Elgato makes great ring lights, capture cards, streaming decks, and one of the best microphones out there. So launching its webcam was just a matter of time. That’s exactly what the company has done with the $199 Facecam, designed for content creators looking for smooth footage and tons of customisation options.
Facecam works great, but could it be one of the best webcams? Here is a review after Engadget’s Kris Naudus hopped around with this awesome new camera.
This Big, Bold and Highly Adjustable device sits in a 3-inch wide plastic material, making the Logitech StreamCam look smaller and slightly wider than the Razer Kiyo Pro. It looks pretty sleek and its good composition doesn’t sacrifice usability.
HARDWARE
Weighing in at about a fifth of a pound, the Facecam appears to be rather feathery for its size. It can be easily clipped on top of a monitor, or connected to Elgato’s multi mount system.
With ample vertical space and 360-degree camera rotation, it’s easy to find the right angle for streaming and meetings. Detaching the camera from the supplied bracket and attaching it to the tripod is also easy thanks to the standard tripod mount on the bottom.
SOFTWARE
You will need to download other software for this camera to work with Game Capture, Stream Deck, Wave Link (for microphone) and Control Center (for lighting). Other companies combine different drivers and settings into one tool, but separating them would probably make it easier to provide updates.
CAMERA HUB
The Camera Hub gives you easy access to things like contrast, exposure, and white balance. (The latter two can be set automatically, so don’t worry.). “The automatic white balance was a little warm for my taste, but it was easy enough to turn it off and knock the number down to a cooler 4000K,” Naudus says.
The software also has a “Zoom” option, but the camera has a fixed focus, so there’s nothing to write about at home. If you are 12 inches (30 cm) to 47 inches (120 cm) away from the camera, it will always be in focus. Anyone who works at the table should notice this. For those who pull further, something more portable with advanced settings is better suited.
Naudus says the biggest draw of the Camera Hub is the real-time ISO reading. According to her this makes it a lot easier to detect and react to changes in your lighting.
Maybe your lights are too bright, or maybe the natural light from outside vanished with an oncoming thunderstorm (which is exactly what’s happening as I type this). The exposure and white balance can adjust automatically, or you can tweak the settings yourself on the fly.
PLUG-INS & PORT
There is a Stream Deck plugin that lets you tweak the parameters with the click of a button. Of course, smart lighting is needed first, such as Key Light or Ring Light from Elgato.
In most cases, FaceCam has much less kinks. “My biggest problem was plugging it in, as it must be plugged into your system directly and not via a hub,” Naudus says.
This is tricky on many modern laptops that can only have two USB-C ports. FaceCam comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable, and the company recommends using the supplied cable instead of your own.
“I was forced to search around for a converter dongle. While I commend companies for finally embracing USB-C in their gaming accessories, we need some solutions on the software side to ensure that they can actually be used with hubs. My Logitech C920 works with a hub and it comes with a built-in mic, so it’s likely to remain my default webcam for most purposes,” she further noted.
But FaceCam is starting to show promise. The quality of the video is crisp and also free of noise and can be activated if there is no built-in filter.
Naudus noted that she didn’t need to activate the built-in filter as the camera handled her Google Hangouts and Zoom calls without any problems.
PRICE COMPARISON
The price is a little overpriced, but still on par with the $200 Logitech Brio 4K and Razer Kiyo Pro. What your money gets you though is the guarantee that it will work seamlessly with your Elgato Stream deck. There are no real competitors, at least for the time being.
