Can anyone make a convincing case for having a good webcam in the era of zoom? No one is going to see a crisp image.
Most people's Zoom video is poor quality because it's "garbage in, garbage out". Barely-passable camera, and lighting that's actively hostile to picture quality, because nobody cares as long as your face is more or less visible.
Link?
I still just have the basic Microsoft 1280x720 USB webcam that I grabbed from the office when we left in March. Phone-as-webcam was more trouble than it was worth, but it did get me playing with OBS for better control over exposure, white balance, gamma, etc.
From there I rigged up a couple of desk lights and clamp lights I had around for better lighting. Then I got a cheap green sheet to replace the white sheet I'd hung behind me to hide the junk room I've been using as a temp office. Then I hooked up a Shure mic to the old USB audio interface I used to have hooked up for messing with guitar.
So now I've got the best sound, lighting, and video-loop backgrounds of the team. Yay? ;)
Ah when the iSight came out, the best thing about it was the stereo microphone array inside of it. Well, that and it looked amazing. Microsoft has a camera that looks like a crappier version of the isight called the lifecam.
It's true that the bandwidth isn't there to push 4k. But being decently lit, with a real depth of field, large sensor and aperture, and the flattering effect of a good focal length, all adds up. I look a lot better than the other people on the call, and people notice and comment on that.
This isn't worth a few grand on its own. But if you have other uses for decent video and photography equipment, or just find yourself needing an expensive hobby, you'll get a substantially better effect with it.
And I haven’t done anything about my lighting which is pretty terrible. At least I can set the exposure for my face regardless of whether the background ends up solid white or black.
I certainly wouldn’t buy it just for a webcam, but I already have the camera and I got the Cam Link for my son’s violin performances that moved to Zoom for a while.
Oh, also I use the ECM-B1M mic even though I use Bluetooth headphones. I realized Bluetooth headphones (at least on a Mac) drop down to super low quality when transmitting both audio and mic, so I only use them for my sound and rely on the camera mic through the Cam Link for input.
HFS/HSP is one of the major reasons why I'm still reluctant to use wireless headphones as my default playback device.
Like so:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24743842
I've been satisfied with the results, I'm wondering if you've done both and if you see a difference. I'll probably end up with a capture setup eventually, but I've been kicking it down the road.
Thanks for sharing the software setup! It'd be nice to not have to carry the Cam Link if I want to use this on the go, so I might try setting it up when I get some time. Right now the Cam Link is working very well; it's totally plug-n-play and the quality is top notch.
Will try to remember to come back and share here if I do try the software setup.
I’ve spent a few hours trying to pick one and there’s no standout obvious choice.
LUMIX GH5? Kind of old and likely to be replaced soon.
LUMIX G100? New, but video record limit and bad autofocus.
Sony ZV1? Good autofocus, but no interchangeable lens and smaller sensor
It’s really hard to find something that is clearly the best choice.
Edit: just saw your response to the other comment, thanks
Never had anyone say that with my laptop integrated cam on wifi. My guess is that now that every laptop has a camera and a mic just above the keyboard, we are just used to seeing shitty images and hearing garbled sound but apparently, it does make a difference.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IF-VG69DAU
[2] https://www.ledlight1.com/40w-led-studio-light-bulb-e26-e27-...
[3] https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07X37NZSK/
[4] https://www.amazon.com/HPUSN-Professional-Photography-Contin...
The term "potato quality" has a lovely ring to it.
I don't really care if you meant "makes you look like a potato" or "looks like you're using a potato as a webcam", it works so well either way.
OTOH, take a 10 year old DSLR, flip it to video mode and compare the results when you don't have the lights amped up to max.
Webcams are one of those areas where 7-8 years ago I was wondering why all the webcams were still USB2. For something like video you _REALLY_ want the extra bandwidth. Sure lots of peoples home connections aren't going to be able to feed the 250Mbit or so that is possible with a USB2 webcam, but in many cases your GPU/etc is probably much more capable of doing a good job with a random codec than whatever $.50c codec happens to be integrated on the webcam itself. So run a reasonable bandwidth to the PC and let it cleanup/compress the image. Rather than having the camera compress it to mpeg2, drop 1/2 the clarity, then have your PC decompress it and re-compress it with a more modern codec.
Is it the Sony RX100 I or a later version? I couldn't find any CamLink which supports the first generation.
I recently upgraded to a gaming laptop with no camera at all, and for a moment thought my remote working life would be burdened by expensive and clunky extra hardware to avoid seeming ineptly suited to working from home. Instead it's only burdened by awkward phone placement, but the image quality is much better than before.
it will take years before good quality webcams become the norm. we are only just starting to see them with built in IR sensors in mid to higher end models
You'd be surprised.
This is a universal problem regardless of webcam and regardless of laptop manufacturer, even Apple.
To fix this, you either need to give it the light it wants or get a better sensor/lens package--and in this case, "better" means "bigger".
Which is why you buy a mirrorless camera when you're serious about decent video in your office.
I often use my own barebones WebRTC thingy for 1:1 meetings and get crisp video.
4Mbps is nowhere near low enough to level out all the differences between a crap camera and a great camera. With modern codecs, 4Mbps is actually quite a lot of room to work with; Zoom specifies a requirement of just 3Mbps for group video calls at 1080p, and even Twitch only supports up to 6Mbps.