In the event you’re severe about streaming, you want a webcam that’s severe about streaming — and what’s extra severe than streaming in 4K at 60 frames per second (fps)?
Okay — perhaps that’s a bit of too severe. It’s undoubtedly too severe for anybody who’s not a streamer, since most net conferencing software program caps decision at 1080p or decrease, and 60fps could be problematic for bandwidth. However for the professionals who need to take their streaming to the subsequent degree, there’s Elgato’s new Facecam Professional.
Designed to compete with the greatest webcams on the high-end, the Facecam Professional is a 4K webcam that captures video in 4K/60fps — the world’s first; different 4K webcams, such because the Insta360 Hyperlink, max out at 4K/30fps. The Facecam Professional additionally sports activities a big Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor and a premium autofocus lens, and has a large 90-degree subject of view. It’s undoubtedly not for everybody, however for the proper content material creator it’s fairly rattling highly effective (it additionally attracts lots of energy — extra on that later). The Elgato Facecam Professional is obtainable now for $299.
Design of the Elgato Facecam Professional
The Elgato Facecam Professional borrows a lot of its design from the Elgato Facecam, which is the model’s 1080p streaming webcam launched a few 12 months in the past. The primary Facecam was fairly giant for a 1080p webcam, and the Facecam Professional is…bigger.
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The Facecam Professional is housed in a boxy plastic chassis measuring 4.6 inches (116mm) extensive, 3.1 inches (79mm) deep, and 1.5 inches (38mm) tall. The chassis options some unexciting branding and has vents on the again for warmth dissipation. The plastic doesn’t precisely scream “high-end,” but it surely feels sturdy sufficient and weighs little or no (8.47oz/240g) — making the Facecam Professional barely extra maneuverable when it’s sitting on high of a monitor.
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The Facecam Professional comes with a removable monitor mount, which attaches by way of the webcam’s tripod attachment mounting level (normal dimension — 1/4-inch). It’s a reasonably primary L-shaped mount, with rubberized backing and tilt adjustment (90 levels). I do suppose the Facecam Professional is simply too huge to be elegantly mounted on most screens — interval. However I’ve no complaints concerning the mount, which stored the webcam completely steady atop my primary 27-inch monitor.
The Facecam Professional additionally comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable, which plugs right into a USB-C port in the back of the chassis. This webcam requires a specific amount of energy to work, so that you’ll have to plug it right into a USB-C port or maybe a USB 3.1 port utilizing an adapter.
The Facecam Professional does not include a bodily privateness cowl/shutter…but it surely ought to. No webcam, however particularly no offensively high-def 4K webcam that streams at 60fps, shouldn’t include a privateness cowl. (Additionally, the primary Facecam had a lens cap, so I’m unsure what Elgato was pondering.)
Elgato Facecam Professional Specs
| Decision FPS | 4K/60fps, 4K/30fps, 1080p/60fps, 1080p/30fps, 720p/60fps, 720p/30fps |
| Diagonal Area of View | 90° |
| Autofocus | 10 cm / 4 in – ∞ |
| HDR | No |
| Microphone | None |
| Connection | USB-C |
| Mount | Removable monitor mount |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 4.6 x 3.1 x 1.5 inches / 116 x 79 x 38mm |
| Weight | 8.47oz / 240g (with out mount) |
| Software program | Elgato Digicam Hub |
Effectively-lit Efficiency of the Facecam Professional
My dwelling workplace will get nearly no pure gentle, however I’ve loads of synthetic gentle. My “well-lit” lighting setting features a devoted ring gentle, a devoted key gentle, 4 desktop screens (three 27” and one 24”), an arching flooring lamp for background gentle and a desk lamp for fill. There’s additionally some ambient RGB lighting from my desk, PC, and varied peripherals. It’s a shiny, evenly-lit setting with a busy, colourful background; webcams often wrestle with adjusting auto-exposure and auto-color steadiness, in addition to auto-focus.
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In my well-lit situation, the Elgato Facecam Professional managed fairly effectively utilizing its default settings — not unbelievable, particularly when in comparison with a webcam with wizard-level AI processing such because the Insta360 Hyperlink, however effective for a fast setup. The Facecam Professional dealt with auto-exposure adequately, although the ensuing picture was maybe a bit of too evenly-lit and flat-looking total. It struggled with auto-white steadiness, nonetheless — photographs leaned very heat, even after I adjusted the temperature of my lights to be a lot cooler.
