Thursday, August 6th 2020
Logitech Says It's Doing Everything it Can to Thwart Webcam Shortages
Physical distancing has meant a resurgence in technologies meant to bridge gaps in geography (mainly webcams), as people have found that face to face conversations and team meetings are multiple steps above emails. However, ever since the pandemic (and associated lockdown and work from home) procedures began, it's been difficult to find any webcams available for purchase - at least at MSRP. Both new and used webcams have seen their prices increased in wake of tight supply and demand equations, and Logitech, as one of the premier webcam manufacturers in the world, has been on the forefront of fighting these shortages.
In its latest earnings call, Logitech President and CEO Brecken P. Darrel told investors that "PC webcams continued the strong momentum exiting last quarter with Q1 sales more than doubling to the highest quarterly level in a decade... We're ramping our capacity to meet demand, working to overcome component shortages as we do. We expect Q2 supply to improve, but still -- it still could remain pretty tight throughout the quarter." Demand equations in a time of pandemic aren't an exact science, so Logitech underestimating demand isn't all that unexpected. here's hoping the company can provide enough units for the resale channel so as to normalize pricing.
Source:
Tom's Hardware
In its latest earnings call, Logitech President and CEO Brecken P. Darrel told investors that "PC webcams continued the strong momentum exiting last quarter with Q1 sales more than doubling to the highest quarterly level in a decade... We're ramping our capacity to meet demand, working to overcome component shortages as we do. We expect Q2 supply to improve, but still -- it still could remain pretty tight throughout the quarter." Demand equations in a time of pandemic aren't an exact science, so Logitech underestimating demand isn't all that unexpected. here's hoping the company can provide enough units for the resale channel so as to normalize pricing.
21 Comments on Logitech Says It's Doing Everything it Can to Thwart Webcam Shortages
www.logitech.com/en-us/product/streamcam
Part of the problem for what you want, is that the video would have to be encoded by the camera, before reaching the PC, which means more complex drivers to enable the video to be used by a lot of software. I guess 10 or 20Gbps USB 3.x might do the job without that, but so far it seems like no-one has made UVC chip for anything higher than 1080p. It also seems like the UVC standard supports anything much higher than 1080p.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_video_device_class
I had it on my G500s once, took the switch apart, scrapped off the corrosion with a knife and it worked as brand new again.
Take your time though, it's all very fiddly.
My old C310 died during pandemic, and I was really bummed out to see that I can't afford a decent webcam anymore... Other brands are garbage, and C920 and 922 skyrocketed to the point where I had to use one of my spare laptop cams with a homebrew adapter, until I fixed that old ugly plastic thing. Heck, I even considered taking apart one of my security cameras for the sake of having at least FHD 30FPS sensor that won't turn my face into pixelated moosh at sunset. Even made a USB cable for it...Biggest part of the problem is Logitech and other webcam makers not adapting USB3.x at all. I'll have an easier time finding an industrial USB Vision camera than a reasonably-priced consumer webcam w/ modern specs. Even 5Gbit/s is more than enough for raw uncompressed 1080p@60fps. Given that nearly every device released in the past 5 or so years has at least
USB3.1USB3.2 2x1 or whatever they call it now, it's ridiculous to see that the only USB device that actually needs that bandwidth still lacks support from the OEM side.Cypress CSI-2 to USB interfaces cost less than $15 nowadays, while at the same MIPI-CSI cameras get cheaper and cheaper by the day (especially older 5MP/8MP sensors). It's just webcam makers are quite happy milking old tech at high margins, especially now.
and if nobody made it yet...well then logitech should make it themselves.
Also how do those GoPro's work who can do 4k all on their own in that tiny body?
And also Avermedia actually had a 4k webcam but ended up not releasing it, but several people on youtube got it for review.
As I said, USB UVC doesn't seem to support anything higher than 1080p.A GoPro also costs a lot more and afaik, can't be used as a USB camera.
I mean, all the DSLR camera makers have all of a sudden released USB camera drivers for their $2,000+ cameras, but none seems to be able to do better than 1080p.
From what I have seen, you need a capture card of some kind, be it USB 3.x or PCIe to get anything above 1080p from a camera of any kind.
I tried to bring a capture/streaming device to market many moons ago, but ran into the problem that the captured video was encoded in H.264 and it meant it was useless for live streaming. The way the OS and third party software can use the video is tricky if it's not a USB UVC compatible device.
I so wish Microsoft would reenter the webcamera market with some new, good, windows hello compatible webcameras. Or Hyperx. Or Steelseries. Anyone, really. It's amazing how most webcam manufacturers give no attention to this easy way of differentiating their product (judging by the prices of mass chinese windows hello cameras, and the fact it's practically included for free on a 24 incher Dell monitor, the infrared component can't be all that expensive). And still, you'll only find it on junk Logitech expensive top-shelf webcams...
What's even more ridiculous, is that at the moment it's basically only available in NA region and it costs nearly 250USD.
...and still, even with those restrictions, in most places it's either on backorder or out-of-stock 'till further notice.
If anything, it's more viable and accessible to get a workaround out of Twitch Streamers playbook, and simply hook up a GoPro to a cheap chinese 1080p60 capture dongle.That's nonsense. Just look at BRIO 4K - UVC compliant. All USB Vision industrial cameras are also UVC-compliant (with capabilities as high as 4k@30FPS). My new dream-microscope w/ USB3.0 Type-A plug is also UVC compliant (If I ever get it, I'll probably use it as a webcam w/ wide-angle lens).
As I said, the only thing that's holding back affordable high-res high-bitrate webcams are OEMs and their greed. Just look at all of those "classic" 10y.o. models with a whooping 720p resolution Logitech and Microsoft keep pumping out like hot cakes.
Logitech gotta be rolling in the money now.
logi(tech) take this as a suggestion, stqart making dashcam... LoL
It's more about intelligent auto-focus, white balance, de-barrelling, and a sensor with adequate resolution but good low-light performance. A good quality 1080p image at 60fps is going to be plenty for anything a webcam needs to do.