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Frustrated about how poorly you look on Zoom, Skype or other video chats? It might just be time to level up your webcam! Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ checks out the astonishingly affordable Mosonth FHD 1080p External USB Webcam for Windows 10 and MacOS and finds it a great option. It even includes a handy tabletop tripod. This review includes footage recorded directly from the Webcam and a demonstration of how it compares with the Dell XPS 13 built-in webcam within Zoom.
Impressed? Check it out on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2K1nk1h
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A full HD webcam and you won't believe the price. Let's check this out
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Dave Taylor here and I'm checking out this external webcam. Now you might have a built-in
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webcam on your laptop or notebook or your computer, but odds are it's probably kind
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of mediocre. So getting an external one gives you a lot of flexibility and better resolution
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This little guy, and you won't believe what the price is, we'll get there near at the end
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but this is the Mosompf FHD 1080p webcam. And as you can see, it is a little standalone unit. You
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plug it in via USB 3, that common rectangular plug. I'm going to leave it plugged into my
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computer here. And then it has a clip that adjusts so you can use it just clipped onto
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the back of your computer and you adjust the clip and then you adjust the camera and you
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are good to go. So you've just done a significant upgrade, but it also includes a tripod. So if you
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want, you can actually screw the bottom into the tripod and then you have a whole different range
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of other places you can put this, which is really good fun. So I can, for example, have it over here
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and now I have a very different angle than I would get from my computer, right? Super easy
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Now the camera itself is basically like the kind of sensor you see in a modern smartphone. So it's
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a native 1080p resolution, which means it's 1920 by 1080 at 30 frames per second, fixed focus
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94 degree view angle, and it has a two megapixel CMOS sensor. So probably your smartphone's
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forward-facing camera could be a very similar sort of chip. Works with Mac and Windows and really any
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device that has video input. I imagine you could probably use this with a phone if you have the
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right adapter. Not sure about that, but it's definitely great for Mac or Windows. And as you
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saw, it has a soft ring light around the edge. It doesn't illuminate very much, so odds are that's
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not going to make it work great in an otherwise dark room. But it's kind of fun and it does give
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you a nice indicator light that it's working. So, for example, I will switch and I am actually
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running the camera app on my computer and that lets you step between different cameras and this
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is actually now on, which is why the light has turned on. So it becomes a nice little sort of
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status indicator that, hey, you're live, you're on. Cable's five feet long, so there's plenty of
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distance if you want to have it, for example, on top of a second monitor. So here's one thing I
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encounter a lot in video conferences, is that people have their computer with their webcam
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but they have a second screen and the second screen is what they're looking at. So the end
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result is it looks like they're just looking like this the whole time, which kind of stinks. So
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putting an external camera on top of that second monitor solves the problem. Now, it has a built-in
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microphone. Like I said, it does include the tripod. I will warn you there's no privacy cover
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but something like this, it's really easy to just put a piece of paper or throw a sock over it if
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you're worried or unplug the thing. That's not that hard, right? In fact, that's a huge benefit
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that you don't have on a regular computer webcam. You don't know what the heck's happening. So let
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me show you. First off, I want to just capture using the camera app. I'm going to capture some
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video from the built-in webcam on my Dell, and I have to warn you it's not a very good camera. And
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then we will use the same capture methodology in the camera app, which is included in your Windows
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10 computer, to actually capture some video from this. And as I go, I'll just sort of cut back and
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forth so you can get this sort of longer view. So, all right, let's get started. Why don't we
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start with the external webcam, because it's already on. So, directly off of the Mosanth
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webcam, and as you can see, the resolution is really good. And just so you're confirming, there
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we go. I can see my finger getting real close, and you're getting the audio quality and the video
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and everything, and it looks pretty clean. So now, let me go ahead and stop and switch to the internal
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Dell webcam. In the camera app, all I have to do is click the icon that's supposed to give you
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forward or backward facing. I guess that's designed for a phone. I don't have a rear-facing
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camera on my laptop, but it just lets me step between cameras. So now, I'm going to do the
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same basic little recording snippet, but I'm going to do it using the built-in Dell webcam
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All right, so the Dell built-in webcam, and as you can see, it's not doing really great with the
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color. The resolution is pretty good, but the colors, and the location of the webcam, it's all
