daylight Phillip's Tornado

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