I remember the last time I tried to find a cheap webcam that works on linux, I gave up pretty quickly and just used my laptop for video calls. Saw this guide to build one with a zero 2, had a spare board in my parts drawer so thought why not. I’m surprised by the quality of it. I’ve been using it for work meetings.
I always wonder why do this, instead of using your phone, which probably is the best camera you own anyway?
So to use Teams for my workplace, there’s a shit load of security OS shite that needs to be installed on your phone in order for it to work, I’m not doing that on my personal phone. They give out work phones, but my role differs enough from most peoples that having a work phone is a waste of time and pocket space. But I can join a meeting from a chromium type browser without issue. Also screen sharing can be useful in meetings. But yeah, you’re right, 90%+ of the time, a phone is the better option
I think he meant you can use the android phone as a webcam for Linux. There are apps that let you connect via WiFi, and it essentially proxies the camera out.
Ooh right. I looked at a few of those apps. They seemed a little invasive on the permissions and data collection to me
Yes that’s what I meant, I thought Apple is (like most of the time) late to the party with a feature like this. For me it’s built right into the OSes and I don’t have to do anything. If my phone is near to my laptop, I can just select it as a webcam.
When this finally arrived in iOS and macOS it felt like one of those things that Android with Linux/Windows must have had for years tbh. 😅
Like on the Linux computer? That could be cool!
Going to look this up
I’ve heard of Droidcam, which needs you to install an app on your phone, as well as one on your computer and then lets you use your phone as a webcam.
Also Android 14 has a webcam mode built in when you plug your phone into your computer, though idk if this is just a Pixel specific feature
What resolution and fps are you getting? I did a couple of tests some time ago and I found it to be quite laggy at 720.
Looking in terminal, it doesn’t look like it can put out more than 30fps. It defaults to 1080, I have the camera 3 module. That said, there is some lag at both 720 and 1080, although it doesn’t seem worse at 1080 than 720. Still, plenty good enough for it’s purpose, which is just to put my face in the teams call.
