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

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#461

Post by muyuu » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:23 PM UTC

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…

there are £400~£600 mirrorless cameras that would be overkill for most people... to notice any difference you'd need pro-level lighting, and a fantastic internet connection - and then you can justify the high-end 4-digit $$$ camera

I can see the argument that the market for mid-range webcams must be pretty small, as the ~$100 range is ok for most people

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#462

Post by inickt » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

redler wrote: post #383

notretarded wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How?

On iOS there's an app called Camo. There are probably others.

Camo (https://reincubate.com/camo/) has been absolutely fantastic. I wanted to use my iPhone Xs when on calls and not have to fiddle with with plugging it in every time I needed a video, so I ended up using an old iPhone 6 and it still destroys every webcam. $40/year isn't the cheapest but it works so much better than EpocCam (which I had been using before).

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#463

Post by dbspin » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

atoav wrote: post #396

sambroner wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

I worked as a freelance DOP and worked with cameras + lenses that coat more than a decent car. And while there is certainly room for improvement with typical webcams: the problem is in many cases not the camera, but the conditions under which it operates. Low light, shooting against the light, smeared laptop lenses, weird angles (not eye level), weird perspective framing, bad combination of light and framerates, mixe…

Freelance videographer and cam-op here. Your Arri experience is skewing your perspective. Any recent highly regarded DSLR will be significantly better in low light, intelligently apply both sharpening and noise reduction, and do so with auto focus in a package that weighs less than your Zeiss Prime. I AC for an Alexa Mini LF shooter, and it's interested to see just how far divergent evolution has got in this regard. I wouldn't want to shoot a movie on a DSLR - but they (and of course cell phone camera & smart processing) are significantly better for many applications that the best cinema cameras in the world. Speaking to the original article - you'll absolutely smash standard laptop, or webcam quality, evening in god awful lighting conditions on say a GH5 or A7siii .

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#464

Post by analog31 » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

I'm not sure you can't, but you might be looking in the wrong market space. There's an entire industry of "machine vision" that has very high end video cameras and lenses. And then there's even a step beyond that level, to "scientific" imaging components. You can choose your interface: USB, firewire, etc. Many of these cameras come with API's so you can write your own software for them.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#465

Post by crazypython » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:25 PM UTC

Maybe the cause is wealth inequality: The person in question doesn't have the money needed to implement his plan. Some people have the millions or hundreds of millions of dollars needed to do something like this, but they spend it on very dumb stuff. If more wealth was redistributed, then he could take this risk.

Instead we have clueless VCs investing their money and founders spending excessive time convincing VCs and risking their money. There's no more skin in the game.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#466

Post by koiz » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:25 PM UTC

I bought a DSLR with the plan of using it as a webcam most of the time. It's worked out well, but I am sick of the zoom wave, cant wait till it dies down.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#467

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

sukilot wrote: post #450

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.

What's one such phone? I've never seen a <$300 Moto phone match a $100 Logitech webcam.

[deleted]

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#468

Post by s0rce » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

I'm really frustrated with the enormous field of view of most webcams. Many are 90+ degrees. My old 2012 Logitech C310 is 60 degrees. I want to show myself in the view, not my entire room/house. I finally found a cheap AUSDOM AW635 which is 60 degrees on eBay. Image quality is acceptable for $20 and its manual focus which took a moment to dial in but is ncie since the focus doesn't jump around during a call.

I'd buy a higher end webcam if they had adjustable FOV (without software, since the software doesn't work across all OS/programs).

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#469

Post by kiseleon » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

muyuu wrote: post #461

marta_morena_9 wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

there are £400~£600 mirrorless cameras that would be overkill for most people... to notice any difference you'd need pro-level lighting, and a fantastic internet connection - and then you can justify the high-end 4-digit $$$ camera I can see the argument that the market for mid-range webcams must be pretty small, as the ~$100 range is ok for most people

I could buy a refurb or used Olympus E-M5 mark ii on ebay for $250, then pick up a lens and be in business.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#470

Post by timidiceball » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 4:31 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…

My organization has been slowly rolling out the use of Cisco Desk Pros which are hardware endpoints that connect to Webex but are in a practical sense essentially monitors with very nice camera modules and microphone arrays built into the bezel. Laptops connected to the monitor with USB C can use the camera/mic. These cost like $4000 though.

I find the video flattering (camera angle/focal length?)