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Why webcams aren’t good enough

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Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#11

Post by i_am_proteus »

tda wrote: post #9
onion2k wrote: post #2

Literally all webcam 'problems' come down to expecting your webcam to perform well in conditions that even a $5000 dSLR wouldn't do a particularly good job in. Buy a light and all of the issues from the article will magically disappear.

Still doesn't explain why a $300phone has a better camera than a $250 logitech BRIO. I recently bought a BRIO and in non optimal lighting the performance is just as mediocre as a $30 C230 so I returned it immediately. In the en I convinced my wife to just use the DSLR (she was hesitant at first because of the extra hassle). A modern DSL had good IQ even ad candlelight, you really almost can't mess it up. Only way to…

A DSLR with a lens costs thousands of dollars. A cheap continuous light with a cheap softbox costs about $150, and gets the job done.

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#12

Post by coldtea »

nbzso wrote: post #8

Is it possible to tag promotional blog posts? This must be titled: Why using our software is better than buying a web cam.

If it would be possible, of all promotional posts, this would be the one that least needed such a tag.

It mentions the product just one time, in passing at the end, and is several pages of well written, well researched, general observations, plus a writeup of the results of actual testing of several cameras.

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#14

Post by coldtea »

m463 wrote: post #6

They're comparing apples and logitechs. I wouldn't be surprised if the iphone cameras have had a billion dollars of development invested in them. But a large portion of this is on the software/firmware side which logitech doesn't benefit from. That said, we all reap the benefits of this because phone camera hardware has been driven down in cost considerably since phones first got cameras. There just needs to be more…

>I wouldn't be surprised if the iphone cameras have had a billion dollars of development invested in them

Which is neither here, nor there. There are tons of dirt cheap (often cheaper) compact cameras on the market with better quality that most webcams, and have been for years. Including equally small as webcam options.

There are also tons of dirt cheap Android phones with far better camera quality in an even more constrained space (for the camera module) than a webcam.

There are also embedded laptop cameras with better quality than most $100 and plus webcams.

As a sibling comment said: "I use OBS Studio's output as virtual camera - and among the inputs I use cheap old Android tablets with DroidCam OBS over IP on Wi-Fi... They cost less than a USB webcam and deliver much better image quality."

There's absolutely no reason webcam makers couldn't build a better product using components found in 5+ year old phones...

Even if it was expensive, the problem is there's not even an expensive $300 or $500 webcam with quality compared to a years old Android or iPhone smartphone of equal price, or a compact camera.

Heck, webcams sold as $1000 and $2000 "enterprise" webcams, in bulky enclosures to sit on a desk or large TV, have some more conveniences (to fit the enterpise moniker), but same (crap) image quality.

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#15

Post by corysama »

Different article from a month ago “Why can’t you buy a good web cam?” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25504771

Lots of points. Big one being that the market is bifurcated into:

1. People who just want the minimum as cheap as possible.

2. People willing to pay enough to buy a mirrorless photo camera and plug it in as a web cam when they need it.

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#16

Post by janandonly »

Although this blog is written by someone with a financial incentive, it seems well thought out.

The comparison is reasonable in that it compares “the best” webcam (a Logitec c930, according to https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-webcams/) with an iPhone using their software.

I don't care if this is an “advertorial” or not, I'm going to test this software because my webcam sucks as well.

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#18

Post by chrismorgan »

onion2k wrote: post #2

Literally all webcam 'problems' come down to expecting your webcam to perform well in conditions that even a $5000 dSLR wouldn't do a particularly good job in. Buy a light and all of the issues from the article will magically disappear.

I get the sense that you haven’t read the article.

This article controls for lighting, showing the results of different types of cameras in different lighting conditions, and showing that even with good lighting, all of the webcams are still poor, and most are terrible. And they’re all distinctly worse than any Apple phones from the last few years (and even the front-facing camera from an Apple phone from five years ago is better than half of them).

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#19

Post by chrismorgan »

m463 wrote: post #6

They're comparing apples and logitechs. I wouldn't be surprised if the iphone cameras have had a billion dollars of development invested in them. But a large portion of this is on the software/firmware side which logitech doesn't benefit from. That said, we all reap the benefits of this because phone camera hardware has been driven down in cost considerably since phones first got cameras. There just needs to be more…

Apple still ships bad webcams on their laptops.

There seems to be a big class divide between phone cameras and webcams.

Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough

#20

Post by bluescrn »

m463 wrote: post #6

They're comparing apples and logitechs. I wouldn't be surprised if the iphone cameras have had a billion dollars of development invested in them. But a large portion of this is on the software/firmware side which logitech doesn't benefit from. That said, we all reap the benefits of this because phone camera hardware has been driven down in cost considerably since phones first got cameras. There just needs to be more…

Even Apple was recently mocked for putting a 720p webcam in their latest 2020 MBP/MBA (while their phones sport clusters of cameras each in silly-megapixel territory)
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