Fortunately, this was straightforward to repair with a couple of guide changes in Elgato’s Digicam Hub software program.
Low-Mild Efficiency of the Facecam Professional
To check the Facecam Professional’s low-light efficiency, I turned off all of my lights and three of my screens — leaving only one 27-inch monitor as a lightweight supply. The Facecam Professional didn’t carry out very effectively on this situation with default settings, and produced an especially grainy picture. I managed to tweak the picture into one thing acceptable, but it surely was nonetheless fairly grainy..
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The Facecam Professional carried out fairly effectively on this setting, contemplating. It managed to gentle each the topic (me) and the background — not like the Insta360 Hyperlink, which very dramatically left the background in darkness. Additionally, whereas the graininess isn’t nice, the one actual various is a few sort of software-based smoothing like we see within the Logitech Brio 500, which isn’t actually any higher.
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To check the Facecam Professional’s efficiency in an overexposed setting, I turned off all lights apart from the ground lamp and desk lamp behind me, in addition to three of my screens. (That is truly a reasonably widespread lighting situation as a result of individuals usually attempt to keep away from having lots of gentle behind their screens.)
The Facecam Professional carried out okay on this situation, although it did a significantly better job with the background than it did with the topic. I discovered it tough to tweak the webcam’s settings for this one, and I couldn’t discover a mixture that happy me. That mentioned, that is the kind of lighting scenario that’s more likely to come back up in a non-professional webcam setup — and not possible to come back up in an expert one. So it’s not too a lot of a ding for the Facecam Professional, which isn’t geared toward most webcam customers.
Options and Software program of the Facecam Professional
For essentially the most half, the Facecam Professional works okay out of the field. However you don’t spend $300 on a webcam for “okay.”
I’m not an enormous fan of peripheral software program normally, and I often discover webcam software program significantly offensive. Elgato’s Digicam Hub, nonetheless, is an exception — not solely does it provide detailed management over issues like publicity, focus, and white steadiness, it additionally has some useful options to assist streamline (haha) the streaming expertise.
Digicam Hub has a number of sections for adjusting the Facecam Professional’s picture, together with publicity, white steadiness, and film, with extra detailed controls in every part. I’m an enormous fan of the publicity part having controls for shutter pace and ISO as a substitute of generic nonsense like “achieve.” The identical factor goes for the white steadiness slider itemizing temperature as a substitute of vaguely indicating heat.
There’s additionally a framing part that allows you to slender the webcam’s 90-degree FOV and body your picture. This part has 4 customizable presets, which you should use to shortly change between completely different “scenes” when you’re streaming. It’s not fairly a multi-cam setup just like the Logitech Mevo the place you may change between cameras, however the Facecam Professional’s extensive FOV and detailed zoom permits for an honest quantity of inventive freedom.
Backside Line
The Elgato Facecam Professional is aptly named — it’s undoubtedly designed for professionals. Whereas it didn’t blow us away in among the normal webcam situations, it’s additionally…probably not a webcam for traditional webcam situations. The Facecam Professional will certainly be a really highly effective instrument within the fingers of the proper individual, but it surely’s not a purchase order to take flippantly.
Virtually no non-professional wants and even has use for a 4K/60fps webcam; nor do {many professional} streamers. In the event you’re a creator who wants that easy 4K video, the Facecam Professional is a no brainer (it’s, in any case, the one webcam in the marketplace that captures 4K/60fps). That’s not the one motive to purchase it, nonetheless — the Facecam Professional will not be solely bundled with Elgato’s pro-level Digicam Hub software program, it’s additionally a part of the Elgato streaming ecosystem, which implies it would work with different Elgato streaming units (such because the Stream Deck).
After all, if you happen to’re only a common webcam person in search of a very good webcam, this isn’t the webcam for you. A great 1080p webcam just like the Logitech Brio 500 will do a greater job of creating you look good throughout early-morning Zoom conferences and late-night heart-to-hearts (and is lower than half the value).