Hi all
It looks like I will be chairing more calls. Oh yes.
At the moment I use a cheap Dell laptop with a built in camera.
Not great.
If I wanted to improve the quality of the picture and sound, what would be the best way? Hoping to keep any investment below £100. Realistically I may buy another laptop at some point, so perhaps I should just do that instead.
TIA
AO
After reading a recent thread on here on trying to reduce the field of view, I came across this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NY8wWo_VBs. Lots of tips on improving things, especially lighting and background. Buying a new laptop might not sort your issues, so it's worth seeing what else you can do to improve things first.
Have thought about this too.
However, by buying a better camera and better microphone, I felt it would improve what others could see or hear of me...but would not improve what I see or hear of them (which largely would depend on their quality of camera and microphone and perhaps my speakers / monitor to a smaller extent). In the end I left as it was.
Last edited by Boss13; 19th January 2021 at 12:51.
Thanks for the links, Hugh.
Boss, yes I've put up with poor quality for ages too. Thought this thread would help me do something about it.
For your budget, I'd recommend this webcam with built-in microphone. £100 in Argos. :)
Razer Kiyo HD Desktop Streaming Webcam
For my wife's zoom/ skype calls, we have set up a larger PC screen and a Logitec 270 web cab connected through the laptop. It seems to work just fine and with a larger screen, it can be placed further away from you , with the camera perched on top of the screen, meaning that one appears to be actually looking directly at your caller rather than looking a bit distracted.
https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/produ...60-001063.html
Last edited by notnowkato; 19th January 2021 at 12:55.
If you've got one of the compatible interchangeable lens cameras (some point and shoots also work) from Nikon, Sony, Olympus and Fuji (maybe also others) you can get excellent performance by using the manufacturer's beta webcam software.
Have a look on the camera manufacturer's website to see if your model is supported - they're mostly fairly recent ones (I've got a Sony and an Olympus that work). Lots of YouTube videos there to tell you how to set everything up.
It's then free, although you'll need to support the camera properly so it doesn't expensively fall over. If you're doing a lot of videoconferencing you'll be better off getting a so-called 'dummy battery' to power the camera - my Sony one cost around £20 from Amazon.
That video looks to have sensible advice - so many people appear as fuzzy silhouettes via a hopeless laptop webcam in 'up-nostril view' and with cluttered office backgrounds, even in professional meetings. I invested in a simple dull-grey photo background sheet to hide the clutter in the study, and I use my daylight balanced battery-powered LED light (another £20 from Amazon) to give some soft front light, and the effect is MILES batter.
Using the Sony webcam software with a full frame mirrorless camera body and fast 55mm prime lens allows a much narrower field of view and throws the background nicely out of focus. The camera auto-focuses on me with the face-tracking feature set.
I'm running at standard HD resolution (around 1080p) and that is perfectly good enough to look head and shoulders above most other people's images. I believe all laptop cameras run at 720, and the lenses, field of view etc on most stand-alone webcams under a couple of hundred quid are pretty rubbish.
It is possible to run a DSLR/mirrorless camera setup at 4K, but that's overkill unless you're making high-quality recorded videos and it might overload the connection: you also need to add an Elgato CamLink adapter, £100 for a real one.
Anyone having trouble with setting up a Sony camera is welcome to PM me and I can send links to the web & YouTube resources I found useful.
^Great, that's exactly what I was hoping for as a slightly non-technically literate amateur. Time for some experimentation.
Originally Posted by AlphaOmega
If you decide to go for a separate camera and microphone - this microphone is a belter for the price:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Directional...1060608&sr=8-9
^Thanks A, your timing is perfect. I was just putting a few things in my Amazon shopping basket.
I have a Logitech C920 webcam (currently £90 on Amazon) and a Samson Meteor USB mic (about £75). Works nicely in moderate natural light. Decent bandwidth connection needed of course.
Whilst good video is helpful, getting the audio optimal will help more for enabling your audience to understand you.
I use the Logitech c920 webcam too and it works well, far better than the internal camera on my laptop. I also found that using a large external monitor really helps to make the calls feel more natural and interactive, since you are not looking at tiny images of the other participants.
Yes, I think a mike will be next. May as well, seems like video calling won't return to 2018 levels again.
Six months ago decent webcams like that were all either “currently unavailable” or £250+ on Amazon. That was what prompted me to set up my Sony camera (at a cost of £20 for the power supply).
My new web cam is excellent, thanks to this thread.
All my faults are shown in glorious technicolour.
Only thing is, the laptop mike is awful.
