Sunday, October 6, 2024
Latest:

Techno Dinosaur Meets the "IT" Geek

Videos for the technically challenged computer user, and tips on maintaining well-being and managing stress and anxiety.

Uncategorized 

Best Webcam for Home Office Meetings

David Logan 3,530 Comments

Video – VLog #53

What is the best webcam for zoom meetings?

What is the best webcam for Microsoft teams?

What is the best budget webcam?

Script – VLog #53

Willie Nicol: Hello everyone and welcome to vlog number 53 in the series of The Techno Dinosaur Meets The IT Geek. I’m Willie Nicol the Techno Dinosaur, but also a personal development life coach. I’m based here in Troon, Ayrshire, Scotland, U.K., but now world-wide due to the internet.

Willie Nicol: With me today is my usual partner in crime, the I.T Geek himself, David Logan. David, how are you today and where are you?

David Logan: Hi Willie, I’m great. Based here in Annan, south west of Scotland. My name is David Logan, the I.T Geek, the person, the geek, who takes the jargon out of technology for you the Techno Dinosaur.

Willie Nicol: Thank you David. Now we’ve been doing this little video series for quite some time now but it’s only possible because we’re both using some form of webcam. I’m using a Logitech C270, which is very basic, very cheap but does the job as you can see with my lovely features here.

Willie Nicol: However, for people who don’t know much about webcams, what can you tell us and what would you recommend?

David Logan: Web cameras, so we’re talking .… interesting why we call it web camera in the first place. Cameras to catch the picture, web to go on the world wide web, who knows. But, generally, web cameras are good and without them things would have been very different, very, very different this last year. Would you agree?

Willie Nicol: Absolutely, without webcams and the ability to interact with other people, face-to-face if you like, but online, yes it would have been quite tough.

David Logan: Quite tough. So, web cameras give us the option to do video. But it’s like everything else, you can have the ‘pay for peanuts’ and get the mini car. Or pay a bit more and you get the average good working web camera. Or you can go and pay for the Rolls Royce.

David Logan: We’ll stick down the lower market where you’re Logitech comes in and then we’re looking at integrated cameras as well. So, generally, we had quite an interesting period that started about a year ago when there was the mad panic to get everybody online to do these video calls. So I went through a period of, I looked at a number of monitors with integrated cameras. Yes, I had the Logitech C270 in my stock, but this for other clients, customers. So, I was paying about £200/£300 for these monitors with integrated web cameras, can you remember it, initially?

Willie Nicol: Yes vaguely, where the camera was actually in your PC monitor.

David Logan: Yeah, but it was very tinny, the sound. So, it sounded okay to me because I’m talking as normal, but the sound came across to you, the viewer as very tinny. And in some cases I got told by customers, ‘David forget it,’ because they don’t understand me. So, I actually reverted to what you have, the Logitech C270 but did you notice the price hike in these items?

Willie Nicol: I did indeed. If memory serves me, I got this item for £19.99 out of Curry’s a couple of years ago. However, at the start of the pandemic, they we’re going for 70 quid so supply and demand obviously. I’ve now noticed they’re back down to roughly £25.

David Logan: Yeah, we talk about supply and demand. Slightly off topic here, same happened with laptops. Everyone was in for laptops at the time. In fact, that still is quite high, the prices of laptops. So you’ll be glad to know that the price of webcams, specifically your Logitech model, it’s gone back down now to £25, which is reasonable. Whereas the time when I went for these web cameras, Logitech, must have been middle of April or early May last year, about a year ago, I was having to fork out about £50/£60, which is extortionate compared to what you paid.

David Logan: But yeah, to the general viewer my advice is, go for the actual web camera. Now if you’re just working in a home-office, £25-£50, £50 max, I would pay to get good quality. That’s what Willie’s getting. I did however, Willie, in my experiment, looking at integrated cameras for monitors, I did find one and this is what we’re actually recording now on. So, I have a monitor here with an integrated camera, sitting up here and I’m going to ask you, how does it sound?

Willie Nicol: Yeah, it looks and sounds great.

David Logan: And the best bit is it wasn’t much dearer than the normal monitor which is amazing. Now, I don’t know whether that supplier gave it to me as a tip off maybe to see if we could get more. I have sold a few of these but it’s amazing. But generally, laptops and monitors that come with integrated cameras, forget it. Go with an actual, physical web camera.

David Logan: Yes, for presentation it doesn’t look good when you look at the physical device, the monitor or laptop but for quality, go for that. Now, very quickly, for the Rolls Royce of the web camera. So, we’re now talking about switching from the home office to the actual commercial office now, where you’ve got to have up to 10-20 people in the board room. You’re talking about £1,000 for this kit now. So they have microphone, video recording and lighting, so it shows up your face. It also can watch you walk around that board room. It can follow you but you are paying for that. Any other questions?

Willie Nicol: I was thinking more for your average Joe like myself where, as I said before, this is very, very basic. It’s a Logitech C270 on top of my computer monitor held on with Duct tape, right.

David Logan: Logitech are one of the best ones in the market. So, to the viewer I would suggest, and yourself Willie, go for it. Now, I would also suggest, to the viewer here is, I would get Logitech web camera now as I spare back up. You never know when it’ll fail. If it’s still £25 go for it. Purchase one, have it in the back end, you don’t know when this is going to fail. All you need is for you to be 10 minutes before your meeting’s due and you find your camera doesn’t work, what do you do? Can you get to Curry’s PC World and back in 10 minutes? Now, it’s basically, it’s almost like a vital tool, it’s a critical part of your tools now, isn’t it?

Willie Nicol: Very much so.

David Logan: So, I think that’s us then Willie. To the general viewer, go for Logitech, talking about £30 max. To the viewer, any questions, send us, you know how to do it …. message up above, comments down below.

Willie Nicol: Thank you very much for that David. I hope the viewers will find that informative and, if they don’t understand anything you’ve said, I’m sure they can get in touch with you. So, all that remains for me, Willie Nicol, the Techno Dinosaur and life coach, is to say goodbye for now. Stay safe, stay well and have some fun. Goodbye.

David Logan: Goodbye from the I.T. Geek, your problems, I seek. Stay safe and healthy as my coach says. Good day all, bye.

You May Also Like

VLog #64 – How Do You Accept Your Situation?

David Logan 2,643

VLog #58 – 7 Ways to Improve Your Mood

David Logan 814

Why Some Men Still Don’t Talk About Their Feelings

David Logan 1,632

3,530 thoughts on “Best Webcam for Home Office Meetings”