Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

vsevolod.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

761–770 of 794 posts

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#761

Post by bertmuthalaly »

userbinator wrote: post #714
gaudat wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tip: try to find out what panel the monitor you are buying has. Then look the panel up in a database like panelook.com. This way you can get the specifications without any marketing bullshit. It also works the other way round. Find a panel that is good enough for your eyes, then see if there's a mass marketed display with that panel. If you are adventurous, you can grab "DIY" or "assembled" monitors with the panels o…

...and if you're really adventurous, you can buy just the bare panel, get the backlight inverter and "scaler board" elsewhere, and build your own custom monitor. The "3663" seems to be a common model of scaler.

Have you done this / do you have pointers to someone who has?

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#762

Post by jakear »

sigstoat wrote: post #695
antiterra wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since COVID the webcam market has exploded. Logitech had to significantly ramp up production due to increase in demand back in April. It’s not just remote work, but also aspiring content creators.

> Since COVID the webcam market has exploded. companies that are crushed by demand for existing products, and dealing with covid-related supply chain issues, and long-term uncertainty about demand aren't going to have a lot of luck getting a new high-end product out in among other reasons, getting these sorts of things made usually requires some travel by the engineers to the manufacturing/assembly facility to sort o…

Sounds like a good opportunity for a Chinese company to do it, as they’re fully open.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#763

Post by ABCLAW »

grenoire wrote: post #96
avian wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then they give the product a hilariously user-hostile product name, like “PQS GRT46782-WT” as an extra f-you to the user. That is also a strategy to prevent product comparisons and unbiased reviews. They quickly cycle through product names and sell a certain product no. only in a limited geographical area. Doesn't matter if a consumer org/magazine/someone on reddit/your friend/etc. does a review. The product will b…

The geo-locking of model numbers is one of the vilest practices I've seen. I don't see it going away for any reason, it'll only be possible to combat by intl. legislation... but how do you even legislate that?

Unfortunately, regional market segmentation is something that international trade agreements have encouraged, not prevented.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#764

Post by Friedduck »

The answer is because it’s a pretty narrow market. Anyone wanting good quality has purchased a camera (or has one), external mic, and cobbled it together themselves.

Or they buy a laptop with a decent camera and add a mic.

So your market is the niche between those groups, and those who make do with their laptop.

Not a large enough opportunity to pursue, I don’t think.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#765

Post by whywhywhywhy »

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’s no money in it and the XDR is a vanity project. Too expensive for the person who isn’t grading marvel movies but not quite hitting the actual specs needed to grade a marvel movie.

Meaning the only people buying it are top tier youtubers

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#766

Post by whywhywhywhy »

baxtr wrote: post #199
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…

Ahh the LG monitor from the Apple collaboration. It’s so great. So different than other monitors. Stable, reliable, solid. A great product. You can literally see how Apple forced their product tenets on LG. Sadly, it’s not available anymore. I have one in my office but needed another one for home. Ended up buying an LG with the funny name of something 27UKi6716263 that looked similar on amazon. It’s so different... w…

Isn’t this the monitor where the first production run wasn’t shielded correctly and interfered with wifi?

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#767

Post by underseacables »

Throwaway1771 wrote: post #754
underseacables wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think that’s bad, just wait till Apple starts selling cars.

And scooters. and revamping the US highway system with assisted driving beacons/lines etc - because they're the only ones with enough money to do so.

That raises a very interesting point: The highway system. Who owns it? Who can “attach” to it? What you said made me think about line access and comcast using its mass to keep out Google Fiber etc. I really, REALLY do not want that battle to take place over roads.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#768

Post by whywhywhywhy »

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…

> the number of people willing to pay a lot of money for a high end webcam is very small.

More kids today want to be “youtubers” than astronauts and almost all YouTube work is done off tower PCs.

Might not be enough a market for all brands to make one but definitely think someone’s missing a trick of being the Go Pro of streaming.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#769

Post by whywhywhywhy »

Already__Taken wrote: post #498
TheRealPomax wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then there's folks at the mid end, who buy an $80 Razer Kiyo purely for the decent video with built-in ring light so you're never backlit, with a separate $99 microphone and $150 audio interface. Buying all the bits separately gets you what this author wants, just not in a single tidy package.

The price for audio stuff seems truly out-of-this-world compared to everything else. I get microphones have a lot of design/testing that might justify it. But all the interfacing gear seems ridiculous.

Wait till you realize that they actually want to pay more for it because the idea it cost so much makes it sound better to you.

Re: Why can’t you buy a good webcam?

#770

Post by Mindwipe »

ancientworldnow wrote: post #525
dbspin wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'm a colorist and have to clean up footage from everything from cellphones (a lot recently with the pandemic), gopros, and dslrs to alexas, phantoms, 35mm, and even IMAX footage. Trust me when I say that I've seen it all. Short answer is you're wrong, even the latest dslrs are miles and miles from those high end solution in nearly all scenarios (discounting ultra ISO lightless shooting that no one does for anything…

There are non-trivial workflow issues, but The Possession of Hannah Grace was shot on a Sony A7 SII for example. Things have definitely moved in the last couple of years.
Post reply on HN