Any recommendations for something cheap that will be an improvement?
TIA
AO
I use a Rode clip-on cabled mic, but I do a lot of videoconferencing professionally now and you can probably get something that’s a lot better than your laptop for less money, plus maybe with a Bluetooth connection. Mine’s very good, though, and now around £57: search on Amazon for “RØDE Lavalier GO Professional-grade wearable microphone”.
Worth mentioning that one of the main advantages of the better mics is that they’re very good at rejecting competing sounds and avoiding feedback from your speakers. Always worth testing whatever system you go for to make sure it’s OK in your particular environment: my Rode is excellent for that.
Last edited by drmarkf; 25th January 2021 at 15:36.
^Thanks Dr. Mark, appreciated.
Capt'n, thanks for the prompt, that is very kind, I missed that and will put £10 in the fundraiser as a thank you.
Another option currently cheap in the amazon warehouse:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trust-Strea...s%2C156&sr=8-1
or if you want a headset:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-H3...%2C176&sr=8-20
^Perfect. They have suggested a headset as well. Top stuff, A. Thanks.
Appreciate the help, donation made.
Apologies if my post sounded terse, I was trying (poorly) to multi task at the time
This is a great mic for little money https://www.wexphotovideo.com/boya-l...phone-1746119/
My setup is Logitech 920 and Jabra Speak 510, never had any complaints about video or audio quality
I have heard good things about the Camo app (if you have an iPhone)
It was perfect timing, I'd missed it.
Thanks Maris.
- - - Updated - - -
Great, I'll check those as well.
The most important thing about Teams that most people miss is that when you set up meetings is going into "meeting options" and unclick "allow attendees to unmute" - then claim there is something wrong because nobody else can speak and call the meeting to a close.
Jabra are fantastic for sound (both mike and speaker).
Noted, that's something I'm likely to do.
I need to buy kit for the children too, so that sounds good.
Wait until one of the other participants goes out of shot to answer the door or something, take a screenshot of their room, set it as your background and then see how long it takes anybody to notice.
It doesn't improve the quality of the picture or sound but it does improve my enjoyment levels.
Last edited by Mr Curta; 14th February 2021 at 11:20.
Don't just do something, sit there. - TNH
Brilliant advice on here, thanks everyone.
Re Mics though, which one of these two recommended might be the better buy ?
or
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trust-Strea...56&sr=8-1&th=1
Thanks very much
Daz workplaice bullyin I’m gonna see human resorses
I'll just leave this here...
I got a spare one from the office which my eldest uses for school and he finds it much easier to hear, so well worth it.
Is the general consensus a wearable mic is the best mic solution?
I bought my wife the Jabra 510 USB puck but it isn't that good at home as it won't integrate fully with the overall computer, just Teams. Wouldn't work in Zoom at all even when selected in the settings. The USP is portability, not great WFH.
I bought some Bose speakers for myself and I really like them but she would need a mic with that setup. Any recommendations?
Hi wileeeey I bought the mic AS recommended and it's great. Just plug and go, quality is excellent.
That’s weird Wiley, I have the same and it works really well with all platforms I use (Teams, WebEx, Skype, Zoom). I’m sure you have, but worth checking the main sound settings if not.
Thanks guys. I have the separate mic in my basket while I research it a bit more. Not sure how it'll work with separate speakers and picking up just voice or if you need a hub of some sort to make it work.
All laptops at my wife's work are locked down beyond belief. Bluetooth is disabled, nothing nornal works, they see everything as a security risk. You'd think they were working for MI5 and not just a website. I'll double check her settings tomorrow in case it's all user error as I have to admit on Friday I took her word for it.
I get very good results and rejection of extraneous sounds with my Rode Lavalier plug-in mic, but before getting that I also found a Jabra UC Voice plug-in headset with boom mic to be excellent (but I wanted to get away from looking like a call centre drone!).
Several people I know who do podcasting use plug-in desk mics on stands, with pop shields etc, and I suspect they're best for ultimate quality.
I do - I like to pretend I'm a hospital DJ. 😂
Camera: Apeman A80 action camera with Cvivid Lens 72 Degree. The Apeman can be used as a webcam, and takes 12mm lenses, so there are quite a few lenses available. On a moveable camera stand. I think that my DIY document camera uses the same lens. Decent for the price.
Microphone: Behringer XM8500 (dynamic, for voice) run through a SSL 2 audio interface. On a boom.
