GoKawiilYou don't need a professional streaming setup to take work video calls and chat with friends and family — and, honestly, you don't want one. And webcams have a lot of limitations (most professional streamers use DSLRs to shoot content, not webcams), so there's only so much you can do. But it's not nothing.
Here are several things the average person can do to make their webcam streams look better.
Webcam
First of all, let me point out that the webcams on our list of best webcams are, for the most part, not 4K webcams. That's because you don't need a fancy, expensive 4K webcam to look good — and, in fact, a 4K webcam might end up working against you. Most video conferencing platforms, including Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom, limit your outgoing stream to 1080p or 720p, depending on the type of account you have. So you basically can't stream in 4K even if you want to (and you probably don't want to). Plus, higher-resolution webcams often require more power and bandwidth, which can result in freezing, lagging, and choppiness (none of which are flattering) if your PC or your internet connection isn't up to speed.
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Instead of looking for a high-res webcam, look for one with a relatively narrow field of view and/or digital zoom (which narrows the field of view). One of the reasons we love the Logitech Brio 500 is that it has the option for narrowing the field of view to 65 degrees, and a narrower field of view is more flattering to your face. Wide-angle lenses tend to distort the picture subtly, warping objects at the edges and making whatever's in the center look larger than it is.
Image 1 of 2 Elgato's Camera Hub (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Elgato's Camera Hub (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Image 1 of 2 View Original Image 2 of 2 View Original
Larger sensors and lenses can also help, but what you'll find is pretty limited in the webcam market (they are, after all, webcams) — so instead of worrying too much about the hardware, look for a webcam with robust software support. I'm a big fan of Elgato's Camera Hub (which supports Elgato webcams, such as the Elgato Facecam MK.2 and the Elgato Facecam Neo ), which gives you a lot of control over exposure, white balance, and picture adjustments, and also lets you zoom in and save presets so you can quickly switch between angles while you're streaming.
Logitech MX Brio has some of the best auto-exposure and auto-white balancing we've seen. (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
Needless to say, part of the reason you're looking for a webcam with good software is that you should be changing the settings in the software — webcam auto-exposure and auto-white balancing are notoriously terrible and should almost always be manually adjusted. But if you're the type of person who can't be bothered to go in and tweak software settings, you should pick up a webcam with decent auto-exposure and auto-white balancing — the Logitech MX Brio has excellent auto settings (though, at $200, you are paying for them).
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