Table of Contents
Introduction
If you are working or studying from home in this period you might need to record or video stream your content from your desk. With the lockdown in place many employees are working from home offices or local offices and keeping in touch requires spending time in online meetings and video conferences. For all of these you will need a webcam. Sandberg is a Danish company that offers a wide range of electronic products for every budget. They have gaming equipment, outdoor gadgets, audio and mobile accessories for every budget. Recently they decided to focus on the business sector as well and they released a wide range of products specially designed for office use. Today we are looking at one of these products, the Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD, a plug-and-play Full-HD webcam.
Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD offers you a sharp and clear picture thanks to the Full HD 1080P resolution. It works instantly without driver installation. The camera features also microphone.
The webcam is perfect for online meetings, fully compatible with all popular chat-apps, works instantly without the need of any additional driver or software and can be used as placed on a desk, clipped-on to the monitor, or even using an Universal tripod.
Packaging and Features
The Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD comes packed in a rectangular black and blue package with the Sandberg logo on top and the image of the webcam in the middle. The front of the package shows a large image of the webcam and the main features. On the sides we have more images and illustrations on how the webcam can be mounted and on the back we have detailed information in 24 languages.
Inside the box we just have the webcam, the USB cable and a quick guide.
The camera has an optical resolution of 2 megapixels, streaming video at 1920×1080 resolution at 30 frames per second. Features include auto image adjustments for saturation, contrast, white balance, exposure and the camera has a glass lens an 80° viewing angle. The cable is simple, with an USB 2.0 interface and has a length of 1.2 metres. Of course the camera also has a built-in microphone you can use.
Closer Look
The Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD has a modern wide design with the camera lens on the middle and microphone input on the sides. it is completly black with grey accents and stands on a base that fits three different mounting scenarios: clip-on, so it can be placed on your monitor, standard desk placing or mounting on a tripod. We used the Universal Tripod from Sandberg to place it on the desk and it provides great stability.
Connecting the camera to a PC is incredibly easy as you just have to plug it in the USB port and you are done. It requires no drivers or software to be installed.
Performance
To test the Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD we are recording and streaming content in various conditions. Being designed for office use, the camera works best in a room with plenty of light, but we know many of you will not be using it only for that, so lets explore and see what it can do in all scenarios. To test the camera we are using OBS for recording and Discord for streaming. We will test the microphone as well and compare it to other similar products.
First, testing the camera during the day, from the office, with lights on produces a decent video content, with quality as expected for the 2 megapixel sensor. The general quality is good for a conference meeting or online school. Photos taken are not the best though. The 30fps capabilities limit is fairly low, so for different usages (such as vlogging, YouTube or Twitch streaming) it is not exactly the best thing to use.
The microphone is not great either, but it is on the line with other webcams. It does it job, but you can’t expect crystal-clear voice from the built-in microphone.
During the night scenario the Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD is having great difficulties to show a clear image. The image is very poor both in recordings and streaming, so this one is not ideal for use in a gaming setup or low light environments.
Final Thoughts
The Sandberg USB Office Webcam 1080P HD works as advertised. It is a webcam designed for office use, for conferencing and online meetings in an environment that has good lighting. It delivers a decent video quality when used for what it was meant, but if you are looking for a more versatile product you need to look at a different product. On low lights the quality is poor and for streaming/vlogging the 30 fps output it is just not enough.
