webcam or smartphone as a webcam: which is better quality?

[TheFlyingCelt]

Hi everyone,
I'm not sure where to post my question. This section seems to be the closest to what I need to know.
I need to buy a webcam but I'm not sure which one as not a single one of them satisfies me in terms of quality with my budget. I'm considering to use a smartphone Samsung S4 as webcam and camcorder for youtube videos, but I'm not sure whether if the final result would be better than using an actual webcam. Any idea anyone?
Thanks
Cheers

 

[TheFlyingCelt]

ermm... was that a silly question perhaps as I see no replies yet? Did I ask something obvious?

 

[RC325]

It really depends on what you are comparing it to.... If you already have the S4 experiment and see. If your happy invest that money into better lighting instead of a different camera. Appropriate lighting and good sound is VERY important to usable results.

 

[TheFlyingCelt]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.
Well, I have a very good microphone: Rode nt-usb, which I would use together with a webcam. What I'm not sure of is if the quality of a Logitech C920 would be better than using a Samsung S4 smartphone as webcam, hence if it's worth investing money on a webcam or not. Thank you

 

[RC325]

Hi, and thanks for your reply.
Well, I have a very good microphone: Rode nt-usb, which I would use together with a webcam. What I'm not sure of is if the quality of a Logitech C920 would be better than using a Samsung S4 smartphone as webcam, hence if it's worth investing money on a webcam or not. Thank you

Here is my take. Both of these appear to have similar capability. I doubt you will see any major differences in quality if you have a properly light scene.

You aren't going to get amazing optical performance or any features of a real camera from either.

No info about sensor size for the webcam doesn't give us a good idea of what low light performance might be.

We are assuming that you do good lighting so that shouldn't be an issue..

Samsung may be harder to setup for a stable shot... You will need a tripod and a 1/4 20 cellphone mount or something like a goby..

On the other hand the phone gives you mobility to change scenes or shoot b-roll. You will not have that option with the web cam.

With the cost of the webcam considered you can get yourself a decent led light panel to give you more lighting flexibility.

Just my .02 cents.

If it's worth anything I am a photographer and videographer by trade.

RC325

 

[TheFlyingCelt]

Thank you RC32.
I have this "dilemma" because my smartphone has a rear camera capable of 13mpx, when the webcam I'm interested to is 10mpx. I know mpx don't count much and there are many other factors to be considered, including lighting the scene properly. What I'm most interested about though is the sharpness of the recorded video. As I have not a clue of how big the gap between the two could be, I guess I just have to try with both options and see which works best for me. I will place an order for the Logitech c920 and in case I won't be happy with the result, or I won't see any significant improvement given by the webcam when compared to the smartphone camcorder, I will ship it back.

note: forgive my English imperfections but I'm Italian.
Cheers