Many people that hate Zoom meetings, truly enjoy having them with me. I enjoy them very much too. I think a big part of that is my camera quality and my ability to look directly into their eyes.
I’m using a Sony ZV1 as a webcame with a teleprompter ( a mirror setup so that I can look thru the screen into the camera. Their face is centered on the screen and I’m looking directly at them so that they get eye contact and I get to watch their expression. This makes communication so much more full.
Set up details and equipment
i did a lot of experimenting to get here.
Set your zv1 to aperture priority. You want the aperture as open as possible to get maximum background blur
My auto focus is on continuous
I have a
- FeelWorld 10.1″ 4K HDMI Field Monitor on my teleprompter. There are all kinds of cheaper monitors now and iPads and stuff. here’s a less expensive one… https://a.co/d/53CbLIN … the teleprompter’s max width it can be 10.75″ it must be able to reverse an image so that it will work with the teleprompter to display correctly
- Glide Gear TMP100 https://a.co/d/1ICAsH7
- I’m using a dummy battery. I think the ZV1 can connect and be powered by USB instead https://a.co/d/egRgpsQ
- Because of my dummy battery, I’m keeping the battery door open, so I need a cage on the bottom of it https://a.co/d/eHWUxIA
- I use a really simple cold shoe to mount my camera becuase the zv 1 is so light. https://bit.ly/3RaaYnm
- To mount the teleprompter to the arm on my desktop, I have a tripod head so that I can easily manipulate the camera angle https://bit.ly/47pKLXy
- Since I’m using HDMI, I have a micro to normal HDMI cable
- I am using an El Gato camlink Video capture card https://a.co/d/jcTgERn I tried the generic and it crunches the colors
- Another helpful tip: i use https://scot.fun/zNNV a mac app called “big clock” that helps me see the time quickly during a zoom call without having to look away from my co-talker
Since you have the usb powering your camera, you could probably go USB straight in to your computer and that would power it and send the video signal in without HDMI. I haven’t tested this. I hear the video quality is better thru HDMI
The cold shoe is under my camera ; screwed in to the bottom of it. Looks like this… That gives the camera more height and gives me a quick release that’s easy to use on my various tripods and stuff when I travel with the camera.
Oh, also the cardboard you see here is a little adapter I made using a jar of nuts, a piece of cardboard, some tape and black paint. I can make you one if you’d like. Usually the teleprompter cloth fits around the camera lens, but since the zv1 has no lens body, I needed something for it to wrap around. My adapter just sits up against the front of the camera with no attachments – very buddhist. There’s this drawstring bag thing that closes the teleprompter around a normal lens body. The zv1 lens doesn’t stick out much, so it can’t attach to it. Instead, I attach the bag to my adapter thing and then set the adapter against the front of the camera.
I keep the viewfinder window folded out to help reduce heat. Before my studio was air conditioned, i added a fan that would blow on the camera to keep it from overheating.
