Best laptop for Zoom meetings
I work remotely as a product manager for two teams at Wrike and spend about 20 hours on calls every week. In such conditions, the context is often lost due to the lack of physical contact, and if the camera is also so-so, then instead of a person’s face you see a “porridge” without emotions. It is especially disappointing to see trainings or speeches of eminent speakers with a standard camera in a dark room against the background of wallpaper, while the cost of such trainings is several times higher than the cost of the best laptop for zoom meetings.
I decided to use my background in photography and lighting and take the time to improve my Zoom calls "quickly". And now I want to teach you! In this article, we will try to figure out what technical means can be used so that an online meeting resembles a live meeting and pleases both you and the interlocutor.
The main conditions are as follows. I'm taking a screenshot with Zoom on a Macbook Pro (2560×1600) without any upgrades or adjustments on each hardware set. I shoot twice – when all the lights in the room are turned on (about 100 watts of LEDs) and when the lights are turned off in such a way that only the laptop screen and an external 24 ”monitor with a white background exposed on it illuminates me. I always look not at the camera, but at myself on the screen.
I converted all focal lengths (affecting the camera's viewing angle) into standard ones (for 35mm film), I also added the aperture to make an equivalent comparison.
This whole story took an insane amount of time, so some frames had to be re-photographed and, accordingly, look for similar clothes (horror), do not shave (horror-horror) and do not disassemble the Christmas tree (horror-horror-horror), but some insignificant nuances in the picture are all can still float.
Camera
Built-in webcam in MacBook Pro (28mm, F2.8) No additional hardware required.
I don't like the built-in webcam in a MacBook Pro that hasn't been upgraded for generations. Especially in the evening. Soapiness, noise, distorted colors: it seems that I am using a 15-year-old Nokia camera.