The best webcams in the selection from Our experts

Our review includes five of the best mod­els that you should pay atten­tion to based on val­ue for mon­ey. Also, below, get acquaint­ed with the main char­ac­ter­is­tics of devices and rec­om­men­da­tions for their selec­tion.

Con­tent:

Key features of webcams

Matrix type: deter­mined by the char­ac­ter­is­tics of pho­to­sen­si­tive ele­ments,

form­ing an image. Accord­ing to the method of pro­cess­ing a dig­i­tal sig­nal, there are:

• CMOS matri­ces (fast sig­nal pro­cess­ing simul­ta­ne­ous­ly from all ele­ments; suit­able for Skype video calls, video con­fer­enc­ing, cheap­er than CCD);
• CCD matri­ces (process­es the sig­nal more slow­ly, in turn from each ele­ment; it costs more, cre­ates a bet­ter image, suit­able for video sur­veil­lance and secu­ri­ty).

Res­o­lu­tions char­ac­ter­ized by the num­ber of ele­ments / pix­els.

More pix­els — high­er cam­era res­o­lu­tion — bet­ter image qual­i­ty.

• 320×240 pix­els - min­i­mum for video com­mu­ni­ca­tion. For­tu­nate­ly, such equip­ment is already on the shelves and can­not be found;
• VGA 640×480 – a com­mon stan­dard suf­fi­cient for video­con­fer­enc­ing;
• HD 1280×720 and 1280×960 - a dig­i­tal image of high qual­i­ty, with such a cam­era you can even take quite good pho­tos;
• Full HD 1920×1080 — com­mon, but accord­ing to some, even part­ly redun­dant res­o­lu­tion in the age of falling sales of sta­tion­ary PCs in favor of mobile solu­tions (lap­tops, tablets, smart­phones of var­i­ous diag­o­nals) — in them the trans­mit­ted qual­i­ty of the “pic­ture” can sim­ply not be appre­ci­at­ed.
• Ultra HD 4K 3840×2160 and 4096×2160 — max­i­mum web­cam res­o­lu­tion. The cost of a cam­era with such a res­o­lu­tion is espe­cial­ly high, and the areas of appli­ca­tion can be count­ed on the fin­gers — and there is hard­ly a place for a typ­i­cal home use sce­nario.

Optics for web­cams it is plas­tic and glass. The qual­i­ty, accord­ing­ly, depends on the cost of the optics used in the mod­el.

Focus­ing:

• man­u­al: the user adjusts the cam­er­a’s sharp­ness inde­pen­dent­ly;
• auto­mat­ic (aut­o­fo­cus): for stan­dard Skype com­mu­ni­ca­tion, aut­o­fo­cus is not need­ed, for secu­ri­ty and pro­fes­sion­al pur­pos­es it is almost indis­pens­able. The aut­o­fo­cus cam­era auto­mat­i­cal­ly focus­es on a mov­ing sub­ject, elim­i­nat­ing image blur.

The type of focus, like the type of optics, affects the cost of a web­cam.

Matrix sen­si­tiv­i­ty to light­ing — this is far from a para­mount para­me­ter for a con­ven­tion­al web­cam, which is used for com­mu­ni­ca­tion. If the cam­era is used for oth­er pur­pos­es, the user’s require­ments for the sen­si­tiv­i­ty of the device must increase.

View­ing angle web­cams should be tak­en into account if the cam­era will be used in an edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion or in the office for video­con­fer­enc­ing and pre­sen­ta­tions. A cam­era with a large view­ing angle cap­tures a mov­ing lec­tur­er in the frame, for exam­ple, explain­ing some­thing on a graph.

Frame fre­quen­cy is the num­ber of frames per sec­ond. This para­me­ter is respon­si­ble for the plau­si­bil­i­ty, the real­i­ty of the pic­ture; and is impor­tant even for Skype with rel­a­tives. The frame rate is also indi­cat­ed in Hz. There are cam­eras on the mar­ket with a fre­quen­cy response from 9 to 90 Hz. The high­er this indi­ca­tor, the more “real” and more nat­ur­al the pic­ture.

Con­nec­tion type:

• USB 2.0 (the most com­mon);
• USB 3.0 (for high res­o­lu­tion cam­eras);
• wire­less (via Wi-Fi).

Mount type: table stand, wall mount, clothes­pin.

