Telephoto Lens for Closeup in Zoom Meetings

2x telephoto lens & virtual background in Zoom. 
Tom Worthington, 24 July 2021 CC BY

Web cameras tend to have a wider field of view, than needed for one person attending a video conference. This makes the camera easy to set up, but shows more of the background and less of the speaker. My Logitech C615 webcam has a 74-degree field of view. So I purchased a 2x Telephoto clip on lens.

The clip-on lens is designed for use with a smartphone camera, but works well with the camera in a laptop or stand-alone web camera. The lens is screwed onto what looks like a clothes peg, which is clipped over the camera. It takes some effort to position, but is then held firmly.

198 Degree Fish-eye Lens, 
Tom Worthington,
24 July 2021, CC BY

With Polarizing Filter, 
Tom Worthington
24 July 2021, CC BY

I purchased a kit*, which came with fish-eye, wide, and macro lenses, as well as a polarizing filter. The fish-eye or wide-angle lenses might be of use for showing the general view of a room, but distort the image. The polarizing filter is useful for removing reflections from my glasses, however it can't be used in conjunction with the telephoto lens.

Without telephoto lens.
Tom Worthington,
24 July 2021 CC BY

With 2x Telephoto Lens. 
Tom Worthington
24 July 2021 CC BY

As well as narrowing the view, so less of the room is visible, the telephoto lens also makes the background slightly out of focus. This is useful for concentrating the viewer's attention on you in the foreground. Otherwise they might spend their time reading the titles of the books in your bookcase. ;-)

The narrower view also allows a smaller green screen to be used for a virtual background. In the example shown, I am using a sheet of lime green polyester acoustic pin-board, 1200 mm x 800 mm ($30.50 from a hardware store). 

Most of the clip on lenses sold for smart phone are wide angle. It took me some time to find a telephoto. One online store sent me a wide angle instead of a telephoto. So for the first time, in a long time, I went into a camera store. The kit I purchased is an Apexel 5 in 1 Clip on Lens Kit ($19.95 from Ted's Cameras, Canberra Center). Note that you will only need a 2x telephoto lens and there are higher quality units available separately at a higher price.