GEAR: New Webcam advice please.

[Judy_]

Hello,

I hope this finds you well. I'm embarking on my journey back to camming, and I need a new webcam. I believe I have a Logitec C920 HD 1080P (please see image I may be wrong on the model but I think that's right). I purchased it in 2017-ish. I know this is like, the standard webcam and people say its great but I dont think my stream comes in very clear or sharp. I see some models that have super sharp images with the ability to blur background and it looks so lovely! You ladies look so good and professional! Id love to know what I can purchase to achieve this myself if you can share. I am reframing how I cam and will mostly be doing nude painting in watercolor, so I'm trying to figure out how to use two cameras, so there's a little box on the screen with the painting. I'll most likely keep this one focused on my art and a better one focused on me. I have no idea how to do any of this tech stuff and am grateful for your recommendations you may have to help me on my way.

Many thanks and well wishes!

 

[DJ_Pioneer]

They are using mirrorless or dslr cameras, it costs a few hundred USD for a camera and a lens. Some can be hooked up directly to the PC and used as a webcam, others need a capture device like the Elgato Camlink. To use two cameras at once you add both of them as sources in OBS and then you can adjust the size and positioning of the one you want to be smaller until it looks like you want to.

 

[cbhours]

Some can be hooked up directly to the PC and used as a webcam

My info may be a little out of date but I don't think any of those support anything beyond 720p

 

[AudriTwo]

with my webcam i do a bootleg version of depth a field. i keep autofocus on and bump up the sharpeness. once i see my background is blurred how i want, i turn off autofocus. you need to keep still and cant move forward or backwards.

there are filters you can add to obs to achieve depth a field w/ your webcam. not as great as dslr, but better than my bootleg version:


but you are gonna want a dslr camera w/ capture card like dj mentioned to achieve this concept truly. recommend updating to logitech brio if you still cant make the jump to dslr quite yet. the usb cord is replaceable.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

It really depends on how much you actually want to blur your background and how much you want to spend to achieve it. For a minimal amount of blur and low cost, a used Sony rx100 series camera would work great and isn't too much more expensive than a brand new Logitech Brio, though you'd need a capture card. On the other end of the spectrum if you want the most blur you'd want to get a full frame camera, and a lens with a wide aperture, which will cost significantly more. You are also limited on camera options as there are only are only a few cameras that you can rely on to autofocus accurately. And then you have APSC camera's in the middle.

 

[maskedsissyslutforyou]

My info may be a little out of date but I don't think any of those support anything beyond 720p

You can get a hdmi -> usbwebcam adapter for $20 that will make the HDMI stream coming off the dslr work as a 1080 webcam. The usb devices come in 1080i, 1080p and 4k devices for use with an HDMI. I have a 1080 hdmi-to-usb adapter and it works well so long as the camera will produce a clear stream (no camera statuses on the screen). My dslr is a 4k but the dongle is only a 1080 and it produces a good 1080 stream with my 4k cam. The 4k dongles are around 100, but unless you have everything else needed to stream 4k they won't make sense. The adapter device needs no software as they show up on the operating system as a standard generic webcam device.

Also, I have noticed that webcam's that have been used a lot and/or exposed to heat seem to get blurry over time. I have one model that I have a couple of and the ones that were exposed to more heat for longer (used in a front window to as crude security cam-direct sunlight) seem to new really have a poor image quality. So if you get a new 920 the image quality may be different than the old one if the old one you have is damaged in this way. I have an old 920 that was never abused and its image quality is still pretty good, but it would not have had significant hours on it and those hours would have always been in air conditioning, so limited heat exposure.