Length of cable: usu­al­ly ranges from 0.5 to 2 meters and deter­mines the con­ve­nience of using the device.

Built-in micro­phone: User opin­ions are divid­ed on this. It is more con­ve­nient for some­one to use a sep­a­rate micro­phone or a micro­phone with head­phones, while oth­ers often have enough built into the device. The need for an exter­nal micro­phone can often be explained either by insuf­fi­cient qual­i­ty of the built-in one, or by spe­cif­ic require­ments for it in gen­er­al.

How to choose a good webcam?

1. Com­pare video cam­eras with dif­fer­ent types of matri­ces. Decide how impor­tant the above web­cam spec­i­fi­ca­tions are to you.
2. Pay atten­tion to com­pat­i­bil­i­ty with the oper­at­ing sys­tem. Most web­cams on the mar­ket only sup­port Win­dows.
3. Web­cams with the “HD” des­ig­na­tion claim high image qual­i­ty because they use the appro­pri­ate dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy. This affects the cost of the device. When pur­chas­ing such a cam­era of an unknown mod­el from an unver­i­fied sell­er, be atten­tive to oth­er char­ac­ter­is­tics, as the man­u­fac­tur­er could save on anoth­er para­me­ter in order to posi­tion the main advan­tage — HD.
4. High-res­o­lu­tion web­cams require a high-speed Inter­net con­nec­tion.
5. The speed of the Inter­net also affects the oper­a­tion of the cam­era with a high frame rate. The best option is 30 — 70 Hz, how­ev­er, with “uncer­tain” or slow Inter­net, take a clos­er look at cam­eras with a frame rate of 15 Hz.
6. A web­cam with a wire­less Wi-Fi inter­face also needs a high-speed Inter­net con­nec­tion. In addi­tion, your com­put­er must sup­port this fea­ture. With an unsta­ble Inter­net, it should be borne in mind that a wired con­nec­tion is faster. If your cam­era does not require more com­plex tasks than talk­ing to par­ents liv­ing in anoth­er city, you are unlike­ly to need a wire­less device, and it costs an order of mag­ni­tude more expen­sive.

Best webcams

Webcam Logitech HD Webcam C270

A bud­get device with a full 720p widescreen image. The cam­era is equipped with an auto­mat­ic light cor­rec­tion func­tion, and adapts the col­or repro­duc­tion in a bright­ly lit or dark­ened room. A fre­quen­cy of 30 frames per sec­ond is enough to get a high-qual­i­ty image when talk­ing on Skype.

The built-in noise-can­cel­ing micro­phone makes voice trans­mis­sion nat­ur­al. The cam­era can be mount­ed on a mon­i­tor or placed on a shelf.

Characteristics:

• Matrix: CMOS;
• Res­o­lu­tion (video): 1280×720;
• Mode sup­port: 1280×720, 30Hz;
• Inter­po­lat­ed res­o­lu­tion in megapix­els (pho­to): 3 mil­lion pix­els;
• Lens view­ing angle: 60 deg.
• Con­nec­tion: USB 2.0;
• Cable length: 1.5 m.
• Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Win­dows XP/Vista/7, Mac OS X 10.4.9 and above;

Extras: built-in Right­Sound micro­phone, monitor/shelf mount, face track­ing, HD 720p video call­ing, 2‑year war­ran­ty.

Advantages:

• inex­pen­sive;
• widescreen cam­era;
• image qual­i­ty;
• sat­u­rat­ed col­ors;
• auto­mat­ic illu­mi­na­tion cor­rec­tion;
• fast instal­la­tion;
• disk with soft­ware includ­ed;
• the abil­i­ty to adjust the res­o­lu­tion;
• motion detec­tion sen­sor;
• win­dow with real-time set­tings in work­ing mode;
• oper­at­ing sta­tus indi­ca­tor;
• good micro­phone;
• design

Flaws:

• focal length;
• not every­one likes the mount, and when installed on a mon­i­tor with nar­row frames, it cov­ers part of the pic­ture;
• the cam­era does not rotate;
• there are white stripes in the pic­ture (solved by installing soft­ware);
• the face track­ing func­tion slows down.

