Anker PowerConf C300 Smart Full HD 1080p Webcam
Physically, the Anker PowerConf C300 Smart Full HD 1080p feels good and substantial. The USB-C port is recessed pretty far into the body of the camera. It took some finagling to be sure the cable was fully plugged in. The cable is about 5ft long, USB-C to USB-C. The box also includes a USB-C to USB-A adapter if you need it.
Without adjusting any settings, the C300 has noticeably better picture quality than both my built-in camera and my external camera. Those cameras struggled to pick up variations in colour and lighting. For example, when I wear a black sweater on my old camera it just looks like a dark blob. With the C300, it’s much more like being in person — you can see the variations of lighting and much more detail.
Anker PowerConf C300 Smart Full HD 1080p Webcam Review
I use an external condenser mic already, so I wasn’t expecting the C300 to be an improvement. But, surprisingly, it’s not much of a step down either! It does a much better job of focusing on voices vs. all the other noises that might be in the room. If you work from home and have kids, pets, and other sounds around you, this mic should do a better job of keeping some of that off your Zoom calls.
Anker PowerConf C300 Smart Full HD 1080p Webcam Review
The AnkerWork software runs great on macOS 10.15. You can adjust the resolution (360p, 720p, 1080p), frames per second (30, 60), brightness, sharpness, saturation, and contrast ratio. The default settings for each were good. I couldn’t improve the image by adjusting them.
Some interesting & unique settings are Fixed Angle (78°, 90°, and 115°) and Flexible Angle (Auto-Frame, Solo-Frame). Fixed Angle settings act as a zoom level. At the widest field of view (115°) you’ll get a lot of the surrounding room, at the smallest (78°) you’ll get less. It’s not that dramatic of a difference, but it does help to have some flexibility.
Alternatively, you can choose Auto-Frame to have the software automatically zoom in and crop the image to include everyone in the picture, or you can choose Solo-Frame to zoom and crop the image to include just the one face closest to the camera. It tracks your face and adjusts as you move around! I wanted to like Solo-Frame, but it puts your face in the exact centre of the picture, whereas I think it looks better to put the face a little above centre. What this made me wish for was a way to just manually zoom in and crop the image however I wanted. (It’s not like I move around that much in a normal meeting from my desk.)
Anker PowerConf C300 Smart Full HD 1080p Webcam Review
There was a firmware update to enable HDR and Anti-Flicker. I tried those settings under a variety of lighting conditions (lots of natural light, artificial light, low light) and I never really noticed HDR doing anything! I had a hard time creating a lighting scenario where I got that flicker. Overall, I don’t think HDR and Anti-Flicker do very much.
Overall the Anker PowerConf C300 Smart Full HD 1080p Webcam is a significant upgrade for my home video, with a much more nuanced and lifelike picture than I was able to get from my built-in camera or my cheaper external camera. The software has room to grow, and I’m optimistic Anker will do that with future software updates. I feel really good about the value at the price point I paid, and hopefully, the value will go up as the software improves.
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