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the way down here, which is on the hinge, which is really kind of a bizarre location, because if I'm
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typing, you're getting really big fingers, right? That also means that you're even more getting that
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sort of up-the-nose angle, which ain't attractive in anybody. But this is a good demo, and as you
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can see, I probably need to adjust the height of my, or the angle of my screen and everything to
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get it to look good, but suffice to say, that external webcam is looking a whole lot better than this
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All right, so there's that, and now let me do one more demo, because I want to show you what this
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all looks like in Zoom, just so you can see that programs like Zoom, and Skype, and Microsoft
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Meeting, and Google Meet, I think it is now, not Google Hangouts, all of those allow you to choose
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from all the cameras that are available on your computer, and this is Mac or Windows, of course
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So I'm in Windows, give me a second to just get everything set up, and then we'll just look and
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see how that comes out. All right, so in Zoom, you can actually, you don't even have to start a
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meeting, just launch the Zoom app, and then go to settings, and if I go to video, then it will
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choose, in this case, it defaulted to the FHD webcam, which is full HD, which is the external
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webcam we're talking about. You can see it's nice, and I can certainly move it around, and I can
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maybe, even though it's on the tripod, I can still hook it onto my computer. So now I have
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my camera at the top, rather than the bottom. It's a little bit overblown. I could adjust that
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by having the lighting being a little bit more tranquil, but that's okay. Now, by comparison
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let's go to my integrated Dell webcam, and of course, now I have it at the wrong angle
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and it's all green for reasons I can't explain, and it's all the way down here at the hinge
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which honestly, Dell, why are you putting it down at the hinge? It doesn't make any sense to me at
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all. Anyway, so those are the different examples of how you can do all this within Zoom, and then
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of course, you can also go to audio and just double check. I just have it set to same as system
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and then that gives you the advantage of having it be whatever you switch your video input to
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you also get that audio input. So that's how you do it in Zoom, and it's easy enough
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and it looks pretty sweet. So let's jump back. Pretty convincing demo, I hope. I mean, honestly
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having something like this really ups your video game, whether you're a teacher or a student
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or you're using it for business purposes, or you just want to stay in touch with family
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you know, all of that. You look better, the colors are better, you get more options
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and it just improves your game, right? And now, honestly, some computers don't even have webcams
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so for those, you're kind of in the dark, right? Not anymore. And again, as I said, if you're using
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something other than your computer screen as your main viewing screen for a video chat, and I do this
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a lot, I push my video chats onto my big TV screen using Chromecast. If I put this on top of that TV
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then I might be a little far away, but at least I'm actually looking at the camera, which makes a big
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difference. So there's really a lot to like about this, and when I talk about the price, you're
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going to just go, oh, well, duh, I'm just going to go get one, because it's really easy. Now, I looked at
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another one of these webcams a while back, and I liked a lot about it, but the problem was that
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they had not designed this little hinge correctly, but this one's exactly right. It has just the right
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resistance, so whatever angle you put it at, it stays at that angle. And how does that work? Well
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it works like this, that if you want, you can simply just clip it onto the back of your computer
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There's no screw, there's no mount, there's no sticky tape, there's nothing to do. It literally
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just sits on there, and you can see from this side view, that is exactly how you want it to work
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Super easy to work with. When you're done, you take it off, put it on the desk. In fact, you can
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even just have this on your desk, and you can just use it like that. I mean, it's really flexible
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So, let me talk about the price, but before I get to the price, let me ask if you can subscribe to
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my channel. Really appreciate that, and it's really easy. So, go ahead and just click or tap on that
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red subscribe button on the lower right, and boom, we're in. Great. Now, this little device with the
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tripod is the Mosanth FHD 1080p webcam, and it is a remarkable $44.99. No, it's down to $31.99
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with a promo pricing and $8 coupon right now at amazon.com. $31.99 to significantly up your video
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game. It's kind of a no-brainer. So, find the link in my description, click on it, get one of these
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for yourself, and you will not be sorry. Definitely a smart upgrade, and with that, I think I'm going
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to get this back on, and I do have a Zoom call coming up. So, I think I will do that, which means
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I'll catch you in my next video. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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