Is Your Video Camera Irritating Your Audience?

Because of COVID people are working from home now more than ever. But that doesn’t mean that people are completely cut off from one another. Every day people are connecting with colleagues and clients via Zoom Microsoft Teams and other video chat programs.

Making a decision to upgrade your current laptop camera to a 3rd party vendor like Microsoft or Logitech (our two vendors of choice) can easily be considered a selfless act by most people. The reason for this is that the video and sound quality will only affect the people who you are chatting with. Upgrading your camera will not do anything at all to clear up the image that you see on your screen of the people that you are meeting with. The better the camera you get the better the experience will be for the person you are talking to. This is the main reason why giving HD webcams as holiday gifts is great since you are the one who directly benefits from your friends family and co-workers all having nice cameras.

For those who aren’t sure what to look for in a webcam keep reading for some tips.

To avoid grainy images consumers need to look for a high-resolution webcam. Typically 720p is enough for most people although 1080p is much better and becoming increasingly more available and affordable. Consumers should also look for a webcam that captures in high-definition for crisp video quality.

Consumers can get cameras that record in 4k ultra HD but only viewers with monitors that support this resolution will benefit from it. For simple video-chatting this type of camera is probably overkill.

The frames per second is also an important consideration. High resolution means the image comes across clearly but a low frame per second (fps) rate means the video will be choppy.

At the very minimum consumers should choose a webcam with 15 fps although 30 fps is much better.

Though video chat users typically aren’t moving around a lot having autofocus is still a really useful feature. If the focus doesn’t track the user well it may be sending a slightly blurry image.

Webcams can come with a couple of different types of lenses. Cheaper webcams have plastic lenses which is not always the best choice. Look for a glass lens to get clear picture quality.

Webcams are also capable of taking still images which is often quite useful. However it will be decidedly less useful if the image quality is poor. A camera that takes pictures of at least 2 megapixels is the bare minimum. Many modern webcams offer 15 megapixels which will take far better images.

It is common for webcams to have built-in microphones. Some even have two microphones or are set up to be omnidirectional meaning it can record someone speaking clearly from any position around the camera.

This is a very important point. Not all webcams work with all operating systems. Most cameras work with Windows computers but Mac users will need to ensure they choose a webcam that is compatible with Mac systems.

Nowadays people can connect with one another from all over the world. However if they want to be able to have the best virtual meeting outcome each will need a proper webcam.

We hope these quick tips will help you choose an affordable webcam that will work for your purposes.

If your business needs help adapting to a work from home environment please let the experts at The Logic Group know.

Reach out today.