While in isolation, I’ve found that introducing new things is one way of making the experience more pleasant rather than relying on the same day-to-day to get us through it. New recipes to cook; new shows to watch; new games to play, etc. Prior to the lockdown, I worked remotely, so video calls are nothing new, but now everyone is remote, and I’m working from home with all my neglected cameras sitting around.

A couple years ago, a friend of mine wrote a blog post about video conferencing with a proper camera, which first introduced me to the idea. Then another friend wrote a post. And another friend wrote theirs. I always thought this idea was novel, but too expensive and clutter-prone—however, I wasn’t isolated in my cluttered apartment back then. I figured this is as good a time as any to try something new and add some delight to my video calls, so I ordered the adapter and set everything up on my makeshift dresser/standing desk.

Despite how much better it looks than the built-in webcam, it’s such an initial distraction and not a great look when everyone else on your team has regular webcams. There’s also no way I’d be able to live with all the clutter at my real desk—only if I could build everything into our call booth at Design Town without it looking like we literally mounted a legit camera to only use for video calls.