Webcam Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000

The Microsoft Life­Cam HD-3000 full-screen high-def­i­n­i­tion cam­era sup­ports 720p True HD video record­ing at a frame rate of 30 frames per sec­ond. Thanks to auto-adjust­ments that quick­ly cor­rect the image clar­i­ty, the pic­ture looks real. Com­pact­ness and busi­ness appear­ance make this device a good addi­tion to the mod­ern office.

Characteristics:

• Matrix: CMOS;
• Res­o­lu­tion (video): 1280×720;
• Mode sup­port: 720p HD video record­ing
• Lens view­ing angle: 68 degrees;
• Con­nec­tion: USB 2.0;
• Cable length: 1.8 m.
• Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Win­dows 7/Vista/XP;

Option­al: image inter­po­la­tion; built-in micro­phone, mon­i­tor mount, face track­ing func­tion, 1 year war­ran­ty.

Advantages:

• price;
• qual­i­ty;
• col­or ren­der­ing;
• image inter­po­la­tion;
• work indi­ca­tor;
• com­pact­ness;
• pack­age.

Flaws:

• fas­ten­ing;
• very sen­si­tive micro­phone;
• starts with 640×360 exten­sion by default;
• for max­i­mum res­o­lu­tion you need high-speed Inter­net;
• strange, but not sup­port­ed by Win­dows 10;
• auto image adjust­ments do not work per­fect­ly;
• no instruc­tions for con­nec­tion and instal­la­tion;
• The soft­ware must be down­loaded from the site;
• sim­ple design.

Webcam Defender G‑lens 2597 HD720p

A 2 mil­lion pix­el (CMOS) web­cam at the best price, which is equipped with an auto focus func­tion and can take good qual­i­ty pic­tures. After installing the dri­vers, the cam­era can also be con­fig­ured man­u­al­ly. The stan­dard cam­era res­o­lu­tion is 2560×2048, with a frame rate of 5 fps. At a res­o­lu­tion of 1280×720 (HD), you can set 30 fps. The cam­era has a uni­ver­sal mount and a hinge, thanks to which it rotates 360 degrees. The soft­ware for the cam­era is quite inter­est­ing and can be down­loaded from the man­u­fac­tur­er’s web­site Defend­er: Amcap, Web­cam spe­cial effect, MAGIX Video Edi­tor, MAGIC pho­to man­ag­er, MAGIX sim­plicheck. Suit­able for Skype and video con­fer­enc­ing.

Characteristics:

• Matrix: CMOS;
• Res­o­lu­tion (video): 1280×720, 1280×1024 (inter­po­lat­ed);
• Mode sup­port: 640×480, 30Hz; 1280x720 @ 30Hz; 1280x1024 @ 7Hz.
• Inter­po­lat­ed res­o­lu­tion in megapix­els (pho­to): 16 megapix­els;
• Lens view­ing angle: 60 deg.
• Con­nec­tion: USB 2.0;
• Cable length: 1.4 m;
• Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Win­dows 2000/XP/Vista/7 and above;

Addi­tion­al­ly: built-in micro­phone, mon­i­tor mount, face track­ing func­tion, aut­o­fo­cus, cam­era rota­tion angle — 360 degrees; quick pho­to but­ton.

Advantages:

• opti­mal cost;
• image qual­i­ty;
• pho­to but­ton;
• aut­o­fo­cus;
• styl­ish appear­ance;
• con­ve­nient fas­ten­ing;
• Soft­ware on mini-disk and on the web­site.

Flaws:

• not ide­al qual­i­ty of the record­ed sound;
• not com­pat­i­ble with all inter­faces;
• at a res­o­lu­tion of 2560×2048, aut­o­fo­cus does not work;
• cam­era heat­ing with fre­quent focus­ing;
• hard pho­to but­ton.

Webcam Logitech B910 HD

Equipped with a high-qual­i­ty 5 megapix­el matrix and glass optics from a lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­er (Carl Zeiss). This, in turn, affect­ed the cost of the device. It has almost per­fect col­or repro­duc­tion and a wide view­ing angle. The max­i­mum res­o­lu­tion and avail­abil­i­ty of all func­tions (in par­tic­u­lar, the abil­i­ty to record 1080p (Full HD) video through offi­cial soft­ware at 15 frames per sec­ond) can only be achieved after installing pro­pri­etary soft­ware. Video stream­ing frame rate: up to 30 fps for video at 720p and VGA. The cam­era is able to shoot and focus in a dark­ened room.

