The working from home thread: tips and advice

Just curious but whats the main motivation for upgrading your webcam? Is it now the more megapixels the more professional?

If you’re using a 12 then look at MagSafe charger stands on Amazon. Or just buy the apple MagSafe disc and duct tape it to something solid.

The more megapixels the more detail and the more detail the easier it is for others to understand the meaning behind your words and expressions. A huge amount of meaning is conveyed by body language; expressions being a large part of that.

This might not matter to you if you don't need to spend your day persuading people to do things.

(Related: why you shouldn't use the phone whilst driving, hands free or not, and why zoom meetings leave us so exhausted)

I've tried various things with my Apple laptop.

The in-built camera is rubbish and no use at all when it is shut. My webcam (Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000) is acceptable with Windows but massively over exposes everything with my Apple.

I have a GoPro which I tried but it kept freezing or having a very low frame rate.

Me too! All of the above.

Depending on how your monitor is mounted I'd look at something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CTM8NKX/ or put together something from the Smallrig stuff https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/SmallRig/page/AA9315A5-898D-433C-96FD-23DA8ADF88FE?ref_=ast_bln or similar. Look at lighting clamps rather than camera tripods

But if there are moar pixels doesn't it risk bandwidth issues (probably the wrong terminology) for people in the meeting, it's worse for communication to have beautiful res with glitches and/or audio oddities than it is to have more 'natural' lower res?
Yesterday had a guest speaker whose dalek-like audio improved tremendously when I took over screensharing the slides.

Yep. You need to be careful and mindful of your upload bandwidth. I work with nerds, they tend to amazing connections (for CS:Go mainly) so they have no excuse, really.

That said, a DSLR or a modern iPhone has infinitely better glass than a ' web cam', so even at an equal resolution the viewer will have a much better display.

The quality of the video you receive is determined by the server handling the meeting and the ongoing measurement of bandwidth and latency on your connection to that server.

Obviously it can't send you better quality video than an individual is sending in, but it can and will downgrade the video (both in terms of update/frame rate and size) being sent to each person based on:-
a) What they are looking at (e.g. if they are in 'speaker' view or 'gallery' view.)
b) The latency detected on the connection between you and the server
c) Prioritising audio over video

Ta.

If anyone is looking for a good value and simple camera for use with Windows then after months of unavailability it seems Argos have some Microsoft HD-3000s in: https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8365534

Iriun 4k was the best (albeit still not great) picture quality I managed to get for android to OSx

All this webcam chat makes me ponder the Apple iSight. Still looks great

You can even put a better camera in it: https://debugger.medium.com/todays-webcams-are-boring-so-i-brought-back-a-classic-291cc7c94c76

I don't need an amazing webcam and I don't think I'd the have the skills/motivation to do that, but that is an excellent upgrade. Bit like welding on disc tabs and going 1x.

it'd be nice to be able to use my X100 as a webcam but... I cba to figure out how

Thanks all for your comments on my cry for help yesterday. Today has been slightly better. Onwards!

That's tempting!

If it’s an OG X100, I don’t think you can as it doesn’t have an HDMI out

it is indeed an og X100... oh well, that's saved me the hassle of looking into it

I'm using my XT-2 as it does have HDMI out, but if you have a newer Fuji and don't have Big Sur then Fuji makes software that enable you to use for e.g. an X-Pro3 as a webcam simply and easily.

Thanks for the pics - nice stand you have there, alas isn't that way too low?

Surely your eyes are more than 35-40cm above your desk level?

Mine is the big laptop and at the distance I had it, my eyes fell in the centre of the screen which is what I think someone told me is what you want. I found it comfortable, but my OH couldn't get on with it. But then their laptop is smaller and they're taller.

I'm now using that tonk Nulaxy adjustable stand my OH was using you can just about see the back of the bottom here.

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..you captured that nicely!

🙂

How is power drain with the xpro3 or is there a way to keep it powered whilst using as a webcam?

New chair today - Herman Millar Aeron

Contemplated buying used but Back2.co.uk delivered within 48 hours for £900.

Been using an Ikea JÄRVFJÄLLET for the last year but getting increasing lower back and under thigh pain. Especially as I'm sitting in the chair for upwards of 12 hours a day for most of the week.

Only been sitting in it for an hour and probably need to dial it in a little more but it's night and day in terms of support, posture and comfort.

Should have bought one sooner.