4 ms·

It matters to the business manufacturing the cameras a lot. I worked PM at a smallish PTZ camera manufacturer in Minnesota and we chased certification from MS,

It matters to the business manufacturing the cameras a lot. I worked PM at a smallish PTZ camera manufacturer in Minnesota and we chased certification from MS, Zoom, and Google for YEARs. Constant moving of goal posts, straight up ignoring us because our volumes were somewhat low because we focused on high end education and live event cameras, and continual changes to the standard we were developing against was common. These companies used the certification to get access to data, keep their experience a walled garden, and disadvantage anyone who didn't play ball with the big soft client owners. We lost a lot of business because the people specing projects would require certification. It was a no brainer for them because then you would not need to worry about compatibility. Execs of course got on the Teams bandwagon and wanted it for the same reason. I feel this kind of walled garden stunts innovation and prevents smaller manufacturers from entering markets which will lead to a handful of companies controlling exactly what happens in tech behind meetings. Not the end of the world when good enough rains supreme. I just personally enjoyed when meeting USB specs were the only hurdle we had to worry about. Out of the business now. But figured I would share since I was on the receiving end of this anticompetitive marketing nonsense.

NikolaNovak 4y ago
I wonder if it's that kind of consolidation of business that causes, well... all of consumer webcams to suck. In particular, it's super hard to find a quality lens with narrow field of view. I don't need everybody on the meeting to see all my walls and hallways; I need a "50-70mm equivalent" lens to show my portrait, that's it! I have no idea why wide-angle lenses are the norm that they are. Digital zoom of course just compounds the already low resolution and crappy quality of pixels. And let's not even talk about noise and dynamic range :-/ A $30 webcam is a miracle of manufacturing efficiency and one shouldn't expect much out of it. But I'm in the "Shut up and take my money" segment to get a quality webcam (since I use it at least 4hrs a day, every day), but it just doesn't seem to exist (I did run a proper camera with a f/1.8 85mm lens for the first year of Covid, but as great as the results were, that was just a logistical pain and overkill).
- martin_a 4y ago
  > I did run a proper camera with a f/1.8 85mm lens for the first year of Covid, but as great as the results were, that was just a logistical pain and overkill I always wondered if this was something for a Raspberry Pi and one of those Pro cameras they got. Is that something that can be done easily? edit: Quick googling revealed that it is not that easy. The RPi can provide a video stream but that needs (more) software on the computer than just a USB webcam.
  - zbrozek 4y ago
    Yes! I use pi zero and a 3D printed case with the HQ camera and a decent lens. The field of view is exactly right for video calls. https://github.com/showmewebcam/showmewebcam/releases https://github.com/showmewebcam/showmewebcam/releases
    - martin_a 4y ago
      Any recommendations for the lens? Sounds like I have to build one now, got a Pi Zero laying around somewhere... :-D
      - zbrozek 4y ago
        I'm using this one, though I don't remember where I actually got it from: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4563 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4563
  - dekhn 4y ago
    it's not terrible, you can make the pi just always boot to showing the video on HDMI and then use an HDMI USB capture tool into OBS which makes a virtual camera (you still need to handle the audio separately, though)
- kuschku 4y ago
  Have you considered getting a ZV-E10 for this? That’s one of the smaller sony mirrorless cameras which behaves like any other webcam via USB, so it'd be just as simple to use as any other webcam.
ip26 4y ago
Not the end of the world when good enough rains supreme I wouldn't put it that way. I'm perfectly willing to fork out for high quality audio or video, integration, and so forth - but the most important feature for any conferencing hardware is that it be seamless. I love that my headset has excellent audio quality, but I love just as much that I don't have to faff around with it; the user experience is nearly comparable to picking up the telephone.

NikolaNovak 4y ago

I wonder if it's that kind of consolidation of business that causes, well... all of consumer webcams to suck. In particular, it's super hard to find a quality lens with narrow field of view. I don't need everybody on the meeting to see all my walls and hallways; I need a "50-70mm equivalent" lens to show my portrait, that's it! I have no idea why wide-angle lenses are the norm that they are. Digital zoom of course just compounds the already low resolution and crappy quality of pixels. And let's not even talk about noise and dynamic range :-/ A $30 webcam is a miracle of manufacturing efficiency and one shouldn't expect much out of it. But I'm in the "Shut up and take my money" segment to get a quality webcam (since I use it at least 4hrs a day, every day), but it just doesn't seem to exist (I did run a proper camera with a f/1.8 85mm lens for the first year of Covid, but as great as the results were, that was just a logistical pain and overkill).

martin_a 4y ago
> I did run a proper camera with a f/1.8 85mm lens for the first year of Covid, but as great as the results were, that was just a logistical pain and overkill I always wondered if this was something for a Raspberry Pi and one of those Pro cameras they got. Is that something that can be done easily? edit: Quick googling revealed that it is not that easy. The RPi can provide a video stream but that needs (more) software on the computer than just a USB webcam.
- zbrozek 4y ago
  Yes! I use pi zero and a 3D printed case with the HQ camera and a decent lens. The field of view is exactly right for video calls. https://github.com/showmewebcam/showmewebcam/releases https://github.com/showmewebcam/showmewebcam/releases
  - martin_a 4y ago
    Any recommendations for the lens? Sounds like I have to build one now, got a Pi Zero laying around somewhere... :-D
    - zbrozek 4y ago
      I'm using this one, though I don't remember where I actually got it from: https://www.adafruit.com/product/4563 https://www.adafruit.com/product/4563
- dekhn 4y ago
  it's not terrible, you can make the pi just always boot to showing the video on HDMI and then use an HDMI USB capture tool into OBS which makes a virtual camera (you still need to handle the audio separately, though)
kuschku 4y ago
Have you considered getting a ZV-E10 for this? That’s one of the smaller sony mirrorless cameras which behaves like any other webcam via USB, so it'd be just as simple to use as any other webcam.

ip26 4y ago

Not the end of the world when good enough rains supreme I wouldn't put it that way. I'm perfectly willing to fork out for high quality audio or video, integration, and so forth - but the most important feature for any conferencing hardware is that it be seamless. I love that my headset has excellent audio quality, but I love just as much that I don't have to faff around with it; the user experience is nearly comparable to picking up the telephone.