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Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

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Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#491

Post by CamelRocketFish »

danielodievich wrote: post #358
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #137

If you go this route, please make sure your system is robust and ready to go before meetings. We had to ask one employee to go back to his reliable built-in webcam because every other meeting started with 2 minutes of him getting his camera turned on, messing with audio inputs, getting his microphone boom in place, and fighting other quirks. He also had a tendency to drop out of long meetings when his camera overheat…

My setup is: Older Nikon D71000 DSLR here with 17-55mm on wall-mount Elgato Cam 4k dongle mentioned in the article two good lights with nice diffusers to the left and right of my monitor facing the wall, for reflected light HyperX glowy red mike with physical mute, love that thing This gear works 100% of the time, all the time, in Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, you name it. Bootup is definitely does some things, tu…

For anyone struggling to find the D71000, OP meant D7100.

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#492

Post by thinkmassive »

dekhn wrote: post #344
htgb wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I looked at similar cameras a while ago (Mokose brand), but never got around to it because I was unsure of the lens. Especially field of view (is it wide enough angle?), but also overall quality. I saw a sample somewhere with a dark ring along the edges of the final image. Did you have any issues with that? Do you have a rough approximation of what zoom setting you're using and what FOV it gives? I'd love to get a be…

I didn't have good luck with the included lens for web camming. It's a zoom lens with focus and aperture, which is silly for most video conferencing. Alternative C- and CS-mount lenses are easy to buy https://www.amazon.com/Neewer-Aperture-Compatible-Mirrorless... and will focus near your face and have plenty of light. People will say your background blur is amazing.

Will that lens connect directly to a c-mount frame? You don’t need an adapter that will reduce the field of view so your face fills the entire thing?

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#493

Post by m3at »

dekhn wrote: post #489
m3at wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can directly with gstreamer, but it's a bit of a hassle to set up. You could try this python convenience library: https://git.aweirdimagination.net/perelman/minimal-webrtc-gs...

Thanks. It's kind of disappointing there isn't a simple pip-installable library that can do this without gstreamer dependency.

Hmm maybe vidgear can do it? I'm unsure about the latency you'll get out of it though:

https://abhitronix.github.io/vidgear/v0.2.5-stable/bonus/ref...

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#494

Post by dexterdog »

looshch wrote: post #428
dexterdog wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the macbook pro onboard mic to be superior to every headphone mic and every group room mic I have tested and I have tested many. If you have one and you are using headpones made for music do everyone a favor and set your defaults so that it always uses the mac's mic. With many Bluetooth heaphones you also get vastly better sound quality in your ears if the mic is not in use.

I agree with your statement about quality, but everything is good only until you start typing. Everyone on a meeting will hear it as if their ears were inside your laptop. And when you’re talking while typing, oh god

That is definitely true, but I have developed the good habit of not typing while I talk and muting the rest of the time, or at least when I do have to type.

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#495

Post by dx034 »

randomdata wrote: post #321
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He was probably using software, like Canon's Webcam Utility, to stream his camera's HDMI OUT to his computer instead of using a capture card. No, he was using an HDMI capture card and trying to do things with OBS. > Startup takes me, like, 30 seconds: turn key and fill lights on, turn camera on, press hotkey to start OBS, Krisp and Zoom, turn on video. Which is all great and fine if you've got it perfected and you'…

If you don’t need a “pro” setup for the Zoom call, you don’t need video at all. Nobody cares to see your low resolution, grainy face.

I'd say the opposite. I don't need to have perfect video quality in a business call. I want to see their facial expressions and understand them clearly. I don't care if the skin tone matches reality to 100% or if brightness is perfect.

I'd argue only if you have a presenter without screen sharing, perfect video makes sense. In most business meetings screens are shared anyway or there's a group of people.

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#496

Post by inbx0 »

moduspol wrote: post #139
inbx0 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not ideal but I've circumvented this by disabling automatic focus and other things that add visible elements to the preview, and the just using the preview's 720p output. It's a hassle and you'll have to manually adjust the focus so that everything's not blurry, but the end result quality is quite good.

Are you doing it on a Rebel T7 or a different camera? I tried doing this on mine but it didn't seem possible.

Different, I think. It's a Canon but I don't it wasn't bought by me and I don't have it right now so can't check the exact model, sorry. Quick googling suggests that it can be done with Rebel too: https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART17...

It should be an AF/MF toggle in the lens.

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#497

Post by Sunspark »

usrn wrote: post #296
Sunspark wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless one of the participants has some degree of hard-of-hearing, in which case, being able to see the other person's lip movements is really helpful.

I'd be shocked if that really came through with the jitter/compression/etc. IMO Email is king for accessibility, I wish people didn't hate on it so much. Lots of these tools do real time closed-caption now anyway.

I love email, but not everyone does well with it. There is no tone or body language with email, you have to read into it and if you don't know what you're looking at or who you're talking with, you have to evaluate all sorts of potentially negative scenarios. Is this person a poor communicator? Are they speaking with a guarded tone because they're covering up? Are they cc:ing and bcc:ing because they're looking to burn me or protect themselves from something? etc. Emails are saved for years and resurface. They are also shared with other people and you may or may not know.

Some people write long emails like reports, other people write very short emails. There is no standard.

The real-time closed captions are gratefully appreciated and much needed from an accessibility standpoint, but they're not perfect. More technical words, accents, etc. all cause difficulties.

If the bandwidth is good and ping time low, video conferencing works very well. You can see and hear when the audio matches the lip movements. It's awful when the audio is not in sync with the video.

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#498

Post by looshch »

EricE wrote: post #474
looshch wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your statement about quality, but everything is good only until you start typing. Everyone on a meeting will hear it as if their ears were inside your laptop. And when you’re talking while typing, oh god

Out of curiosity, I picked up a Konftel Ego portable blutooth speakerphone for some testing. An integrator turned us on to Konftel as a cost effective alternative to polycomm speakerphones, and they were indeed quite good. I've been very happy with it! Indeed, I started typing without thinking during a meeting, apologized to the group and they said they didn't hear the typing at all. I was shocked because I am in a t…

checked it out, seems quite interesting, thanks

Re: Using a "proper" camera as a webcam

#499

Post by neycoda »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #137

If you go this route, please make sure your system is robust and ready to go before meetings. We had to ask one employee to go back to his reliable built-in webcam because every other meeting started with 2 minutes of him getting his camera turned on, messing with audio inputs, getting his microphone boom in place, and fighting other quirks. He also had a tendency to drop out of long meetings when his camera overheat…

I don't even know why anyone in your meetings needs to see each other's faces. I've been working remote for a year and eventually everyone just turned off their cams. I'm one of three out of a dozen plus that even has an avatar.
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