Lighting and audio are more important than raw image quality.
Getting an expensive camera to send heavily compressed 320p low bandwidth video doesn’t really improve a whole lot.
Honestly the #1 improvement most people need to work on is speaking clearly and loud enough. #2 would be having literally any light source in front of them rather than being purely backlit.
> Lighting and audio are more important than raw image quality.
Exactly! A decent USB microphone costs something like $100 and will improve your calls more than anything. I can tolerate if your image is a bit dark and blurry, but it's super hard to pay attention if you sound like you're calling from a two square metre tiled bathroom through a 1950s telephone system.
The selection process doesn't have to be super complicated that satisfies every audiophile. Just google what streamers on Youtube and Twitch use and choose something that fits your budget. For example Blue Yeti and Audio-Technica AT2020USB are popular, relatively cheap, and super simple to use.
And as mentioned the best thing you can do to image quality is just to improve your lighting.
Just FTR for the active speaker Zoom streams heavily compressed 720p that goes up to 1080p if HD is enabled. It’s low bitrate but still makes a difference in clarity.
Getting an expensive camera to send heavily compressed 320p low bandwidth video doesn’t really improve a whole lot.
Honestly the #1 improvement most people need to work on is speaking clearly and loud enough. #2 would be having literally any light source in front of them rather than being purely backlit.