I’ve been using this camera for over 8 months now, and TL;DR I’m not looking to change any time soon.
PRODUCT: Logitech StreamCam
FROM: Amazon
COST: £79.99 (When Purchased: £115)
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After using a cheap £10 AliExpress special camera for a while I decided a new camera was in order. And I’ll be honest, I wanted something that was decent, but I didn’t have a clue where to start when searching for a decent webcam. I know, as with all cameras numbers can and are fudged by some companies particularly on cheaper cameras. I’ve had cheap cameras in the past that claim 1080p, but I’m guessing they achieved this claim through either upscaling, bad quality lenses or both leading to terrible quality image, then there’s cameras that have terrible focusing ability, colour reproduction and light adjustment, it’s a bit of a mine field. So I headed to Amazon, a marketplace I know will accept a return for any reason, including “this is a bit crap” and looked for brands I have heard of.
After a bit of searching, and checking out reviews on youtube etc, I decided to get the Logitech StreamCam, there were a few options I’m sure I would have been happy with, but this camera while being at the top of the budget had good reviews, can do 1080p60 which should be plenty for my needs and one of the key features for me with this camera is it uses USB-C, and as my pc had a free USB-C port and running out of USB 2/3 ports. I’m sure the fixed USB-C connector is also a reason why many will find this unsuitable for their needs.
What’s In The Box?
Inside the box we have the camera itself with a fixed USB-C lead and 2 mounts, one (the one I’m currently using that will allow you to either pop the camera on a desk surface or quite securely on the top of a monitor and a stand that will allow you to attach it to a standard tripod screw mount.
Look & Feel
I really like the design of the camera, it’s square profile was like no other camera on the market which is dominated by pill shaped cameras, it looks and feels like a quality item with some real weight behind it. In black, with it’s charcoal fits my setup extremely well. The wire, is long enough for my setup, and it feels like a quality, strong cable.
The desk/monitor mount is nice and keeps the camera fixed in place, I’ve had cameras in the past that just refused to stay putt, but the combo of the good quality stand and the weight of this camera ensures it’s not going to budge every time you get excited and move.
Using The Camera
Despite picking my retailer because I knew I could send this back if I didn’t’ like it, I didn’t send it back and I use this camera every time I stream, which I’m sure speaks volumes. Out of the box the camera is plug and play and I’ve not had any trouble connecting to it, delays, image tearing, or the picture going blank and needing to reconnect to it to kick it into action again, which I have experienced with other webcams, the camera produces good quality video, handles motion well, the auto light balance and autofocus copes pretty well. In 1080p60 the motion is nice and smooth.
I installed the bundled software, and it’s fine an everything, the green screen stuff works as well as you expect and face-tracking while interesting, was quite distracting, I’m sure it’s useful to folk who want to use the camera with conferencing software but as I’m using OBS Studio, it’s really not needed so I uninstalled it quite quickly.
I use the monitor mount with keeps the camera nice and sturdy, however if I’m honest I’m not happy with it’s placement, my monitor is quite high mounted on the wall and I would prefer the camera to be closer to eye level so some sort of bracket which allows you to mount the camera on the side of a monitor would be great to be included in the box, that said, the tripod mount bracket gives it the ability to be mounted anywhere however at the additional cost of a bracket.
You can flip the camera on its side in it’s mount and it’ll change to portrait mode very quickly without messing with software to rotate the image, which will give options to get the look you want which is really important in the world of streaming where different and new is good. With the addition of a LUT in OBS to get the colour setting to my tastes, this has turned out to be a great camera for me.
Ok. It’s a great web camera, and it’ll do me right for a long time to come however, it is a bit pricey, even at the reduced price of £79.99 at the time of publishing this post, it’s pricey for a webcam. As you would expect, and hope, the Logitech StreamCam is considerably better in terms of picture quality to the £10 special I was using, but also seems to be better than many webcams in a similar price range, especially in camera centric screens where the camera takes up a large proportion of the screen, the StreamCam is also superior in both reliability and build quality to most generic webcams. However even with adjustments and filters, the StreamCam is not going to give you the flexibility and final results of an expensive DSLR camera. so if you’re looking to get the ultimate camera quality, making do with a cheap camera while saving for a DSLR may be the better option.