Having a decent webcam only used to matter for business travelers, long-distance partners and other geographically challenged communicators. But these days, so many of us are working from home, schooling remotely and socializing from afar that this once second-string class of products have been thrust into the limelight. For most of 2020 you simply couldn’t get a decent one thanks to supply shortages and spiking demand due to the pandemic. Now the crunch has eased, making this a good time to step up to a better model you couldn’t find before.
Choosing an appropriate webcam isn’t that difficult: Market-leader Logitech makes most of the best models on the market, and you probably won’t go wrong just picking one that falls within your budget. Once you venture beyond known brands you can get lost in a sea of commodity models, though.
Watch this:
You have to look good on a webcam today
7:47
But you don’t need to worry about getting lost in specifications. Frame rate (30fps or 60fps), resolution (720p, 1080p or 4K) and microphone (mono or stereo) are about it. That doesn’t mean they don’t really differ. Some are better than others in less tangible ways, such as how well the automatic exposure, white balance or focus works. Those tend to be what differentiate the just-okay cheap models from better, more expensive ones.
How do you know what you need? Well, if you have nothing now, then anything’s a step up. Most laptops — even expensive ones like MacBooks — tend to still offer 720p webcams, while most of the standalone models on the market are 1080p. The latter usually look much better than the former, since the greater number of pixels makes your image look sharper. And because you can put a webcam on a tabletop tripod or perch it higher than the built-in webcam on a laptop, you can bring it closer to eye level which is much more flattering than the from-below-view most laptop webcams deliver.
Keep in mind, however, that even the best camera won’t necessarily deliver great video and sound on the other end; that can depend upon the quality and consistency of your network connection.
Read more: Best vlogging camera for 2021: Sony, GoPro, Panasonic, others compared for YouTube
You may not even need to buy one, either. There are ways to use your phone or, if you have one, your camera as a makeshift webcam with an app or a utility from the camera manufacturer. Note that no matter how great their video might normally look, the software can throttle back the quality to reduce the load of information it has to send through the computer.
Furthermore, improving your environment with good lighting or a better angle can frequently improve the quality of your webcam video more than upgrading your camera.
This small list is our first round of picks; we’ll update it on a regular basis with more advice and more picks as we test more webcams, so stay tuned.
Lori Grunin/CNET
This wasn’t among my favorites until the price dropped, but for less than $90 you get good 1,080-pixel, 30 frames-per-second video and sound quality as long as your lighting doesn’t vary too wildly. It has a built-in ring light, but unless you’re close to the camera, it doesn’t seem to make that much of an impact.
Logitech
This tiny webcam is designed for streaming (in case the name didn’t give it away) but it has some perks that make it appealing for general-purpose use. You can mount it horizontally or vertically, which makes it nice for conversing with folks on phones or for shooting quickie TikTok or Instagram videos. It shoots in 1080p at 60fps, which can frequently give you better looking video than 30fps. Plus it’s tiny, so it can fit in more cramped spaces.
Lori Grunin/CNET
Razer’s unconventional-looking webcam supports 1080p at 60fps, and because it doesn’t compress the stream it can produce some nice-looking video. It also has a sensor and autoexposure capabilities optimized to compensate for dim and harsh lighting, plus automatic white balance which preserves more natural-looking skin tones. And it comes with a cover; not as convenient as a lens shutter, but better for keeping dust off the front of the camera. The mount is also one of the most flexible we’ve seen.
Logitech
The Brio is one of the most popular webcams on the market thanks to its impressive 4K resolution and Logitech’s webcam smarts. If you have the network bandwidth to transmit 4K, you can deliver a sharp picture and even use it handheld to show viewers physical objects rather than just share your screen. You probably don’t really need 4K, so it can also broadcast in 1080p 60fps if you want good video that’s less stressful on your network.
