Poly Studio P5 Webcam - 1080p, 80° FoV, 4x Zoom, USB 2.0

In a market not exactly lacking choice, the Poly P5 stands out in in terms of its design. Picture quality is sharp and the colour well balanced with a good autofocus response. The internal USB connector has proved to be an incredibly useful feature simply to free up a USB port for another peripheral. I love the privacy filter - the bezel rotates to open/close. The red 'petals' of the cover are a nice visible reassurance that the lens is covered, but the bezel also triggers a physical switch, so the camera doesn't switch on until you rotate the filter to fully-open. The mount is good, adjusting to clip on to the screen and give some angle, but if you remove it (its magnetised rather than screwed in) so you just gently pop off the base to access a standard tripod mount thread (which I am using) - I've read reviews saying the lack of a tripod mount is a negative and that did put me off initially, so I really wanted to address this - it's a great webcam!

Bought this used "like new". For £35 this is a steal, considering it has autofocus. Overall video quality is decent and better than my older LifeCam Cinema that is only 720p. Also love shutter that kills the video feed once you twist it out of its resting position. Doesn't need Poly Lens to work, just plug and play! Something to note is this really does not work well through a USB-C dock, needs to be plugged directly into the laptop. Auto exposure (for the brightness etc) could perhaps be slightly improved but you can manually set this should you wish. The shutter dial appears to come shut out of the box and it takes a small bit of force to twist it to the "open" position - you need to wait to hear it click into place before the camera will send video to the computer. This is definitely something to keep in mind as it seems whoever returned this previously didn't know this.

This is a good webcam without a doubt, but it has it's limitations. It's a big step up from my laptops' cameras. I have tested this camera with Zoom, Webex and MS Teams on two separate laptops but will go back to the built in ones until a webcam comes along who’s features and quality allow it’s form factor to compensate for the convenience of a camera built into the screen. What’s good? Getting the camera off the laptop lid! As I use 3 screens (including the laptop), if I have my web conferencing window on the screen above the camera and it always looks like I am looking up. Mounting this camera just an inch above the screen has made all the difference and now it looks like I am engaging with my audience. I can also move it left and right to change the background and also angle the lens left, right, up or down giving subtly or considerably better image angles. Such vertical movement on the laptops involves moving the screen which makes using the computer more difficult. I didn’t try the software as my work laptop won’t allow installing it, however the camera installs itself with a nice set of adjustments. I should add tough that many of the ‘auto’ check boxed don’t seem to be selectable. The webcam is magnetically attached to the base and just pops off. Inside is a ¼ tripod mount which is a nice touch. The base moves nicely and grips well to any surface. The privacy shutter is the one of the best features of this camera and is very clear when the lens is off. As you turn the ‘lens ring’, a bright orange shutters close and the light on top turns from white to red, clearly indicating that you can do your morning team call stark naked without any worries, having both muted the picture and physically (and visibly) covered the lens. No need to worry about those phishing emails either! Another great feature is that you can pop off the back of the camera and insert a USB dongle (or cable) so you don’t lose a USB port. I connected my Bluetooth mouse dongle and put the lid back on. If you use a wired USB device, it will work but the lid will not go back on and the cable will pull on the camera. It’s a nice feature but not documented and I must remember to remove my dongle when I send the camera back. Oops, that leads me onto the bad points… What’s not that good? Oddly enough, it took me a while to get the thing to work. My laptops both recognised the camera but the screen was black, even when I opened the shutter. I googled the problem to no avail and whilst trying to make it work, I became a bit miffed about the sloppiness of the lens ring which opens the shutter. After far too much time for a techy, I realised that you have to rotate the lens ring anticlockwise further than you expect, past the ‘click’ and then it magically pops into life. No concerns about the ring closing accidentally and the red mute light went white. My expectation of the 1080p video quality was too high. I was expecting a BIG improvement over the built in cameras on my laptops. I was disappointed though as the quality was not significantly better. I tried Zoom, Teams and Webex with my friends and colleagues. Not a single person thought it was significantly better than my built in camera. Although they said it was sharper, comments were that the image was too grey, colours were less real, it was constantly refocussing and every few minutes it would flicker as though it was re-synchronising. I tried changing settings using the camera options but with no joy and will go back to using my built in webcams. Built in microphone. Naah, just don’t. In some situations it could be good but the quality isn’t great. I use a Jabra conference phone but tested the built in microphone which is no better than the latop’s own mic. The benefit here would be reduce noise if you type while you talk. In summary, this is definitely a good camera. Video quality is good but not outstanding. Focal length is good but can only be adjusted digitally and the camera lacks some features I expected for the price. What is missing? Optical zoom: The camera body is quite large and could accommodate a 2x optical zoom. Better backlight compensation: People complained my face was dark even with front lighting from a window. With a light behind me I was a silhouette Face tracking: some cameras have this feature allowing it to maintain focus and allow some degree lateral movement whilst staying in frame (useful when Teams crops the image to fit the screen). So don’t get me wrong… this camera is definitely better than a built in camera but needs to be better still to justify buying it. I want people to say “ooh your picture quality is good” rather than “Hello Phil” when I start a web conference. It doesn't acheive that. Sorry Poly but it's a no from me.

