AVer CAM340+ Conference Camera with Microphone, Black (COMMIC34PLUS)

AVer CAM340: $269.99 at the time of reviewI’ve been working from home for over a year now. The pandemic forced me to re-evaluate my home office space since I was spending a lot more time there. But it wasn’t until I got a new job that focused on camera-on meetings where I realized that I needed a camera upgrade. I don’t have anyone else in my home office with me, but I still wanted to try this camera out.*What I liked*:The camera quality is very good. It’s capable of up to a 4k picture, however, you will almost certainly be limited by your video conferencing software of choice.The noise cancelling mic is very good. The heat register can get a little loud during the winter and I haven’t had any issues with background noise interfering with calls.It really is plug & play (on a Mac at least). I plugged it in and was able to choose it from my Zoom camera controls almost immediately.It looks a little big to sit on top of a monitor on its own. But the base & folding arm kept it up on top of my monitor just fine.*What I didn't like*:As mentioned above, the 120° viewing angle is too wide for a single person. I don’t weigh this too heavily against it though, as it is obviously meant for a team environment. That said, if you're the only person showing up for a meeting in your office conference room, you’ll look pretty lonely.The auto focus is non-existent. This again isn’t that much of an issue for multiple people in a room (as it’s not really supposed to focus on one). But where it’s a real bummer, is that Zoom has a particularly difficult time applying virtual backgrounds. I use a blur background in meetings to keep the rest of my office out of focus (which you can see generously thanks to that aforementioned viewing angle), but it doesn’t do a good job at all with this camera. I get a halo effect of about 3-4” of viewable office around my outline.*The Bottom Line:*Ultimately, I think this is an excellent camera for its intended use: small groups and huddle-up style meetings. I decided not to weigh the issues I had using it as a solo meeting participant (on my end, at least) as that’s not what it’s for. So that being said, I have no problem giving this a solid five stars out of five. It’s a great choice for small office conference rooms & meetings w/ 2-4 attendees behind this camera. I wouldn’t order it again personally though, as it’s only me on my end of the meetings.

This is a good quality camera, well built and easy to mount on top of any monitor, on a tripod or on the table. It seems to have been designed specifically for smaller conference rooms with it's 120 degree 4k field of view and in this mode it looks good. The color balance has been spot-on every time and almost no distortion despite the wide angle. The picture is nice and clear under normal office lighting but it has a harder time if the lighting is uneven or low, but most cameras do.But it does have some issues. The fixed-focus lens is clearly designed to show a room with multiple people, it will clearly show everyone even in a small room. But even if you are just arms length away your head will fill less than 1/4 of the screen vertically. So this is not so great for one-on-one conferences with the camera on top of your monitor.This is not an autofocus lens and it's clearly optimized for the room-scale shots and not close up. The image looks good but it is not as crisp and sharp as my other 4k cameras. Usually on a 4k camera you can see individual hairs in someone's eyebrows, on this camera they look soft. It's not fuzzy, but definitely not as crisp as my other cameras.Also you only get full 4k output in the 120 degree viewing angle. Switch to 90 degree or use the digital zoom function and resolution and clarity will be less.Now being fair, if you are using this with teams, zoom, webex...etc none of this is likely to be noticed as none of these videoconferencing programs really send full quality 4k. So for small room video conferencing this is a good camera, easy to bring into a room, set down and start using with a small group of people.I've had trouble figuring out how someone can remote-control the camera pan-tilt-zoom and while this function works with video conferencing software it sometimes doesn't seem to work when just using it to record video with OBS or something similar. I'm not sure if this is a problem with software or just incomplete documentation.So I'm giving this 4 stars as a small room group conferencing camera. It's good for that application.If your goal is creating content, doing livestreams and such, I don't think this is a suitable camera mainly because the lens is way to wide and the image too soft. Even just arms length away you can't get well framed "head and shoulders" shot for one or two people. Also the overall softness of the image may make it hard to match this camera's "look" with others. So if your goal is content creation I'd give this camera a pass.

This is a web camera with a wide field of view and a high-quality image. Right out of the box, it's bright and clear, with realistic color rendering - the flesh tones, in particular, appear to be excellent. In less-than-ideal lighting conditions, some noise appears in the image, but it is not unappealing. The camera's wide field of view makes it ideal for group meetings. The camera mount is threaded for use with a tripod, but it also works well on a monitor. The box includes a USB-C to USB-A cable as well as a power supply. This web camera, unlike many others, is not powered solely by USB; it also requires a power source, which plugs directly into the wall and has a long wire. The camera does not have a privacy shutter. A section about a remote control was included in the instructions. That sounded great, but there wasn't one in the box, and upon closer inspection of the instructions, I discovered that the remote doesn't come with or operate with the CAM340. Overall, this is a great webcam with a crisp, clear image.

Takes up little space in your home office and works very well. Setup is a breeze and it has made Teams and Zoom meetings very pain free for my husband. He wanted something on the smaller side and this is perfect for him. He also likes to use it for checking in on family and friends. It has nice zoom and panning features but because it is so small you won't have the wide range for a true conference call depending on the size of the room. With that in mind, it is perfect for working from home or a small team!