Pre-COVID, I (fortunately) had a home office. Yet, since March I have; added a second monitor and KVM, changed my webcam solution – thrice, replaced the desk with an adjustable one, unplugged and recabled everything, unplugged and recabled everything, unplugged and recabled
— Paul Weinstein (@pdweinstein) August 17, 2020
It has been a year since I, along with everyone else, found myself on the short end of two pandemic related product shortages, toilet paper and webcams. To some extent, the supply chain for both items has sorted itself out. But with the ubiquitous nature of cameras these days, one has to wonder why do so many people need a dedicated, external webcam?
Put another way, how can I meet some basic requirements to improve my setup without having to spend extra for a not necessarily better experience?1
Let’s start with some requirements:
Not purchasing a new device leaves me with two options, using video from my DSLR or smartphone cameras as an external webcam.
DSLR
There are a couple of different setup options to choose from, depending on the camera. For example both, Canon and Nikon recently released software supporting webcam functionality in late model DSLR cameras. However, Nikon’s support didn’t arrive until August of 2020 and does not support my slightly older D3400.
Another option is to stream the HDMI feed of the camera to a capture card. The capture card converts the HDMI signal into a USB signal that various video conferencing software expect.
Unfortunately, my budget-class D3400 has a built-in 30-minute video limit. Officially, this is to keep the onboard imaging sensor from overheating and burning out. Unofficially, this limitation is to upsell consumers to a more feature-rich model. There are a few hacks, physical & digital, to circumvent this limitation. But even with a hack in place, the battery requires constant swapping and charging during a full workday of calls.
DSLR
Pros:
Cons:
Smartphone
Similar to the DSLR camera, there are a couple of ways to repurpose a smartphone as a webcam. For my Apple iPhone, one option is to use a complete software-based solution such as Reincubate’s Camo.
Camo provides everything needed to repurpose any of the iPhone’s onboard cameras as a webcam for video conferencing. Camo provides two pieces of software, an iPhone app to manage the device and a desktop app to interface with the camera controls. Overall, the Camo software is well-rounded, providing presets for quick setup alongside detailed level controls.
Unfortunately Camo’s support for Webex is hit or miss. While I was able to get Camo up and running with Webex Teams, support for Webex Meetings on macOS is still schedule for some time in the future. Worst, at some point a software update – either to Camo or Webex Teams – broke the integration and I have yet to get them to work together again since.
iPhone & Camo
Pros:
Cons:
Similar to DSLRs, it is possible to capture the video stream from the iPhone camera via HDMI. Besides requiring a capture card, this setup also requires a Lightning to HDMI adaptor and a third-party camera app for the iPhone. I tested two apps, CameraVision and Filmic Pro. Filmic Pro easily beats CameraVision while still being cost effective.
iPhone & HDMI Capture
Pros:
Cons:
One interesting side effect of using my smartphone as a webcam is that the smartphone itself is unavailable for any other usage. This might seem obvious, but I was surprised at exactly how integrated my smartphone is into my day-to-day workflow in two ways. First, while the phone is in use as a camera, I’m unable to view any work-related push notifications (email/IM, calendar reminders) sent to me. Second, I am unable to interact with any other phone-based apps. Of particular issue is using the company’s multi-factor authentication service while logging into business tools during a meeting.
In the end, I found there it is no perfect solution that solves for all the basic requirements. However, there are a couple of workable solutions. The imperfect setup I’ve come to depend on with macOS and Webex is as follows:
1 The built-in camera in my company issued 16inch MacBook Pro from 2019 is only 720p and dedicated peripherals are not much better.