Having a decent webcam only mattered to business travelers, long distance partners and other communicators with geographical challenges. But nowadays so many of us work from home, study at a distance and visit them from afar that these once second-class products have been put in the spotlight. During most of 2020, you simply could not be decent, due to the shortage of supply and the strong demand due to the pandemic. Now the predicament has been eased, making it a great time to step up to a better model you have not found before.
Choosing an appropriate webcam is not that difficult: the market leader, Logitech, makes most of the best models on the market, and you probably would not go wrong choosing just one that falls within your budget. However, once you venture outside of well-known brands, you can get lost in a sea of commodity models.
Look at this:
You need to look good on a webcam today
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But you do not have to worry about the loss in specifications. Frame rate (30 fps or 60 fps), resolution (720p, 1080p or 4K) and microphone (mono or stereo) are all about that. That doesn’t mean they don’t really differ. Some are better than others in less tangible ways, such as how well the automatic exposure, white balance or focus works. It tends to distinguish the cheap cheap models from better, more expensive.
How do you know what you need? Well, if you have nothing now, then anything is a step up. Most laptops – even expensive like MacBooks – tends to still offer 720p webcams, while most standalone models on the market are 1080p. The latter usually looks much better than the former, as the larger number of pixels makes your image look sharper. And because you can put a webcam on a tabletop or put it higher than the built-in webcam on a laptop, you can bring it closer to eye level, which is much more flattering than most laptops see from the bottom down.
However, keep in mind that even the best camera will not necessarily deliver good video and audio on the other hand; This may depend on the quality and consistency of your network connection.
Read more: Best vlogging camera for 2021: Sony, GoPro, Panasonic, others compared to YouTube
You may not even need to buy one. There are ways to use your phone or, if you have one, your camera as an improvised webcam with an app or application from the camera manufacturer. Note that the software, no matter how good their video normally looks, can degrade the quality to reduce the amount of information it has to send through the computer.
Further, improving your environment with good lighting or a better angle, it can improve the quality of your webcam video more often than upgrading your camera.
This small list is our first choice; we will update it regularly with more advice and more choices as we test more webcams, so stay tuned.
Lori Grunin / CNET
It was not one of my favorites before the price dropped, but for less than $ 90 you get a good 1,080 pixels, 30 frames per second video and audio quality, as long as your lighting does not differ too wildly. It has a built-in ring light, but unless you are near the camera, it apparently does not have as much impact.
Logitech
This small webcam is designed for streaming (if the name does not give it away), but it has some advantages that make it attractive for general purposes. You can mount it horizontally or vertically, making it fun to chat with people on phones or to record quick TikTok or Instagram videos. It takes in 1080p at 60 fps, which you can often see better than 30 fps. On top of that, it is small so that it can fit in more cramped spaces.
Read more about the Logitech StreamCam.
Lori Grunin / CNET
Razer’s unconventional webcam supports 1080p at 60 fps, and because it does not compress the stream, it can produce beautiful video. It also has a sensor and auto-exposure capability optimized to compensate for dull and harsh lighting, plus automatic white balance that retains the natural skin tone. And it comes with a cover; not as convenient as a lens shutter, but better to keep dust away from the front of the camera. The mountain is also one of the smoothest we have seen.
Read Razer Kiyo Pro practical.
Logitech
The Brio is one of the most popular webcams on the market, thanks to the impressive 4K resolution and Logitech’s webcam smart. If you have the network bandwidth to broadcast 4K, you can render a sharp image and even use it manually to show physical objects to viewers rather than just sharing your screen. You probably do not really need 4K, so it can also be broadcast in 1080p 60fps if you want good video that is less stressful on your network.
Read our preview of Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam.