Let's talk webcams

gilbert-phyllis · ‎06-18-2021

Sadly, I find myself contemplating the addition of a webcam to my office setup. (I despise shopping for technology almost as much as I hate buying a car.) The built-in camera on my laptop is fine in terms of quality but the field of view is much wider than it needs to be and the MS Camera app does not have digital zoom in Windows 10. As someone said in some thread I read earlier, I'm looking to collaborate with people, not invite them over. I am also looking to spend as little as possible, on principle.

Also, I'm trying to figure out whether functions like background blurring reside in cameras/companion apps or if they are features of conference platforms (Zoom, MS Teams, etc.). I never spend time exploring the platforms because I don't have any of them installed -- I just use the browser to access whichever one I'm invited to for a meeting.

Thoughts, recommendations, suggestions?

2a05aa63 · ‎06-19-2021

Can't you just move your laptop closer and it would narrow the view?

gilbert-phyllis · ‎06-20-2021

Viacheslav K wrote:
Can't you just move your laptop closer and it would narrow the view?

No. Moving a wide-angle camera closer to the target distorts the image. Also, it's logistically impossible.

astepanov83 · ‎06-19-2021

I use my web camera very seldom, still did some googling and found this app: https://www.xsplit.com

You need to pay, if you want to remove the watermark. Probably, there are other limitations.

The idea is that it takes a video input from a selected camera, blurs or removes background, and outputs the result into a virtual web camera, that you can select as a video source in any app you use.

Works for all messengers on your computer. Also, you won't be able to choose your original camera. I think this is even an advantage: noone will see the original image, no matter how your messengers are configured by default.

I think there are more of such apps.