But, the big thing for me (teaching and meetings) is that today I got a new monitor. BenQ 25" (16:9) Designer Monitor (PD2500Q). 2k resolution. It replaces a basic ViewSonic 24" (16:10) 1920x1200 that I got used in 2016. What a difference! The increased resolution is wonderful. Enough room for a Teams meeting window and a document at the side. It will be better for photography as well, I suspect.
Best wishes,
Bob
Last edited by rfrazier; 9th March 2021 at 16:35.
Hello Bob
I'm interested in your use of the Apeman - does it function out of the box as a webcam or do you need to run something like OBS Studio to manage the input into your video conferencing application? Also, I assume no issues with lip sync?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
It works straight out of the box, although I changed the lens, and generally use it with OBS.
When teaching, I generally use it with OBS so I can also use a secondary document camera at the same time. When doing the latter, I have the Apeman) output in a corner showing me, and the output of the document camera (a DIY jobbie) as the main output. The document camera is used like a whiteboard and/or powerpoint like output[1], but which allows me to write on the "slide". Roughly, I have a camera point to a piece of paper with preprinted stuff on it, which I can annotate, or whatever. Since OBS lets me change "scenes" with a click, if I don't need the document camera output, I use the Apeman output (showing me) as the main output, e.g., when in a meeting. The actual "camera" being used is a virtual camera (v4l loopback) showing whatever I output with OBS.
When we did admission interviews in December, I used the Apeman without OBS. This was simply to reduce the changes of any technical glitches, given that the interviewees were spread out all over the world, and there was a very tight schedule.
No one has said anything about lip sync.
[1] For slides, I use LaTeX beamer presentation slides, printed to paper.
Best wishes,
Bob
PS The Apeman is an A80. I don't know whether other models can be used as webcams. I think that the A79 can be, but I'm not sure.
RLF
Last edited by rfrazier; 22nd March 2021 at 21:43.
OP is using your smartphone not an option. This is something already designed for voice transmission and cameras in them are very good.
When we've had to use teams for meetings I always use my phone and a Bluetooth earpiece with built in mic. I then have free reign of the laptop as well.
Thanks Bob for the comprehensive reply. On the basis that I'm likely to use such a device 98% as a webcam and only 2% for strapping to the dog's back when he's swimming I think I'll forgo the cost of a GoPro.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
Here's a picture of the document camera. Very agricultural. Works perfectly.
Disassembled a cheapo 1080p webcam.
Replacement lens with a narrower FOV.
Kludged together stand.
Spare led strip light in a bit of plastic cable trunking covered in cloth hockey stick tape.
12V 1A led driver.
Spare buck converter to smooth out the power in order to eliminate flickering.
Dimmer.
It is one of those cases where the idea was to make a prototype, experiment with it until everything works correctly, then make it nice, but, in the end, can't be bothered. :)
Best wishes,
Bob
Well, my attempt to use the Apeman didn't go quite as smoothly. The camera would only display properly in Teams/Zoom/Skype at the lowest possible resolution and a week with their so-called help desk ended with a terse message that it's really only intended as an Action Cam and they don't support webcam usage. I'm assuming that either your use of Linux or OBS made a difference for you, Bob, as it certainly doesn't work out of the box as was hoped. Given I managed to get €20 off the low price I'll be happy to keep it for taking some underwater pictures of the dog when the weather improves.
Thanks to some pointers from a member here (you know who you are!) I actually ended up building a webcam using a Raspberry PI following the guide below and 1st impressions are quite good - at the moment I think I've got it running at something like 720p but the additional optics certainly make for a sharper image. I intend to do some tweaking when I get a moment - probably to see if 1080 can be achieved - and I'm also thinking about getting a slightly wider lens. 4K isn't even technically possible on the current Raspberry hardware but it's something I will definitely keep on the roadmap. I think the next area for investigation is lighting - probably some LED panels I can clip to my monitors.
This is the build I'm on at the moment:
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/20...usb-webcam-100
I had a go at this version but ran into some technical issues that I didn't have time to fully troubleshoot. When I get a minute I intend to have another go on a spare SD card.
http://www.davidhunt.ie/raspberry-pi...as-usb-webcam/
What I like about the Raspberry PI option is the ability to tweak the config using ssh or VNC.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
This looks interesting. Should be a decent camera for WFH and not loads of money, just in time for us to all be dragged back to the office. Speaker looks interesting too, wonder how it compares to the Jabra puck.
https://www.theverge.com/22381422/mi...s-release-date
CB
This may (or may not) be of interest I noticed a direct to usb board that allows native use of pi cams and seems to allow for resolution adjustment etc.
https://thepihut.com/products/hq-cam...kaAqmbEALw_wcB
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