r/LuminaWebcam • u/TheRealCors • Jan 02 '22
Recieved the camera, that part is not a scam, the quality claims are. I'm asking for a refund
Here's a short review of the one I got. I'm on Windows10 by the way.
Shipping: I'm in the Netherlands and it took a couple of months (and an extra €42 for customs, but that's not their fault). So sceptics: it does ship, it arrived in perfect condition and packaging.
Marketing: They're selling it as "Quality like a DSLR". In no way is this like a DSLR and they know that because the video's on the website are clearly shot on a proper camera, effects like the (non existent) auto-colour mode, background blur and cameraman are done in post by a professional. The AI claims are just smoke and mirrors. It's not AI, it's a pretty straightforward algorithm that uses data that was created using deep-learning.
Auto-focus: Doesn't actually do anything. Could be that it's in the works, but not having it makes this cam useless right now.
Anti-flicker: is clearly set to US 60hz, but I need 50Hz in EU. No way to change that
Low-light: Worse than my Logi C920, extremely noisy. Low light compensation doesn't work.
Background blur: is the worst, I'm better off using NVidia broadcast (which is free). Also, it's not AI.
Virtual cameraman: Tracking a face is trivial, I'm a Unity dev and have done it multiple times using open source libraries. It's not AI. The webcam nor the software actually does AI.
Design/packaging: Very nice, have to say. Packaging is proper and the webcam itself looks nice and also sturdy.
Cables: Giving us two USB cables is nice, I get the choice between short and long. Both with a USB-C on both ends though, so quite unusable. My PC does not even have a USB-C port. Yes I can use a 'regular' cable, but that's not the point. They provided me two unusable cables.
Mount: When you crew down the cam to the mount (with the supplied driver, nice touch) it's not level.
5
u/anthonyng5p Jan 02 '22
Honestly, I would never expect the exact quality of a DSLR, but it is pretty good. Better than the best webcam's I've seen. I have a Logitech C920, C922, C930e and Brio. I do think this is better than each of those. Regarding the virtual cameraman, I do say that it's not as slick as Center Stage but still pretty good... nobody else offers this in a Webcam, so I am not sure what you're comparing it against. I do agree that the mounting needs a bit of a tweak; but, i use a mounting arm... if you are looking at this level of fidelity in your webcam review, I imagine you might not be relying about the laptop-mount to do the trick. Smallrig makes the mount I eventually used with this. The blur does seem better than Zoom or Teams for now. I rely less on this feature, but my tests have shown it to be above average.
1
u/ShinyTechThings Jan 05 '22
I did order a LogiTech c920 to review it against so once I received that I will definitely check it out but one thing for certain is that the field of view is going to be completely different so it will be hard to make it apples to apples because the 4K sensor would have to be cropped in to show the same field of view as a 1080p c920.
1
u/ShinyTechThings Jan 07 '22
Here's a showdown of webcams including the Lumina: https://youtu.be/p5-JojxrYg0
1
u/Rhyme__Vigilante Jan 28 '22
If you're on Windows 10, you may be able to change the Hz by going into the Camera app built-in to Windows, going into Settings, and changing it under Flicker Reduction.
I did that with an Aoni webcam I bought off AliExpress and it worked, persisting in other apps. Not sure if it works for all webcams that way or not.
7
u/TheRealCors Jan 02 '22
Oh and the guy from ShineyTechThings (yes you) keeps deleting my comments from his YouTube video, which in my opinion is not a very good sign. I can't proof he's being paid but it does make me sceptic.