ELPFHD 1080P Zoom Webcam,Wide Angle 2.8-12mm Variable Focus Lens,2MP IMX323 Sensor Web Camera 0.01Lux Low Illumination Laptop PC Video Conference USB2.0 Camera for Windows/Linux/Raspberry Pi

This is not your typical webcam camera! This camera allows for manual adjustments of focus, aperture and focal length, it gives the user a lot to work with to set up the camera for specific professional needs. The quality of the footage is fantastic throughout, and shouldn't just be compared to a bog-standard webcam due to the features it includes. It was really fast and easy to set up on my PC at home.

This ELP 1080p web camera with 2.8-12mm zoom lens is surprisingly sturdily built, having a strong metal casing and weighing in at 180g. The underside has a metal plate with a standard quarter inch British Standard Whitworth threaded hole in it so that it will fit just about anything that is camera related.The body measures roughly 5 x 5cm with the length including the lens at 9cm. The connecting cable comes out of the back and is around 5mm in diameter. It terminates in a USB A plug and has a small diameter connector (roughly 10mm in diameter) around 35cm from the camera allowing you to thread it through holes in enclosures and so on and then plug it back into the lead that has the USB plug on the end.The lens is CS-mount f/1.4 for a 1/2.5" sensor and allows you to zoom from 2.8mm to 12mm (zoom factor of 4.3) as well as focus and there is also a collar for adjusting the iris - there is little chromatic aberration although barrel distortion is always there and starts to take over at wide angle.The zoom and focus rings have a 'handle' with a knurled knob with a screwdriver slot in the end so that once you have set them to the required positions, you can lock them off which is very handy if you are going to be using this in a permanent installation. However, if you are going to be adjusting them a lot, it is worth knowing that they have a tendency to fall out, onto the floor so it is worth tightening them up finger tight at regular intervals or taking them out and putting them in a safe place - it operates just as well without them, it is just not locked.You can see from the photograph with the spectrum in it that it has a reasonably even response over the spectrum which used sunlight as the source although it seems to be a bit short at the ends.The USB plug will fit your smartphone when using an adaptor and with an appropriate application, you can record video or take images just about anywhere that is above water level. With it plugged into your computer, you normally have access to greater storage and so onThis is a rugged little camera that takes decent shots and video; and has a standard lens mount if you want to change the lens. It has an aperture of f/1.4, making it good in low light levels.

This web cam was incredibly easy to set up, it was literally plug and play. Super simple to add in OBS and the visual quality is excellent, it looks crystal clear in 4K 30fps. It has a standard 1/4" (I think) tripod style thread in the base so easy to mount on an arm, clamp or tripod.The lens is surprisingly nice for it's size. It is CS mount so there are loads of options available for swapping it out if a different range of focal length is needed. Focus, aperture and focal length all adjust easily and smoothly. There is quite a lot of lens breathing across the range and some obvious vignetting at mid distances, but once it's set it seems rock solid, especially with the little threaded lock pins. Towards the longer end of the 2.8-12mm depth of field gets quite narrow, so for close shots I do get a nice bit of subtle background blurring. Still clear enough to make out shapes of things, but it looks really good.A couple of minor niggles I had are that the sensor had dirt/dust on it when I first used it, and I had to get the lens duster out to clean it (all good now though), also whatever the auto gain / iso on the sensor is doing seems to be a bit prone to blowing out the highlights, this can be overcome indoors easily with lighting, or by adjusting the aperture down but going too far with this affects the crispness of the focus, especially at longer distances. Not a big issue for indoor work but if you wanted to set up a window wildlife cam for example you are going to loose sky definition, everything else looks great though.I think this is perfect as a fixed focus cam if you need some high quality view for recording or streaming, especially something like as an overhead cam showing tabletop work or products. It also works fine as a regular HQ web cam as long as you get your depth of field set to cover your range of movement.Brilliant overall, I'm really happy with it.