By Jeffrey R. Schoenberger, Esq., senior consultant, Affinity Consulting Group, LLC
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If you had a webcam pre-COVID—maybe you worked from home, communicated with distant relatives or just enjoyed the novelty—you now look prescient. After more than six months of the pandemic, with no end in sight, webcams remain scarce at major retailers, and what’s available via third-party sellers is priced 100% or more above the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. In one of my normal columns, I’d describe different features and offer suggestions based on your needs. We don’t have that luxury. The webcam shelves are as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. So, let’s work with what’s available.
Laptops
Nearly all modern laptops have built-in webcams. Their quality isn’t the best, but they’re a start. In April, The Wall Street Journal wrote a pandemic-themed review of the latest MacBook Air and three PC laptops, focused specifically on their webcams. The conclusion: “Laptop webcams sorta suck.” Some brand-new models, like the 2020 MacBook Air have 720p webcams while others, like the Google Pixelbook Go— a Chromebook, not a Windows laptop— have full 1080p HD. But you’re not going to film a Hollywood-style movie with any of them.
Of course, factors besides resolution impact video quality. Outside, on a bright, sunny day, any laptop webcam will fit the bill. If your video quality matters and the weather cooperates, be outside. As lighting degrades, quality goes with it. The Dell XPS performed poorer in challenging lighting conditions than a 2010 MacBook Pro with a 480p camera. In low light conditions, the 2010 MacBook Pro also bested the 2020 MacBook Air. We often forget that laptop lids, home to the camera, are even thinner than the newest smartphones. Tiny cameras, a requirement in a tiny, light laptop, struggle in less-than-excellent conditions. A few laptops take thinness to an extreme, requiring camera placement below the display or beneath a “pop-up” key on keyboard. Neither produces a flattering angle!
Smartphones and tablets
If you don’t want to use your laptop’s webcam, or you don’t have a laptop, then you can turn to something we’re all likely to have: the camera(s) on your smartphone or tablet. The iPhone 11 has a 4K front-facing camera, far outpacing any laptop webcam in quality. A modern iPad Air can do 1080p video from the front-facing camera. Comparable Android phones are similarly equipped. Further, mobile devices handle challenging lighting better than laptop webcams because manufacturers expect users to take photos and videos with them. Laptop webcams were an afterthought until COVID.
All of the competitive web meeting apps have iOS and Android versions. Joining the meeting and sharing video and audio are simple. Theses apps also work with your Bluetooth headsets (see earlier PracticeHQ column on headsets) so you could be outside, in a park or wherever to take your meeting.
Going the mobile device route means a few adjustments. If you don’t have a stand or other way to hold your phone, I suggest looking at Joby.com, makers of the GorillaPod, for great tripods and handheld smartphone mounts. I have been using their HandyPod ($25) for mobile video calls. It works as both a tripod and a grip, if you want to walk with the phone mounted. For holding the phone itself on the HandyPod, I use Studio Neat’s Glif ($28). The Glif adjusts for different-sized phones and will fit on a standard tripod if you’re a photography buff and already have one of those.
The remaining potential complication to a phone-based web meeting is if you must present at the meeting or review slides. For most web meetings, a single person can join multiple times simultaneously. I could join an internal Zoom call from my iPhone for video and audio and a second time from my laptop to see and/or present slides. This set-up will not work with paid webinars, where access is controled and a single unique web link admits one person per link at a time. However, for internal or client meetings, joining twice is an option.
Standalone webcams
If you can find one, they’re the easiest substitute for a poor or absent laptop webcam. My default vendor is Logitech. I’ve used their webcams for years without incident. Starting with their website gives you an idea of what the rational, non-COVID price should be for a model when you find one on the secondary market. I currently use their StreamCam ($170) and I’m very satisfied. Prior to that, I used a C920S ($70), which was also very good, The C920S included a privacy shutter, an especially nice feature to guarantee that no one unexpectedly sees you. As of this writing, the C920S is only available from third-party sellers on Amazon, who offer used or like-new products at $137.
Other tidbits
If your webcam, whether built-in or standalone, lacks a privacy shutter, after-market shutters are available from companies like MoimTech, Huyun and Fenlink. I haven’t tried any of these but would be inclined to if my makeshift office were somewhere a webcam would be unwelcome. If the privacy shutter is a must for you, these after-market shutters expand the range of webcams you could buy.
I would avoid privacy shutters for webcams built into laptops. I would go Post-It note or nothing. Laptop tolerances are very tight and inserting an additional piece of plastic into a closed laptop is likely to damage the screen, the keyboard or both. Minimally, you run the risk, as a colleague discovered, of finding a dead laptop battery because the plastic depressed some keys on the closed laptop, preventing it from entering sleep mode.
Finally, once your webcam is in business, it need not be all dour, serious work. Check out iGlasses from ecamm ($20, Mac only) and YouCam from CyberLink ($35, Windows only) to add amusing video effects to yet another Zoom meeting.