Review Conceptronic Amdis 01B – Bad for YouTube, Twitch, Zoom and Skype?

In this article a review of the Conceptronic Amdis 01B 1080p webcam.
I took the webcam for a spin.
How usable is it as a webcam for zoom or skype?
And is it usable as a streaming webcam for YouTube?

Conceptronic Amdis 01B Specifications

resolution	1080p in 16:9 aspect ratio
viewing angle	90° horizontal, 90° vertical
built-in mic	yes
connection	USB-A (USB 2.0)
cable length	1,5 m
focal length	3,6 mm
Max framerate	30fps
Focus	Manual
EAN	4015867223802
ID	29PLF6MK0VDXQ

Unboxing and first impressions

There is not much in the box: the webcam and a piece of paper titled “manual”.
The webcam itself feels plastic cheap, and has not much weight.
The looks of the webcam are decent and clearly took some inspiration from Logitech.

The grip on the monitor is flimsy and an accident waiting to happen.
The cable is too rigid and pushes the webcam from its place, this way the webcam never rests on its standard but always leaning on the cable a bit.

You can adjust the angle up and down, but you can’t sideways, you have to turn the monitor

Installation

The installation of the webcam is quite easy, I tested it on both Windows and Mac.
Plug it in your USB port and windows gives a pling-plong, and after that, it tells you that you can use the device.
On the mac it works the same, just plug in the webcam and it works.
The webcam registers as a standard video capture device on Mac and Windows.
This way, you can use it directly with Zoom, Skype and OBS for streaming on YouTube and Twitch.

Image quality

Sharpness
I expected problems with sharpness, since that was one of the main areas why my Logitech webcam didn’t suffice for streaming.
But that wasn’t the case.
You can change the sharpness by turning the plastic super cheap feeling lens.
Although I have to say that both background and foreground are sharp on the same setting.

Anti-aliasing
The anti-aliasing seems to be broken on the webcam when the image is scaled down.
I don’t know yet, if that is a OBS thing or a webcam thing.
You have raw square pixels, instead of smooth edges like any other webcam would have.
Once I set the canvas resolution to 1080p and the webcam full screen, the issue is gone.

Color accuracy
I do see some blue color shifting on white light sources
And the image looks like they cranked up the saturation filter in Photoshop way too high.

Frame rate
Frame rates under good lighting conditions with soft boxes are stuttery.
In normal daylight: frame rate seems to be better with less light (which makes no sense to me).
With less light: frame rate and image quality are acceptable.
Overal, the framerates are a little bit on the low side, and I doubt that it is 30fps like they advertise, even under good lighting conditions.

My canon EOS 3M system camera records at 25fps, but seems a lot smoother.
That may be not a fair comparison because the shutter speed might be different on both devices, but I’ve no way to check that on the webcam.

Lens distortion
Straight horizontal and vertical lines in the image are quite bend.
It is the typical fish eye lens, which doesn’t quite make a beautiful image.
This increases the viewing angle, but I’d rather would have had a lower viewing angle and less fish bowl.

Sound quality

The quality of the audio is beyond bad.
I mean REALLY bad!
And resembles more a medieval torture device than a bad microphone.

The audio seems to distort because of clipping, but that isn’t the case, I kept an eye out on the VU meters.
Even on lower volumes the audio still seems to clip.
This can’t be a pleasant experience the person at the other end of the line when doing a Zoom call.
Needless to say, the audio is completely worthless for a YouTube or Twitch live stream.

Conclusion

The webcam is nothing to write home about, but what can you expect from a budget webcam.
I take some issues with the advertised frame rate but even more so: the bad audio quality.

For Zoom or Skype calls the image quality is ok, but the microphone absolutely not.
For live streaming on YouTube and Twitch, the image quality is a bit on the low side, but especially the audio quality makes it an absolute no-go.

You can check the latest price of this budget webcam on Amazon (affiliate link).

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