I have a Logitech C920 and am looking to upgrade. Something suitable for streaming.
Some annoyances with the Logitech: sometimes autofocus fails and poor reproduction of blacks. Ex: Lack of detail when a black cat is on screen.
I already have a nice mic-- the webcam doesn’t need one.
You will get leagues better picture quality using a camlink/capture card and a camera with clean HDMI out. A gopro is a good budget option but a used DLSR or mirrorless camera is going to be the best. Some DSLR and mirrorless cameras support video out over usb so you don’t even need a capture card. Here’s a guide on getting it to work on Linux with a camera capability list inside the guide. If you do want to go the capture card route I hear elgato’s camlink works in Linux.
Not a camera suggestion, but cameractrls, is a great piece of software to tweak all camera related things on Linux.
I’ve been searching for a way to control my Kiyo X on Fedora. This is great. Thank you.
Are you happy with the Kiyo X?
Very. Pretty affordable and it just works. Granted, I don’t do much streaming or recording off of it, but have been complimented several times in meetings over Zoom, Zoho Meetings and Teams. The highest setting is 1080p@30 and I’ve had no issues at all.
It has a mic, but I don’t recall ever using it as Webcam microphones are known to be horrible.
Is that you Rossmann?
A google Pixel phone works well for a webcam, in case someone comes across this post and has one.
Damn I actually have one, oldie but still has a better camera then my current phone. Just needs a new screen.
Tbf I am not sure all versions of the Pixel support this, my 7a does though.
If there’s a will there’s a way. I’m sure there’s a way for the pixel 3a
I’m using a Sony ZV-1 in a SmallRig camera cage, attached to an HDMI capture device. It’s a step below a DSLR, also in price, but it makes a huge difference to the quality and I get frequent comments about the “AWMAHGAWD amazing set up you’ve got, look at how crisp it is!” when I join meetings. The lens is really open and it captures a lot of detail. By far the best compact/quality setup I’ve found.
Looks great!
Wow, I’ve used a C920 and now a C930 and never had any issue, although I just do meetings.
I’m interested on seeing opinions too.
C920 is good enough for meetings. I solved the focus problem using the traditional Linux method of writing of udev rule which launches a timer when it’s plugged in, which periodically launches a systemd service, which runs a bash script to make sure it self-corrects at least every 5 minutes.
❯ cat /etc/udev/rules.d/90-video4linux-webcam-config.rules KERNEL=="video[0-9]*", SUBSYSTEM=="video4linux", ATTRS{idVendor}=="046d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="0892", TAG+="systemd", RUN{program}="/bin/systemctl start video4linux-webcam-config@$env{MINOR}.timer" ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}="video4linux-webcam-config@$env{MINOR}.timer"❯ cat /etc/systemd/system/video4linux-webcam-config@.timer # This file is managed by ansible-video4linux-webcam-config [Unit] Description=Periodically restart webcam config service [Timer] # Unit= defaults to service matching .timer name OnActiveSec=30 [Install] WantedBy=timers.target❯ cat /etc/systemd/system/video4linux-webcam-config@.service [Unit] Description=Set webcam configs [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/bin/bash -c "/usr/local/bin/video4linux-webcam-config.sh %I" [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target❯ cat /usr/local/bin/video4linux-webcam-config.sh #!/bin/bash if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then echo "Expected minor device number as sole argument" 1>&2 exit 1 fi v4l2-ctl -d $1 --set-ctrl focus_automatic_continuous=0 v4l2-ctl -d $1 --set-ctrl focus_absolute=0
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I recently purchased the Anker PowerConf C200 2K webcam and it has been great on Linux. Crisp image and no issues with focusing. It’s currently on sale at Amazon
I as well use a Anker powerconf camera and it’s fantastic… But you will need a windows machine if you want to modify firmware settings on it as their control app runs in windows. It does seem that once you modify those settings they are persistent within the hardware itself though and once you move it back to the Linux machine it should all be preserved.
Of course it’s possible someone has already closed that gap out already or maybe the app runs in wine.
I’ve been able to use cameractrls from flat hub to control it
You can probably use an Elgato Facecam (Mk.2), configure it in a Windows VM and then save the settings directly on the device to use it under Linux.
