Recommend a webcam for home office - moderate to narrow field of view

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timmmay

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#306317 12-Jul-2023 16:54

Short version

Can anyone recommend a webcam that you have personal experience with that is good for MS teams meetings on a Windows computer working at home, sitting on a 25" monitor across a fairly wide desk? Field of view ideally narrower than average, 60 to 70 degrees, up to 80 ok.

Long version

I've been working mostly remotely for a few years, doing online meetings every day. I've been using a Logitech C270 webcam, an old design released in 2010, which I purchased about that time. It's ok, 720p, one microphone. It has a 60 degree field of view, so I'm fairly large in the frame, but it's ok. It's getting old and it's not as reliable as it used to be.

I decided it was time for an upgrade. I purchased a Logitech Brio 500 1080p. Nice webcam, better microphones, better white balance, copes with a bright background better, better everything, more reliable, but with one significant problem for the way I use it. The detail from the webcam is really poor - significantly worse than the old 720p webcam. It's most noticeable in meetings with one other person. This seems to be because it has a super wide 90 degree field of view, and I sit a bit more than one meter from the webcam. Because of that it effectively does digital cropping to make me larger in the frame, throwing away a significant number of the pixels. I've returned it.

Can anyone recommend a webcam that's good for MS Teams meeting that has a narrower field of view? Based on some experiments I think a 60 - 70 degree field of view would be pretty good, up to 80 would probably be ok - 78 looks to be common.

Summary:

Webcam for teams on Windows
Narrow field of view, ideally 60 - 70 degrees, up to 80 probably ok
Decent microphone quality
Sits on a standard monitor ok (not a laptop)
I doubt this exists at a reasonable price, but optical zoom if reasonably priced could be good

I've looked at a few "best webcam" articles but there's so many options personal experience can be best.

Chat GPT helpfully provided me with a list of webcams fields of view, but it's limited to what was available in September 2021. Bing couldn't help.

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#3103371 12-Jul-2023 17:21

We sell a lot of the C920’s and I use one personally. Great webcam with decent sound. We even have them in small meeting rooms above a TV with good feedback.

You can digitally zoom in using their software control panel for an even tighter field of view.

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timmmay

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#3103373 12-Jul-2023 17:25

Dynamic: We sell a lot of the C920’s and I use one personally. Great webcam with decent sound. We even have them in small meeting rooms above a TV with good feedback.

You can digitally zoom in using their software control panel for an even tighter field of view.

Thanks for the suggestion 🙂 C920 is 78 degrees field of view, probably quite a bit better than 90 degrees. That's a decent option. Ideally I'd like to avoid digital zoom / cropping, so going for closer to 65 / 70 degree field of view, but the C920 is a good option if I can't find anything like that.

Handle9

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#3103390 12-Jul-2023 17:55

Anker C200 does a variable field of view.

timmmay

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#3103411 12-Jul-2023 18:39

Handle9: Anker C200 does a variable field of view.

The Brio 500 I had claims that, but does it by throwing away pixels. I'll check it out to see if it does it properly, thanks 🙂

timmmay

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#3103428 12-Jul-2023 19:24

Handle9: Anker C200 does a variable field of view.

Unfortunately I can't find any specifications, and there's no indication that it has optical zoom. The lens is wider than the Brio 500 at 95 degrees, I suspect it crops the image to create the narrower fields of view, rather than doing an optical zoom.

I think I'll try to find something that has a maximum field of view that's closer to 70 degrees... though I'm not holding my breath that I'll find something that suits. I may end up keeping my old web cam and just putting up with it becoming less reliable.

gzt

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#3103443 12-Jul-2023 20:37

I have this one. It was in stock during the great webcam shortage. It is very clear, to the extent I dial down max send res in zoom teams meet or whatever I'm using.

Coincidentally it occurred to me to replace it for something with a wider view. My usual distance from the cam is 500-600mm.

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tieke

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#3103486 12-Jul-2023 22:25

I agree that the Logitech c922 is a solid USB webcam, is generally recommended and usually an OK price via Amazon (I think it was on sale yesterday for around $80 and is usually ~$100) so is probably the one to try.

