Hope me make a decent webcam for an online life drawing course!

March 27, 2020 12:56 PM

I'm setting-up a studio space to help some local colleges, universities and sketch groups continue their life drawing classes / sessions during these coronavirus days by live streaming a life model to their students and artists, eg. via Zoom.

I think I can do better than the Microsoft LifeCam Studio I currently have, but I want to do it cheaply.

I have a bunch of good Nikor and Olympus lenses, including standard 50 mm's. Since (I think) the optics would be the most expensive part of the setup, I'm hoping I can find a good used mirrorless Nikon or Olympus body I can attach to, that would output streaming video to my laptop via USB.

Whatever free or cheap software is available would also be needed.

I'm thinking 720p min, ideally 1080p.

I can make the space as well lit as needs be, and I need a depth-of-field of 6 ft max.

Frame rate shouldn't be critical (I think).

So what's the cheapest I can get away with here, and what bodies and software should I consider?

I'm a little out of my depth here on the terminology, tradeoffs, and other considerations, so please over-explain if you can.

Thanks!

posted by ZenMasterThis to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

intriguing question! i have sent you some memail..
posted by elgee at 1:20 PM on March 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm trying to figure out how this is that much better than drawing from photography. I've drawn along with a few YouTube life drawing sessions and I appreciate how it moves through some warmup gesture drawings and some longer poses, but in the end, it's not really about the camera quality.
posted by advicepig at 2:14 PM on March 27, 2020

You might do well with a MiniDV or other camcorder with a FireWire connection, if you have a Mac with a FireWire port. (Which is to say, an older one.) I am using my old FireWire iSight with Zoom, and it works great. A FireWire camcorder ought to enumerate the same way to the host computer, and appear as a video device that you could select in Zoom. The video quality from even an older camcorder ought to be okay for Zoom, and you will be able to zoom in on the subject rather than showing the whole room (most USB webcams have very wide lenses, 90 deg or more).
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:15 PM on March 27, 2020

I just took a life drawing class this week, that transitioned from a real studio to zoom. If your classes have a teacher/facilitator, consider how you might have a set up for demos. Ideally, this setup would be on a separate zoom account from the live model’s. That way students can click back and forth to see both.
posted by tinymegalo at 2:21 PM on March 27, 2020

Response by poster: (Win 10, BTW.)
posted by ZenMasterThis at 4:49 PM on March 27, 2020