Hmmh, I couldn't care less about webcams. I'm not that pretty and not all that eager to share the interior of my dwelling. I do however care about sound quality. With my accent and mumbling I need all the help I can get. Others reported that the camera in their phone beats most webcams, but what about the microphone(-array)? The sound quality of phablets hasn't quite won me over. Is there anything better available, short of equipment for professional musicians?
Why webcams aren’t good enough
111–120 of 297 posts
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#112I firmly believe that video conferencing is essentially a dead end. It is uncanny and unpleasant. Having experienced some of the early VR social experiences, I think that is the way forward. We will need to fully embody the other person and project them in a 3D AR or VR space with positional audio. I think in many ways we are incredibly close to this goal and should be seeing the first products hit the market within the decade.
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#113Although 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.
If you have a mirrorless or DSLR camera lying around, try this first: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25870161 . It might end up saving you money!
I bought a HDMI->USB video capture card, and tried to use it with my DSLR camera. It works fine in Teams, but not in Zoom. And that's because Teams selects a reasonable capture resolution that matches the 16:9 aspect ratio image produced by my camera's HDMI output at 1080p. Zoom selects the lowest possible resolution, which is 640x480, which makes me look squished. There is no setting in the Zoom interface that lets me change this.
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#114I started to use my Canon EOS 80D DSLR as a webcam. Canon finally release drivers in November. The image quality amazing. It's also a bit overkill though to use a (back then) 1400€ camera to act as a webcam (also hard to compare with default webcams at that price point), but as long as I'm not using it otherwise, I think it's ok :)
Agreed! DSLRs are great for this kind of stuff. I posted two links to guides on how to do this for Mac and Linux here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25870161 , if someone has a guide for Windows I'd love to see it.
+ for a guide for Windows
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#115The software in windows is terrible for logitech. On mac there are third party software that lets you adjust literally everything. And doing so I can make the C920 look just as good as my iPhone especially in good lightning.
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#116Hmmh, I couldn't care less about webcams. I'm not that pretty and not all that eager to share the interior of my dwelling. I do however care about sound quality. With my accent and mumbling I need all the help I can get. Others reported that the camera in their phone beats most webcams, but what about the microphone(-array)? The sound quality of phablets hasn't quite won me over. Is there anything better available, s…
For a similar price point to these webcams, you can get a very good microphone. The Blue Yeti ($130) is usually one of the go-to recommendations
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#117front-facing cameras (i.e., webcams) are unnecessary on a laptop, tablet, or phone. manufacturers should remove them in favor of better supporting dedicated equipment, since they'll never be 'good enough' when video quality actually matters. video calls have been part of the futurism canon for at least 100 years, but they still have little utility beyond a simple phone call (or even text messages in many cases). they…
> but they still have little utility beyond a simple phone call
We've collectively been running a huge experiment for the last year that has pretty conclusively proven this hypothesis false.
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#118Just the other day a user in my problem validation platform posted 'Make entry level webcam better'[1], the main gripe being 10 year old Logitech C270 still being sold at a higher price while improvements in smartphone cameras are being made every 6 months. Posts like these seems to confirm that there's a real need gap for a good quality webcam. Any of you working on solving this? or have ideas? [1] https://needgap.c…
What is a "problem validation platform"?
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
I see this pattern everywhere - the market bifurcating into a) race-to-the-bottom garbage products that are barely crossing the legal threshold of fit for purpose, and are essentially a huge waste of natural resources, and b) quality goods sold to specialists or companies, usually severely overpriced (to cover low volume of sales, and/or just because the market will bear it). Does it have a name in economics? Are the…
Mirror less cameras aren't really overpriced. You can get a good entry level canon (M50) and a quality kit lens for 600$ Or you can get a Sony A6100 and crappier kit lens for 700$ These cameras have significant strong (e.g. aps-c sensor size) capabilities not found in anything except mirrorless and DSLR cameras. Seems not to be overpriced to me. Overpriced is like what nvidia does to the quattro cards...
I wouldn't diss kit lenses... I built my reputation as a local photographer on a Nikon D3100-and-kit-lens Costco special. I could print shots at 13x19 and they'd come out crisp as hell
Hell, that DX 18-55 kit lens had, in some ways, better optics than the FX 24-120 that cost more than the entire D3100 kit
Re: Why webcams aren’t good enough
#120I spend a lot of time on video calls every day, and wanted to take advantage of my iPhone camera. I had tried Epoccam and it was buggy, and broke between releases of Zoom or didn’t work in Slack calls. Screwing around with OBS was time consuming and pinned my fans. Reincubate Camo has been a pleasure to use over the last 3 months, and has never let me down. Having good image quality on video calls is on par with wear…
Are there any similar options for Android phones?