I tried a few different webcams over the last couple of years, including a Brio, a few different Logitech ones and the Dell Ultrasharp, and wasn't all that keen on the picture quality on even the more expensive ones. I ended up using my pixel phone for casual video calls, and for when it mattered/more formal calls, I use a spare canon dslr I have via the webcam link software that Canon released during the pandemic to get great image quality, although as with the Ultrasharp, and Elgato webcams, you do need an external mic as well.

tieke

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#3103487 12-Jul-2023 22:30

The DSLR of course doesn't balance on the monitor as well as a webcam, but as my monitor is in a corner I used one of these mounts to attach my camera to the wall behind with enough adjustability to set it just where I want it.

timmmay

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#3103525 13-Jul-2023 08:56

Thanks all. Logitech C920 is probably the best option, with the 78 degree field of view. The Brio C300 has 70 degrees but it's a budget webcam, reviews are mixed. I liked the Brio 500 with Rightlight 4, that part does work well. The 4K model might be ok as after cropping there's decent resolution left, still, 90 degrees is too wide a field of view for a personal webcam IMHO unless you're sitting on your laptop keyboard. The webcams with 115 degrees seem like they're ideal for trying to get a room full of people at a conference table.

@gzt that one looks interesting, but it's older now, and probably not a good buy any more.

The Anker C300 looks ok, but it's effectively 1080p with a 95 degree field of view and crops as well. DSLR isn't practical for me.

What I'll probably do for now though is use the old C270 a bit longer, and try installing the Logitech software to see if it installs drivers that make it work more reliably.

gzt

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#3103641 13-Jul-2023 13:01

Agree it's somewhat cheap. The plus points for me compared to the Logitech it replaced are field and the ability to physically rotate and move it. It's good for easily compensating for different chair positions in the room and attention/slouch or different chair.

I'm aware Logitech auto zoom and follow kind of does that. It's not particularly intelligent and results can be odd.

For home use I prefer higher res and auto follow etc is excellent for family lounge calls.

jarledb

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#3122410 31-Aug-2023 21:56

I really like the Logitech Brio 4K, it is significantly more light sensitive and has less noise in a regularly lit room than the Logitech C920

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timmmay

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#3122417 31-Aug-2023 22:34

I've just ordered a Logitech Streamcam... I'll report back at some point.

Brio 4K would be a good option. It still has a wide field of view, but with more pixels cropping isn't so bad. Still, I think the Streamcam at 78 degrees/ 1080p should be pretty good.

dahc

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#3122547 1-Sep-2023 10:05

I have the Brio 500, the settings allow you to change the field of view to 65, 78 or 90 degrees.

timmmay

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#3122551 1-Sep-2023 10:12

dahc:

I have the Brio 500, the settings allow you to change the field of view to 65, 78 or 90 degrees.

Yeah, it does it with digital cropping rather than optical zoom. At full screen on a decent sized monitor I found it didn't look great. After cropping the 1080p probably drops down to 480p or so I guess.

timmmay

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#3122696 1-Sep-2023 14:26

Initial impression of the Logitech Streamcam (which would be the same for Logitech C920) is that the 78 degree field of view is still really very wide, you can see a large part of the room you're in. Sitting arms length away from the screen (which is not very far) you can see middle of your chest to above your head, but if you sit back in your chair just a little it shows your entire torso, belly button to above your head. You can zoom in with the software, but then your 1080p webcam crops the image losing pixels and maybe it acts more like a 720p webcam. It'll be fine for work Teams video calls. So all in all will do what I need, but not quite what I wanted. It's better than the Brio 500 with the 90 degree field of view, but not a lot better. One thing I noticed, with the Brio 500 the software tracked your head and centered you in the frame quite well, it doesn't do that at all with the Streamcam.

I might as well have just bought a cheaper Logitech C310 which is 720p and has a 60 degree field of view, it would probably do a similar job to a better quality 1080p webcam zoomed in, though the quality of the image and sound probably wouldn't be quite as good. There's also the Brio 300 series which has a 70 degree field of view, but it's also a more budget model, fixed focus (like the C270 / C310) and mono mic.

I don't know why in the era of working from home, webcams are trying to show everyone the whole room you're in, rather than just head and shoulders.

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