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Comment by 867-5309 | Hacker News Reader

to all those recommending better lighting: nobody sits in a dark or unlit room when using a webcam. we shouldn't need to buy more crap at extra expense and space just to make something which should work work. it's the cheap components in the cameras which are the problem. I don't understand why this seems to be the norm, it reminds me of laptops being sold with crappy resolution screens even though the underlying hardware was fully capable of outputting higher. they still exist actually

it will take years before good quality webcams become the norm. we are only just starting to see them with built in IR sensors in mid to higher end models

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It's not that the components are cheap. They are, but that's not the problem. The problem is that the sensor package is impossibly tiny because it's a webcam. You need more light--and by the standards of that tiny sensor package you are in fact sitting in an unlit room because it's just not getting enough light not to crank up the exposure and kill your framerate.

This is a universal problem regardless of webcam and regardless of laptop manufacturer, even Apple.

To fix this, you either need to give it the light it wants or get a better sensor/lens package--and in this case, "better" means "bigger".

Which is why you buy a mirrorless camera when you're serious about decent video in your office.

>to all those recommending better lighting: nobody sits in a dark or unlit room when using a webcam.

You'd be surprised.

not really, if you cannot see then the camera should not be able to, and the opposite applies

Tons of people do Zoom from poorly lit rooms. Not because they prefer not to be seen, or go for the gothic vampire aesthetic, but because they don't know any better or don't have good lighting in their home office.

I'm not disagreeing with that, I'm saying they are still lit, even if a little. if the human eye is able to see in such conditions, why not an electronic device?

Sensitivity and dynamic range of the human eye is far, far better than any camera sensor you can buy at a reasonable price.

On top of that, you are looking into a light source. If you were reading a book or newspaper you'd probably want more light.

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