Laptop with decent webcam

[phly]

Good Day and Happy Level 4 lockdown I guess

Can on epoint m ein the direction of a laptop with a decent webcam or will it be necessary to get a separate webcam to get decent "google classrom/webinar worthy" video recordings?

The plan is to have about 30min recordings for a teacher to upload as lessons for students. So basically looking for value for money (but given the current state of the economy of our pockets - budget friendly is a more appropriate term) laptop to just be used for making decent recordings.

Any ideas or laptops to look at?

Currently finding that even smartphones have better cam these days but lecture notes are on pc so it makes better sense to have recordings there so that it all looks proffesional.

 

[WAslayer]

You say budget friendly but, you want to buy a laptop just for the webcam..??

Do you NEED a laptop..? Or will a peripheral webcam do just fine..?

A really good webcam can be had for 1.8k, the Logitech C922, as an example.. And there are other good ones out there, that are cheaper but, may lack on the audio side of recording.. Here is where deciding on a budget for a webcam, seeing what is available at that budget and then finding some videos reviews on your options, will help decide what to get..

Also, a big thing with webcams is lighting.. If you have the right lighting, it can make a day and night difference on the quality of video (provided you have a good webcam to begin with)..

 

[saor]

Currently finding that even smartphones have better cam these days but lecture notes are on pc so it makes better sense to have recordings there so that it all looks proffesional.

Put the phone above the pc - you know like where a normal webcam would go? Could easily diy a little bracket for it to sit.

 

[phly]

You say budget friendly but, you want to buy a laptop just for the webcam..??

Do you NEED a laptop..? Or will a peripheral webcam do just fine..?

A really good webcam can be had for 1.8k, the Logitech C922.. As an example and there are other good ones out there, that are cheaper but, may lack on the audio side of recording.. Here is where deciding on a budget for a webcam, seeing what is available at that page and then finding some videos reviews on your options, will help decide what to get..

Also, a big thing with webcams is lighting.. If you have the right lighting, it can make a day and night difference on the quality of video (provided you have a good webcam to begin with)..

I hear you - thought the standard macbook cam would do (quite old macbook) but somehow it's not as decent as I had thought. Realizing this now when zoom is becoming the norm. Prior to this whole pandemic I never needed to use a webcam. Not ready to splash on a new webcam unless its an absolute necessity. A laptop is needed in any case so makes more sense to kill two birds with one stone. And get a decent laptop with a decent webcam. I'll have a look at the option given - thanks

@saor This was the setup today - Current laptop has webcam but to add another option/alternative and for comparison sake.

PS I personally have a laptop which is also my office which was used for testing today. But the family member needs a laptop to do all the lessons she needs to and not rely on my laptop. Hence the search.

 

[WAslayer]

I hear you - thought the standard macbook cam would do (quite old macbook) but somehow it's not as decent as I had thought. Realizing this now when zoom is becoming the norm. Prior to this whole pandemic I never needed to use a webcam. Not ready to splash on a new webcam unless its an absolute necessity. A laptop is needed in any case so makes more sense to kill two birds with one stone. And get a decent laptop with a decent webcam. I'll have a look at the option given - thanks

@saor This was the setup today - Current laptop has webcam but to add another option/alternative and for comparison sake.

PS I personally have a laptop which is also my office which was used for testing today. But the family member needs a laptop to do all the lessons she needs to and not rely on my laptop. Hence the search.

Sadly, budget friendly laptop will never include any sort of decent webcam.. As laptops get more and more expensive, the manufacturer may use a better webcam but, then you end up buying a laptop for just the webcam, which doesn't make sense if you are not going to use the laptop to its full potential.. You may as well just have gotten the budget friendly laptop, spent some more on a good webcam and save some money versus just buying an expensive laptop with a better webcam, still worse than the external one..

This also does depend on the specs you need for the laptop, as CPU, RAM, Graphics intensive applications means you will likely have to spend more money on the laptop anyway.. However, if it's just basic browsing and office work, cheaper laptop will work out just fine and a RAM and SSD upgrade can be done at a later stage when budget allows to make it more peppy..

 

[phly]

Sadly, budget friendly laptop will never include any sort of decent webcam.. As laptops get more and more expensive, the manufacturer may use a better webcam but, then you end up buying a laptop for just the webcam, which doesn't make sense if you are not going to use the laptop to its full potential.. You may as well just have gotten the budget friendly laptop, spent some more on a good webcam and save some money versus just buying an expensive laptop with a better webcam, still worse than the external one..

This also does depend on the specs you need for the laptop, as CPU, RAM, Graphics intensive applications means you will likely have to spend more money on the laptop anyway.. However, if it's just basic browsing and office work, cheaper laptop will work out just fine and a RAM and SSD upgrade can be done at a later stage when budget allows to make it more peppy..

Yea doing upgrades later won't be an issue as long as ram and storage are upgradable. You do have a point. Will have to reconsider things before just splashing on one. And yea the rest aren't that much of an issue as long as it's not a Celeron. Not in 2020. SSD would be a plus. But a simple core i3 would suffice. It's just for basic tasks nothing hectic.

 

[garyc]

As WAslayer said, the quickest way to improve the video quality is to improve the lighting. Another important thing for professional results is the audio, and laptop mics suck. If you can afford it get a lavalier mic (one of those that clips to your clothes).

In the end laptop video can never compete with a decent cellphone due to fundamental differences in the hardware architecture. If you can find a way to make a phone work for you this will be the way to go.

 

[ponder]

If you can find a way to make a phone work for you this will be the way to go.

NewTek NDI works with ndi aware apps (it's no longer on the playstore but you can search for the apk), OBS has a ndi plugin as well. IP Webcam by Pavel Khlebovich also seems popular.