With more people working from home than ever before, it didn’t take long for everyone to snatch up all the last remaining webcams. If you missed out on the rush and also feel that the quality of webcams is inadequate for your needs, now’s the time to start looking at higher-quality alternatives.
If you already own a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you don’t even need a webcam—just the right program to make your camera streamable. For that, check out
Elgato Cam Link which we use with our Sony camera to host video conferences that boast the kind of quality you only see on TV shows. Elgato also brings user-friendly software that lets your computer recognize your existing camera. Just make sure your DSLR or mirrorless has a “clean” HDMI out, which ensures you can broadcast the picture without having to tweak any settings.
For those of you interested in taking things a step beyond telecommunications into the realm of creative visual content you can stream, we strongly recommend Canon cameras. Not only are they dependable, but the company is also attacking the market head-on with software that allows the use of Canon DSLR and mirrorless cameras as webcams without having to rely on third-party capture software like Elgato Cam Link.
If you want to take advantage of this, we recommend the
Canon M50, which can shoot in super-high-quality 4K slo-mo in 1080p resolution. The M50 is plug-and-play enabled but plays like a traditional camera and doesn’t sacrifice any quality.