Well, the real question is: who really needs a good webcam? The post is about their brother who wants to try streaming, but do you need better than what a Logitech Brio or really a Logitech c920...
Well, the real question is: who really needs a good webcam? The post is about their brother who wants to try streaming, but do you need better than what a Logitech Brio or really a Logitech c920 offers you?
Even today, I don't think I've ever seen a twitch stream at 4k. It's just such a high bandwidth to be live-streaming something that you'd almost certainly have to do a bitrate hit, and you better believe 90% of the audience doesn't have the download speed for that.
So the reality is that the webcam is going to be this tiny box on the corner of your 1080p screen. How reasonable is it for anyone to even notice the difference?
Some things that webcams definitely can't do is stuff like a shallow depth of field, but that, among other noticable upgrades in video quality, can be achieved for less money by buying a better set. You should have a softened light on your face, and you can emulate bokeh with diffusive background. You can just buy those plastic garden walls from home depo.
Better lighting and a more interesting background will do more for your compressed ass low bitrate video stream that's going to be provided to your twitch stream or zoom call than a better camera.
So is there really a large enough market that's just not being served for a medium priced quality webcam? Honestly, mayyybe if streaming gets more popular, but I also think that that market is going to be half snake oil (like much of gaming paraphernalia) for the reasons above, it'll be like the gaming mice that can go up to 9000000 DPI, because the camera can only do so much, what you put into those lenses also makes a big difference.
Depends what you are doing on twitch. I watch a lot of DJs, and in that case they're not just in the corner of the screen, they are often the focus.
So the reality is that the webcam is going to be this tiny box on the corner of your 1080p screen. How reasonable is it for anyone to even notice the difference?
Depends what you are doing on twitch. I watch a lot of DJs, and in that case they're not just in the corner of the screen, they are often the focus.
I don't believe Twitch allows even large streamers to go above ~8000 Kbps, which sometimes isn't good enough for 1080p @ 60 Hz. You might notice a lot of popular streamers do not stream in 1080p,...
Even today, I don't think I've ever seen a twitch stream at 4k. It's just such a high bandwidth to be live-streaming something that you'd almost certainly have to do a bitrate hit, and you better believe 90% of the audience doesn't have the download speed for that.
I don't believe Twitch allows even large streamers to go above ~8000 Kbps, which sometimes isn't good enough for 1080p @ 60 Hz. You might notice a lot of popular streamers do not stream in 1080p, but rather near 900p.
For anyone who doesn't want to own a webcam here's a short guide on how to use your phone camera as a webcam on linux and circumvent the need for a webcam. Get an IP camera app. On iOS, I use...
For anyone who doesn't want to own a webcam here's a short guide on how to use your phone camera as a webcam on linux and circumvent the need for a webcam.
Get an IP camera app. On iOS, I use iPCamera - High-End NetworkCam but there are others.
Install the gstreamer package, and at least the -good plugins package but you probably want all of them.
Install the kernel headers package for your kernel.
Install the v4l2loopback dynamic kernel module.
Run the following pipeline:
#!/usr/bin/env bash# Or set this to load on boot
sudo modprobe v4l2loopback exclusive_caps=1
gst-launch-1.0 souphttpsrc location=http://${PHONE_IP}:80/live ! jpegdec ! videoconvert ! v4l2sink device=/dev/video0
You can now point Teams/Zoom etc. to /dev/video0 while that process is running.
You can do something similar with many DSLRs and high-end mirrorless cameras (I was able to follow the instructions here for my Canon T2i/550D; details will presumably vary between models and...
You can do something similar with many DSLRs and high-end mirrorless cameras (I was able to follow the instructions here for my Canon T2i/550D; details will presumably vary between models and manufacturers). One of my coworkers actually does this for his webcam; I don't mostly because I lack a suitable tripod. Obviously it blows the image quality of anything with a footprint smaller than your thumb out of the water, though the jury-rigged-ness of the whole setup definitely shines through.
One interesting thing to consider is that while a 'good' webcam doesn't necessarily exist, there is a market for, advanced/very-good webcams, just see the Azure Kinect.
One interesting thing to consider is that while a 'good' webcam doesn't necessarily exist, there is a market for, advanced/very-good webcams, just see the Azure Kinect.
Well, the real question is: who really needs a good webcam? The post is about their brother who wants to try streaming, but do you need better than what a Logitech Brio or really a Logitech c920 offers you?
Even today, I don't think I've ever seen a twitch stream at 4k. It's just such a high bandwidth to be live-streaming something that you'd almost certainly have to do a bitrate hit, and you better believe 90% of the audience doesn't have the download speed for that.
So the reality is that the webcam is going to be this tiny box on the corner of your 1080p screen. How reasonable is it for anyone to even notice the difference?
Some things that webcams definitely can't do is stuff like a shallow depth of field, but that, among other noticable upgrades in video quality, can be achieved for less money by buying a better set. You should have a softened light on your face, and you can emulate bokeh with diffusive background. You can just buy those plastic garden walls from home depo.
Better lighting and a more interesting background will do more for your compressed ass low bitrate video stream that's going to be provided to your twitch stream or zoom call than a better camera.
So is there really a large enough market that's just not being served for a medium priced quality webcam? Honestly, mayyybe if streaming gets more popular, but I also think that that market is going to be half snake oil (like much of gaming paraphernalia) for the reasons above, it'll be like the gaming mice that can go up to 9000000 DPI, because the camera can only do so much, what you put into those lenses also makes a big difference.
Depends what you are doing on twitch. I watch a lot of DJs, and in that case they're not just in the corner of the screen, they are often the focus.
I don't believe Twitch allows even large streamers to go above ~8000 Kbps, which sometimes isn't good enough for 1080p @ 60 Hz. You might notice a lot of popular streamers do not stream in 1080p, but rather near 900p.
For anyone who doesn't want to own a webcam here's a short guide on how to use your phone camera as a webcam on linux and circumvent the need for a webcam.
Get an IP camera app. On iOS, I use iPCamera - High-End NetworkCam but there are others.
Install the gstreamer package, and at least the -good plugins package but you probably want all of them.
Install the kernel headers package for your kernel.
Install the v4l2loopback dynamic kernel module.
Run the following pipeline:
You can do something similar with many DSLRs and high-end mirrorless cameras (I was able to follow the instructions here for my Canon T2i/550D; details will presumably vary between models and manufacturers). One of my coworkers actually does this for his webcam; I don't mostly because I lack a suitable tripod. Obviously it blows the image quality of anything with a footprint smaller than your thumb out of the water, though the jury-rigged-ness of the whole setup definitely shines through.
One interesting thing to consider is that while a 'good' webcam doesn't necessarily exist, there is a market for, advanced/very-good webcams, just see the Azure Kinect.