501–510 of 610 posts
I'm the cofounder at Lumina - we're building a modern webcam designed to solve some of these problems. There's really been a lack of innovation in the entire home office space, with the webcam being particularly bad. It sucks that a decade-old product (Logitech C920) is still the bestselling product today -- that would be like if Apple stopped releasing new phones after the iPhone 4S (launched 2012), and it remained…
I'm the cofounder at Lumina - we're building a modern webcam designed to solve some of these problems. There's really been a lack of innovation in the entire home office space, with the webcam being particularly bad. It sucks that a decade-old product (Logitech C920) is still the bestselling product today -- that would be like if Apple stopped releasing new phones after the iPhone 4S (launched 2012), and it remained…
1. If you're saying that it's mostly software, then you shouldn't have created hardware. You should release and sell software to run in tandem with existing cheap webcams. Not a low-quality webcam with some magic software.
2. Saying the iPhone is proof that you can make good, small cameras is bunk. The iPhone has an enormous amount of horsepower at its disposal. And an enormous team of software engineers (in addition to hardware engineers). A small startup with a couple of engineers isn't going to replicate Apple's camera team. Plus, are you aware just how incredibly powerful Apple's SoC is? To replicate it, in addition to the world-class engineering team, you'd either need to offload all that to the host CPU (which won't have dedicated hardware for it), or build it in, which you can't for the price-point you'd need.
I recently bought the elgato FaceCam, and honestly it's pretty good for $150. Much better than Logitech. It has a pretty large sensor and good software (and no autofocus!), but there's nothing magic about it.
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> Size isn't everything. As the iPhone shows, you can get very good image quality from a tiny sensor and lens if you have the right tech supporting it. (At Lumina, most of our eng effort is on the software layer) This is my problem with all the webcam startups. So what if you can mask some of the problems of small sensors and lenses using machine learning that adds a whole new set of problems? You could have done tha…
I agree. It's a little strange to complain about a lack of progress in webcams the past decade, and then ship similar quality hardware to decade old webcams. Why does everyone focus on a small form factor for webcams? Look at the size of microphones being sold today. The Blue Yeti is one of the most popular microphones and it's almost 30cm (12") in height. You might say, if you don't mind a large form factor, then go…
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That's a good idea actually, especially older DSLRs are quite cheap on the used market. The problem is I'm more of a Nikon guy and I don't own any Canon lenses. But my Nikon body is an ancient D50 which doesn't have any of this fancy webcammy stuff. Or even video recording for that matter. And I don't know if newer Nikons have webcam features. But thanks for the tip, I'll investigate. Even that cam would provide exce…
If you have, like, 1960s Ai Nikkor 50mm F1.4 with a "crab nail", and if you don't need autofocus or program-auto aperture, they can be put onto basically any cameras by means of a passive adapter.
50mm is a bit too narrow on a crop sensor though for the distance I'm sitting from the display.
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That's a good idea actually, especially older DSLRs are quite cheap on the used market. The problem is I'm more of a Nikon guy and I don't own any Canon lenses. But my Nikon body is an ancient D50 which doesn't have any of this fancy webcammy stuff. Or even video recording for that matter. And I don't know if newer Nikons have webcam features. But thanks for the tip, I'll investigate. Even that cam would provide exce…
Nikon[1] and Sony[2] also released software during the pandemic that turns any of their video recording DSLR/MILCs into webcams. I think a D50 might be a bit too old though since it doesn't have video recording. 1: https://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/webcam-utility... 2: https://imagingedge.sony.net/en-us/ie-webcam.html > DSLR/MILC
The problem is that most of my lenses are 'screwdriver' models so if I upgrade I need to take one of the higher end models which can still drive this. This feature was removed on all the lower end ones over time.
I got a OnePlus 6T here that I'm not using anymore, the camera is great, but I think if I tried using it as a webcam I'd just end up watching the battery balloon through the case (or worse).
Webcams are good enough for their purpose which is video conferencing and calls. In the end your video is likely going to be encoded in like 360p low bitrate. I personally prefer not being in razor sharp detail on calls anyway. Anyway this is the one I've been using. https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Webcam-Built-Stereo-Micropho... I like the integrated shutter better than the cover thing for the c920.
Yeah I kind of agree. We're years away from when most people's videoconferencing quality is close to C920 quality. Audio is much more important. The C920's is pretty crap. You can easily buy better mics, but unfortunately most people just don't care about the quality of their own output. I think part of the problem is that it's quite difficult to know your audio/video sounds/looks crap to other people. For most users…
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GoPro is too clunky to carry around for use with a laptop. Meanwhile, sensor and lens from a smartphone camera can fit in a small enough form factor that it makes sense to carry it around alongside your laptop.
Almost all laptops have a camera already, crappy as they may be, they still work. I don’t think laptop users are a big market for webcams? Isn’t it more for desktops where you have the luxury of space and bulk?
It's a growing trend ... if you're a gamer who spent 2000$ on a laptop and also want to do some remote work/interviews you need an external webcam...