How to improve webcam quality ?

Last Updated on September 26, 2022 by Team Yantra

So, you are looking for ways to improve your webcam quality. Okay, you are just fed up with your Laptop webcam. Making you look grainy and villain like in your online meetings or Zoom calls. I have been there. I tried exploring all the ways to improve the webcam video quality.

In fact, I also researched why Laptop cameras are so poor even today while at the same time smartphone cameras are reaching excellent image quality level. Why are Laptop manufacturer not doing anything about it? You can read all that – .

Ways to improve webcam quality.

1. Improve the Lighting to improve webcam quality

This one is dead simple. Just improve the lighting where you sit for video conferencing. Like increase the available lighting behind you when you are sitting in front of a laptop webcam. You can simply buy LED lamps and lights to help with that.

Like the Ring LED Light which can easily clip on the table or your desk. It connects tour your laptop USB port for power. Then you can set the light to point the light towards your face. Also, the light has three color tones – warm, neutral and cold.

You can buy the ring light from Amazon here – https://amzn.to/3cFRcdQ

Keep in mind that, you do not increase the lighting close to the webcam. Too much light close to the webcam can make the image white, making it difficult to see. But overall using LED ring light can easily improve your webcam quality.

2. Use External Webcam

Using the external webcam can have immediate impact to improve your webcam quality. While Laptop cameras are mostly limited to 720p or rarely 1MP (1080P) that too poor. With External cameras you can easily find a good quality Full HD camera with better low light performance. You can even find a 4K external web camera if you want.

Here are some of the quality External Webcam

Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam (Full 1080p) – Buy on Amazon.com – Buy Here
Logitech BRIO Ultra HD Webcam (4K) – Buy on Amazon.com – Buy Here

3. Use your Smartphone as Webcam

Yes, you read it right. Smartphone cameras are getting better in quality with every new Launch. Smartphone are already there with you where ever you go. With smartphone, you do not have to bring additional external webcam accessory with your Laptop.

So how to do it? The procedure is relatively easy but involves a few steps. I have covered full step by step here. But I will cover here in short

For Windows Laptop and smartphone (Android/iOS)-

Use Application App called DroidCam (available for both Android and iOS).
Once you download the app, the app will guide you for further steps. But, you will also need to download the desktop software of the Droid cam for Windows
There is a paid version of the app also DroidCam X of around $5 for better controls and quality. But you can try out with the free version first.

For Windows/Mac and smartphone (Android/iOS)

Use application Reincubate Camo
It works for both windows and MacBook(both Intel and M1 version) with both android or iOS smartphone.
You can get steps on how to do it from their website (https://reincubate.com/camo/), or You can get a detailed step-by-step procedure in the detailed article I have covered here.

4. Adjust The webcam Settings

You can simply adjust settings of webcam in your windows. Such as brightness, contrast, hue and saturation to accommodate the lighting in the room. Just go to Control Panel in your Windows machine. Choose “Hardware” and then choose your internal webcam from the hardware menu. Click the “Properties” tab which will open the controls for webcam properties. Now you adjust the bars until you achieve the ideal visual settings for your webcam. Similarly, for Mac you can do the same.

5. Use DSLR camera as webcam (For the absolute best video quality)

The headline explains it all. If you really want to make your image quality of the next level. You can simply use a professional DSLR as your webcam. I am sharing below the video from Engadget which explains how you can do it.

The Video from Engadget clearly explains how you can use your DSLR as a webcam. Thus

Keep in mind this method may lead to more battery consumption and more performance of the laptop being utilized as this is more resource intensive

6. Clean your webcam (minor but can’t be ignored)

Okay this one may seem trivial compared to other ways. But this sometimes all you need is good cleaning of your webcam. Clean of any dust or residue that may have settled on webcam overtime. Dust or residue can lead to blurry mage. That is why keeping the webcam area is important. Cleaning webcam lens can help improve picture clarity and thus improve your webcam quality

Conclusion

“Improve webcam quality” has become the motto of us all these days. With so many back to back virtual meetings happening. Hopefully, this article has given you ways to do just that. Comment below if I am missing some ways to improve webcam quality. You can also give in your suggestions on improving the webcam quality.