I chose the Poly Studio P5 Professional Webcam (Plantronics) - 1080p HD Laptop Camera for Video calls with family and friends as I always hate using the webcam on my laptop and had hoped that the image presented via P5 would be better and clearer. That said it arrived securely, amazon actually sent me a code to my mobile, which was asked for by the delivery man. First time I have had this experience from Amazon and was impressed. Made me think that 'inside this box is something special'. I carefully unpacked my P5 and found it was very easy to set up, in fact it took seconds from delivery to installation - very impressive. All you have to do is download the polylens app from their website. Easy. I was impressed with the security features, the aesthetics and the overall robust design of this webcam but disappointed that the visual acuity was not as sharp as I would have liked. If your home is light and airy then, there is no problem but without the light and without optical zoom available it didn't quite meet all my expectations. However for the price, I would suggest that it is a product that is pleasing to the eye, does not incumber my laptop and goes some way to improve ones video experience.

Don’t Forget to open completly the camera.

I bought this hoping that I would be able to have one device that could work both as a webcam and microphone, but the microphone was so bad I sent the P5 back. I don't know if I was doing something wrong, but I tried the P5 on two laptops with the same result; no audio pick up and when it did it was unintelligible. Plantronics have clearly tried to up date their marketing so they aren't seen as a supplier of low end products, and that it what convinced me to buy the P5, but the product was still low end quality. Avoid the Poly P5.

Die Poly Studio P5 Professional PC-Webcam kommt in einem schicken Design mit einer matten weißen Oberfläche mit einigen Sprenkeln. Mir persönlich gefällt das ganz gut, passt aber ggf. nicht zu den meist schwarzen Monitoren. Nach dem Anschluss der Webcam per USB (Kabel ist gut 1,2m lang) klemmt man die Webcam auf den Monitor. Die Neigung kann man nun über die Klemme einstellen, was gut funktioniert, bei dickeren Monitoren aber etwas wacklig werden könnte. Positiv ist, dass man die Webcam um 360° drehen kann. Ein weiteres Plus ist die Aktivierung. Im „Normalzustand“ ist die Linse bedeckt. Dreht man den vorderen Ring, wird die Linse sichtbar und die Kamera ist aktiv (inkl. grünem Lämpchen). Für mich ein großes Plus in Sachen Handling und Design. Weiter geht’s mit dem Bild. Die 1080p-Auflösing mit 4fach Zoom und automatischem Lichtausgleich ermöglicht ein gutes und stabiles Bild auch bei weniger guten Lichtverhältnissen. Der Autofokus arbeitet schnell und präzise. Der Ton könnte besser sein und ist meiner Ansicht etwas blechern. Da ich die Webcam aber ausschließlich mit Headset nutze, habe ich dies nur kurz angetestet. Alles in allem eine solide Webcam, welche bei mir im HomeOffice tadellos funktioniert. Mit ca. 100 € liegt die Webcam innerhalb vergleichbarer Marken-Webcams.

Review after 3 months of usage. Very good product working as expected. Tiny one and easy to carry.

Installation facile : on branche et ça marche (sur pc et sur Mac) pas besoin d’etre admin pour l’installer. Aucun logiciel à installer. Vidéo top et prise de son également ( utilisation avec teams, FaceTime et zoom)