I am similarly in a market for something a bit better than my laptop
webcam, but have not seen anything that seems to be an obvious
price-performance sweet spot
I have had this link for a while now, perhaps it could be useful:
https://reincubate.com/support/how-to/why-are-webcams-bad/
I'm considering turning an old phone into a webcam, or using this as an
excuse to grab the raspberry pi high quality camera module (already have
most of the other bits)...
Some people at pyconf au suggested getting a ring light to help with
image quality. Might be worth a try.
Irving
On 4/11/21 10:23 pm, Russell Coker via luv-main wrote:
On Thursday, 4 November 2021 17:58:04 AEDT Yuchen Pei via luv-main wrote:
Perhaps take a look at <https://h-node.org/webcams/catalogue/en>.
Thanks, that's a good resource.
On Thursday, 4 November 2021 18:00:42 AEDT Paul van den Bergen via luv-main
wrote:
Recently purchased a webcam and had a similar discussion - but with a focus
on affordability versus utility.
Don't buy the cheapest webcams - they are truly crap. But you also don't
need to spend huge amounts either. I purchased a Logitech C505 HD, and
there are a bunch of good logitech midrange webcams.
I would go look at a few device reviews to get a feel for the current
options in the $100-200 range.
I think that $100-$200 for a webcam is unreasonably expensive given that high
end phones (which have lots of things in addition to such a camera) cost less
than $1000.
I have had cheap SoC mass produced webcams in the past that use barely
functional windows only drivers with no problem on linux (with Cheese), but
the discovery process for some devices can be very ... involved...
especially USB microscopes - essentially webcams with a lens.
My gut feeling is a well known company like Logitech is much more likely to
be supported on Linux than anything on say Aliexpress. YMMV.
I generally don't look at things on Aliexpress. I've found ebay to be pretty
good for online stores of new stuff and Aliexpress seems to be more aimed at
wholesale.
https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/j-burrows-1080p-webcam-with-autofocus-jbcm200bk
A private message recommended the above, 1080p for $49.
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/logitech-c270-plug-and-play-full-hd-fhd-720p-webcam-with-video-calling-00097855070753/
Another private message recommended the above, 720p for $49.
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/207347086-Group-HD
For Zoom 720p is for a "Pro" account and Zoom support has to enable it, also
the client must be in full screen mode (something I generally don't do).
1080p is for a "Business, Education, or Enterprise account" and probably not
supported by the Linux client.
https://docs.bigbluebutton.org/support/faq.html
For BBB 720p is the maximum supported.
https://community.jitsi.org/t/1080-jitsi-server-available-to-test-with/18796
For Jitsi 1080p has been supported for a while but not by default and until
very recently not for mobile devices. It seems likely that most places that
host Jitsi won't have 1080p support enabled. With Australian bandwidth issues
it's probably not a good idea to enable 1080p as that may require encouraging
people to turn off video when they aren't talking (bandwidth being of the
order of the users squared multiplied by the video stream size).
Also would I be correct in assuming that a 1080p camera running at 720p would
give a lower quality result than a native 720p camera? So I guess 720p would
be the ideal resolution for only using current videoconferencing technology
but 1080p might be better at some future time. Also 1080p would be good for
recording videos to upload later.
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/reitter-full-hd-1080p-webcam-with-microphone-usb-streaming-camera-for-mac-pc-laptops-a-91tdms1qlhfau/
Kogan has the above 1080p webcam for $19 which lists "Linux with UVC（2.6.26 or
above" in the driver section. Presumably that means any Linux kernel above
2.6.
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/maysarah-720p-rotatable-usb-camera-live-broadcast-camera-teaching-webcam-with-noise-reduction-built-in-microphone-37whcublwxvsu/
The above is $20, but 720p. Linux support.
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/fashionstore-480p720p1080p-usb-webcam-video-web-camera-wmicrophone720p-fh1102702/
The above is $22 for 720p and $27 for 1080p. With Linux support. It seems
that Kogan is now running a scheme like Amazon where other companies are
selling through them, that's OK, Kogan will enforce the warranty which means
if it says Linux (or "Linx") and ends up only working on Windows I can send it
back.
Officeworks has nothing below $39. If my first purchase from Kogan turns out
to be not adequate but not sufficiently bad for a warranty claim then I could
buy another and still not pay the Officeworks price.
The best price I could see on ebay for a product that specifically mentions
Linux was $19.50 for 1080p, so Kogan is cheaper.
Is there anything obviously wrong with the 1080p one from Kogan for$19?
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