The Right Way to Use a Logitech Webcam

I bought a Logitech C920s webcam shortly before the lockdown in March last year to replace my very old one (a more basic Logitech model). It’s served me well during these troubled times. The wide field of view was a real problem, though: my face was a small part of the image, and, embarrassingly, the room behind me would be on full display. I repeatedly searched for a way to zoom it, to no avail. The Logitech Camera Settings application looked like what I needed to fix this, but changing settings there would only affect its own window. Once I closed it—releasing the camera—other applications would see the same unmodified image as before. Logitech Capture exhibited identical behaviour.

I only recently understood the correct process: start Logitech Capture,^[1] configure the view as required, and rather than close it, select Logitech Capture as the video input for the application that needs the webcam. This allows me to crop, zoom, and pan the image as required before sending it to Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, which can add their own effects (e.g. blurring) to the edited image.

Note that Logitech Capture does not mirror the image by default. You can enable ‘Flip image horizontally’ under the Advanced Settings, but most applications will flip it again, so I recommend only enabling the option while you refine the settings.