Turn your Android phone into a USB webcam with DroidCam. I can't believe it took me a whole fucking year of pandemic-time to discover this app. My laptop's webcam is... basically fine. It's a cheap 720p sensor with a tiny lens. It doesn't really cope with low light, and the picture is a bit fuzzy and grey. If you're on a conference call with me, I look like this: I've got an old Samsung Android phone which I don't use any more. It's one of those with billions of megapizels and quantum…
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We're all stuck on endless video calls now, right? So it behoves you to share your face in the highest resolution possible. Because your colleagues deserve to see your wrinkles. Most laptops have pathetic 720p webcams built in. Which is weird, because even the most basic smartphone has a front-facing camera capable of 4K photos. Some can even do 4K video. The good folks at INDMEM have sent me a 1440p (2K) webcam to review. For under £30, they claim that it's even better than the 1080p USB …
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Here's something I didn't know - but should have, because it's obvious... Your screen's auto-brightness depends on your webcam. If, like me, you have a privacy cover - this happens: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/WebCamp-Cover.mp4 The MacBook I'm using doesn't have any lux sensors that I can see - most phones have a separate sensor which means the camera isn't in use all the time. What I find curious is that the camera's hardware light isn't on. It turns on when an…
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The good folk at Ailipu Technology have sent me a fist-sized USB camera to review. This is a cheap and simple way to get external video into a home server like a Raspberry Pi. This is the, slightly cumbersomely named, elp-usb100w05mt-dl36. What's in the box? The USB cable is around 5 metres long, and is wired into the camera. Four screws and rawlplugs are also included. Why? Because there are mounting holes at the back of the camera. To access them, your have to unscrew the base. The…
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