Characteristics:

• Matrix: CMOS — 5MP;
• Res­o­lu­tion (video): 1280×720;
• Mode sup­port: 1280×720, 30Hz;
• Lens view­ing angle: 72 degrees
• Con­nec­tion: USB 2.0;
• Cable length: 1.5 m.
• Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Win­dows XP/Vista/7;

Option­al: 2 built-in micro­phones, mon­i­tor mount, HD 720p video calls; aut­o­fo­cus, col­or depth — 24 bit; sup­port for the UVC stan­dard.

Advantages:

• widescreen;
• excel­lent col­or repro­duc­tion;
• expen­sive glass optics “Carl Zeiss”;
• build qual­i­ty;
• aut­o­fo­cus;
• shoot­ing in the dark;
• Right­Sound noise can­cel­ing micro­phone;
• fast con­nec­tion.

Flaws:

• over­priced;
• no disk with soft­ware;
• pho­tog­ra­phy and video shoot­ing are avail­able only after down­load­ing the soft­ware;
• the max­i­mum res­o­lu­tion can be obtained only after installing the soft­ware;
• does not turn;
• uncom­fort­able fas­ten­ing.

Webcam A4Tech PK-910H

Bud­get cam­era with good clar­i­ty and quite clear sound. When active, it glows blue. To achieve max­i­mum res­o­lu­tion and frame rate, the device requires high-speed Inter­net. After down­load­ing Full­HD video enhance­ment soft­ware, users rec­om­mend set­ting the set­ting: “Col­or space and com­pres­sion: MJPG”. Suit­able for Face­Time and Skype — no more.

Characteristics:

• Matrix: CMOS (2 MP);
• Res­o­lu­tion (video): 1920×1080;
• Inter­po­lat­ed res­o­lu­tion in megapix­els (pho­to): 16 megapix­els;
• Lens view­ing angle: 60 deg.
• Con­nec­tion: USB 2.0;
• Cable length: 1 m.
• Com­pat­i­bil­i­ty: Win­dows XP/Vista/7, MacOS X 10.4.8 and high­er;

Addi­tion­al­ly: built-in micro­phone, mon­i­tor mount, aut­o­fo­cus.

Advantages:

• inex­pen­sive;
• widescreen;
• the qual­i­ty of the built-in micro­phone;
• com­pat­i­ble with Lin­ux;
• non-stan­dard illu­mi­na­tion of the oper­at­ing mode;
• ease of instal­la­tion;
• build qual­i­ty;
• design;

Flaws:

• the frame rate of 30 Hz, declared by the man­u­fac­tur­er, is not true (in fact — 15 frames per sec­ond);
• high lev­el of “noise” in the image;
• aut­o­fo­cus not per­fect (fixed focus);
• fas­ten­ing;
• short wire;
• sim­ple pack­ag­ing.

Summing up

Of the con­sid­ered web­cam mod­els, all are equipped with built-in micro­phones and CMOS-type matri­ces. In terms of price and qual­i­ty, the mod­el stands out among the rest. Log­itech B910 HD with a matrix of 5 megapix­els and glass optics from ТМ Carl Zeiss. This cam­era is more expen­sive, but the qual­i­ty of the video / pho­to sets it apart from oth­ers.

For com­mu­ni­ca­tion via Skype, all web­cams par­tic­i­pat­ing in the review are suit­able.

For video shoot­ing and obtain­ing high-qual­i­ty images, bud­get mod­els are not entire­ly accept­able. When using pro­pri­etary soft­ware for web­cams and hav­ing man­u­al set­tings, you should remem­ber that the high­er the frame rate (fps), the less the image will shake when shoot­ing mov­ing objects. It is not rec­om­mend­ed to record video at a res­o­lu­tion high­er than 1280×720 (HD) to avoid frame rate drops. This is use­ful if you need to record a video con­fer­ence, video review or train­ing sem­i­nar.

The web­cam has the main pur­pose — com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Often, this does not require a too high res­o­lu­tion of the cam­era, but oth­er para­me­ters that make using the device more con­ve­nient are more impor­tant: a noise-can­cel­ing micro­phone, an oper­at­ing mode indi­ca­tor, the abil­i­ty to rotate the device and a good uni­ver­sal mount. Each web­cam dis­cussed above has a num­ber of nice advan­tages.