- In this video, I'll show you how to live stream
with a video camera, like your DSLR or your camcorder
so that you can easily boost the quality
of your live streams using your favorite video camera
as a webcam.
Hi, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video
where we help you grow an audience
and scale your revenue with online video.
Now, as we're going through this video
if you're seeing value in it
make sure you're giving us a thumbs up
and all the links to everything we mentioned in this video
you can find a link in the description box below.
So let's jump into it.
Using a DSLR or a mirrorless
or really any other type of video camera
is the easiest way to really level up
the quality of your live streams.
And it's not that hard to do with the right setup.
So whether you've got a fancy DSLR or a camcorder
or a video camera,
we're gonna run through the best ways to do it right now
along with exactly what you need
and how to set it all up to get it going.
And then to take that live stream quality even further
once we're done I'll also share with you
how you can take your live streams up another notch
with some awesome custom animations
really fast and really easy.
Now there's some pretty big advantages
in using an actual camera in place of a webcam
but the biggest one is probably the look and the feel
of the image that you're now able to get into your computer.
Depending on which camera you've got
you'll be able to get a much shallower depth
of field in your shot.
So you're able to blur out the background
or have some separation between yourself
and whatever is in the background.
On a webcam and even some of the latest ones,
it's really hard to get much or any depth of field
in your shot.
You'll also find that a lot of cameras
are gonna give you a much better shot
in low light conditions.
Typically webcams are fairly average
in low light environments
whereas a lot of cameras out there
will actually do a fairly decent job.
You'll also have a lot more control
over the look and feel of your shot.
Again, webcams they don't have that many settings,
whereas a lot of cameras
you'll be able to kick them into manual
and really dial everything in.
And you'll also probably find
that a lot of cameras out there
are gonna do a far better job at things like auto-focusing
than what webcams do.
But also if you're gonna use a camera
that you've already got accessories and things for,
it means that you will be able to use those
with your computer as well.
So if you've already got microphones,
you've already got a teleprompter
and everything set up for your camera
then the chances are that you'll be able to use all of those
when it's connected up to your computer as well.
Now as for the disadvantages or the downsides
battery life is probably the first thing
that you need to be aware of,
if your camera doesn't have a very long battery life
then you're gonna chew through that fairly quickly
when it's connected up as a live stream camera.
For most cameras out that you can purchase a power adapter
so you don't need to worry about batteries
and that's something that I'd strongly recommend
that you invest in.
For a lot of cameras especially recent ones
you could just jump over to places like Amazon
and search for your camera make and model
and you'll probably find one very, very quickly.
And another thing to be aware of,
it is possible to have an audio sync issue with your video.
Now don't worry I'm gonna share with you
some solutions for this a little bit later on in the video
but it is something to be mindful of
depending of how you set this up.
Okay, so there's two main ways
that you can connect your camera up to your computer.
The first is by using an HDMI Interface Unit,
something like this one, the Cam Link 4k.
So what this lets you do is take the HDMI feed
out of your camera, so the video out of your camera
into this little device
and this is going to let you bring it into your computer
and just connect it to your computer with USB.
Now, the beauty of this method
is it's gonna work with a lot of cameras out there
that have an HDMI or a mini HDMI or a micro HDMI port
and on the computer side of things
you don't need to install anything,
you don't need to run any software or drivers.
It literally just picks up this Cam Link as another webcam.
Now there is a bit of a shortage on Cam Links at the moment
so if you're looking for an alternative,
ElGato the company that make Cam Link
also make a device called an HD60 S+.
Make sure you're getting the one with the plus
but it's gonna work pretty much exactly the same.
The HD60 S+ will be limited to a 10 EDP video stream
whereas the Cam Link 4k is obviously up to 4k.
Now you wanna make sure with this,
that the camera that you're gonna be using
supports clean HDMI or will output clean HDMI.
What do I mean by clean?
Is that they don't have any battery indicators
or record indicators or any of the onscreen display stuff
that you see on your cameras.
You need to make sure
that none of that is outputted over HDMI
or that you have the ability to turn that off
for your HDMI feed.
Now, if you're not sure about your specific camera,
just jump onto Google and do a quick Google search
for your camera make and model
and the words clean HDMI.
You want to make sure it outputs clean HDMI.
Now a great thing about using HDMI and using this method
is that it will also bring through your camera audio.
So if you've got any microphones
or anything connected to your camera
then your audio feed will also come in with the video
and the two of them will be synced up
so that you've got no sync issues.
So that's option number one, using an HDMI Interface Unit.
Option number two, is there's a lot of cameras these days
which will actually now work as webcams
if you just connect them up through USB.
So a lot of the big brands
have started to release little camera apps
that you can download and install on your computer
and that will let you use your camera as a webcam.
So Canon's got one, Sony's got one,
Panasonic has just released theirs
and a lot of the other brands have as well.
And again, for your specific camera make and model
I would suggest doing a Google search to see
if you can use it as a webcam without any additional gear.
So you can search for your camera make and model
and as webcam
and you'll find the answer pretty quick.
Now there's two things that you need to be aware of
with this method,
again depending on your specific camera make and model.
Some cameras won't pass through audio over USB
it'll just be the video image coming through
without any sound.
So if that's the case for you it means
that you'll just have to use a different type of microphone
connected directly to your computer.
So a USB microphone, something like the Rode NT-USB
or NT-USB mini could be a good option for you.
And the second thing to be aware of with this method
is that it's typically a little lower quality
than using HDMI
and again depending on your specific camera,
the quality coming in could be four EDP, could be 720,
it could be 1080,
but it is gonna change
depending on which specific camera you have.
So I'll take you through now
how easy it is to get this set up with both methods.
All you need to do is to download
the specific web cam software
for your specific camera make and model,
connect your camera to the computer using USB,
turn the camera on
and in most cases you're gonna wanna set that to video mode.
Now, if you are having any issues
I would definitely recommend reading again the instructions
for your specific camera make and model
because some cameras, it's pretty rare
but some cameras will want you to switch your camera
to different modes
and some specific cameras will even tell you to do things
like to take out the memory card
so that you can live stream for longer.
But for most cameras you can leave that stuff in
and just switch over to video mode.
And then that's all you need to do
to have your camera showing up as a webcam.
You can then select in your live streaming software
or even apps like Zoom as well.
So now that you've got to all hooked up and running
if you do find that you have some audio sync issues
or the audio is a little bit out of sync with the video
my first recommendation to fix this
would be to try and connect your audio, your microphone
into the camera itself.
So at least that way the audio and the video
are gonna be paired and partnered up
before they come into your computer.
So minimizing the risk of any sync issues.
Now, depending on the gear that you've got
that might not work for you,
so the next option is inside of your live streaming software
whether it's OBS, Ecamm Live, vMix, Wirecast
all of those will actually let you manually adjust the sync
or the delay between your audio and video.
So that's a really simple fix
that you can do in those applications
whether you're gonna be live streaming
or even just recording directly into your computer
just to fix up that sync.
So using an actual camera is an amazing way
to level up the quality of your live streams.
Another way that you can do it
is by using animated titles and graphics
inside of your live streams as well.
Now, if you're interested in learning how to do this
there is a link on screen with a tutorial
where we take you through how easy and how simple it is
to create amazing looking graphics
It can download and use in all of your live streams.
So check out that video
and I'll see you in the next one, cheers.