Tom's Guide "How to use your phone as a webcam".Wired article: "How to Turn Your Smartphone into a Webcam".
They typically do something similar to the liveview tethering deal, only using a mobile app, wi-fi, and a Windows/OS driver or application to turn the wifi signal into a webcam. simply using the conferencing app for your phone. Android/iOS smartphone camerasĪpparently, smartphone cameras can also be used as webcams, if you had need for more video-studio style manipulation vs. They also have a page on using an HDMI capture device, and lists the same models as having clean HDMI output, excluding the E-M1 (Mark I). Olympus has released Olympus OM-D Webcam Beta for Windows 10.
Panasonic has released Lumix Webcam Software (Beta), for Windows 10 and Mac, and lists compatibility with:
Fujiįuji has released X Webcam for Windows 10 and OSX 10.12-10.15, and lists compatibility with the following cameras:Īnd there's a firmware update for the X-T200 and X-A7, so they can be used as webcams without additional software on Windows 10 and OSX 10.14/10.15. So, if your Canon dSLR isn't listed, try it anyway and see.
The A6000 is not on it.Įnthusiasts have also published how to do screencap streaming and HDMI translation with Sony cameras. The software also supports three A-mount models, and a slew of RX-series cameras as well.Īnd they give a complete list here. Supported cameras include every Sony a7 and a7R since the Mark II, all three a7S cameras, both a9 cameras, and the a5100, a6100, a6300, a6400, a6500, and a6600. Sony has released their Imaging Edge Webcam software for Windows 10. It lists the following supported cameras: Nikon has released the Webcam Utility for Windows 10 and OSX 10.13, 10.14, and 10.15. This method typically still requires USB liveview capability, but doesn't rely on having a newer camera or OS versions that are supported by the OEM webcam releases. The third method is to use some kind of USB (or wireless, see mjt's answer) connection with the camera and software that can display the camera sensor's data (typically a remote control shooting app from the manufacturer, or freeware like digicamControl or gPhoto) and then using OBS (Open Broadcast Software) to send that display on a webcam stream using obs-virtual-cam or its plugin (Windows), obs-mac-virtualcam (OSX), or obs-v4l2sink (Linux).
Many camera companies are rolling their own versions of how to do this (see By camera manufacturer section, below), but there are free and open solutions that can work for older cameras and OS versions (see my personal experience section). Typically, transforming it into Spout (Windows), Syphon (OSX), or V4L2 (Linux) input, and then software to make that a virtual camera you can select from your video conferencing app. You then need some software that can translate this liveview stream to look internally like webcam input. So you'll need to check whether your specific camera has this capability. Canon and Sony excepted, most camera manufacturers reserve this feature for higher-end prosumer models. Resolution may be limited.Īlso, a lot of camera bodies can't do this. The second method is using a camera's ability to do tethered liveview over USB, and using software to translate this to look like a USB webcam input. * Canon dSLRs that can load Magic Lantern excepted.
Most* video-capable interchangeable lens cameras do not output clean HDMI if they are not from the last generation or two (this is written in 2020) of cameras.īut HDMI capture does allow for HD resolutions and 4K. HDMI capture requires two things: that the camera can output "clean HDMI" that is HDMI that doesn't have camera control overlays all over it, and an HDMI capture device to turn the HDMI output from the camera into a USB webcam input to the computer. There are three main methods by which a dSLR/mirrorless camera can be used as a webcam.