- This is the new Elgato Facecam.
It's got some great features and great software,
but how does it stack up against the current market leaders,
like the Logitech C920,
the C922 and the Brio.
And is this our top pick for best webcam in 2022.
This is our full review
to help you decide if the Facecam
is the best webcam for your Mac or PC right now.
Now webcams are kind of in this weird area of tech,
things like smartphones and cameras,
improve in huge leaps and bounds every year,
while the whole webcam space seems to be stuck,
like 10 years ago.
I mean literally,
two of the best selling webcams
that still top a lot of the review charts
are the Logitech C920 and C922,
which were originally released back in 2012 and 2016.
And even with some of the newer webcams
like the 4K Logitech Brio,
they've got relatively minor improvements
and the software experience is completely nonexistent
or terrible.
So this is what ElGato
is promising to change with the Facecam,
pairing their totally new hardware
with a really thought out software package,
designed to give you much more granular control
over your webcam.
Now Elgato actually sent this to us about six months ago
and it's taken until now for me to really think
that this is at the point where it is worth a review.
Initially,
in my tests,
I had so many issues.
There was glitches,
there was weird stuff happening while I was live.
So I ended up putting it back in the box
and sitting it on the shelf,
until they had some firmware updates
and things that would fix the issues that I was having.
Now since then,
they have released a few firmware updates,
which have fixed all the problems
and I now think it's a really good option,
hence the video.
So let's dive into everything you need to know.
Some quick specs to start with.
I've also included the Logitech Brio
and the Logitech C922,
just for comparison.
So the Elgato Facecam is a 1080p webcam,
capable of 60 frames per second.
So yes,
it's not a 4K webcam,
like the Logitech Brio.
It's got an 82 degree filled of view.
So a little bit wider than the C920
but the Brio does have its three different settings.
65, 78 and 90 degrees.
So the field of view is quite a bit wider on the Brio.
Now while most webcams have autofocus built-in,
it's usually not that good
and you can see it pulsing and hunting.
So to fix their Elgato instead have gone
with a fixed focus lens.
So the focus is totally locked.
So that means that everything
that is at least 12 inches up to 47 inches,
anything in that range,
is distance away from the webcam
is going to automatically be in focus.
Anything outside of those is not.
And I also chose to go
with a 24 millimeter equivalent fixed lens,
which is a really popular lens choice,
when it comes to live streaming.
But as it is a fixed lens as with most webcams,
there is no optical zoom,
but you can zoom in and reframe your shot digitally,
using the software,
but yes there will be some equality loss.
Now comparing that to the Logitech Brio,
which does state has got a five time zoom
that's digital zoom as well is not optical,
but given that it's capable of 4K video at 1080p,
if you did wanna zoom in
you're really not gonna lose too much quality.
Elgato also decided to remove the microphone
for this webcam.
So there is no built-in microphone.
In my opinion,
don't think that's a deal breaker.
Not many people I know use the built-in microphone
in their webcams.
They're usually terrible.
And for connectivity to your computer,
there is a USB-C port on the back,
same as the Brio.
And it does come with a USB-C to USB-A cable.
Now I think the camera itself looks awesome,
but when you pick it up,
it definitely feels lighter than you would think
and it definitely feels kind of cheap and plasticky,
but I don't think that's a real problem.
Now the mount on the bottom is pretty good.
It's gonna fit onto most screens as it opens up pretty wide.
And one thing it doesn't have
that would be nice that really no other webcam has anyway
is the ability to tilt the webcam left and right.
So you can really frame your shot
up the way that you would like,
but it's really not a deal breaker
because the base itself removes
and there is a standard tripod mounting thread
on the bottom.
So you can always mount it on a ball head,
if you wanted that flexibility.
Now it does come with a lens cover as well,
but it's not a to the camera itself.
So if you're someone who's taking the lens cover on and off
and you're putting it down somewhere,
there is a chance you could lose it.
I'm speaking from experience.
But there's still a few really big features
with this webcam that we're gonna jump into,
but let's take a look at what it looks like.
So this is what the Elgato Facecam looks like.
Now I have tweaked the settings here
to make it look like this.
This isn't the automatic settings,
but we'll jump over now to the camera hub.
And let's take a look at what you can control.
So at the top here,
you've got the zoom.
Obviously we can zoom in and out on out shot here.
It is gonna lose quality,
but at a pinch,
you could do it.
You've got your contrast,
your saturation and your sharpness.
Sharpness is one I normally like to take down.
I think the default is two
and you can see how much detail there is in my beard.
let's go back to one.
Exposure I've got on manual.
This is what I love about this
is that you're getting DSLR like settings,
like the ability to control your shutter speed
and your ISO here is huge,
no other webcam gives you control like this.
So because I'm in Australia,
I've set the shutter speed to one over 50
to remove any flickering from any lights.
And then I can adjust the brightness
of my shot with the ISO here up and down.
We can also adjust the white balance
but instead of just having an arbitrary slider
we actually have Kelvin rating here,
which is normally what you would be using
to adjust your white balance on a regular camera.
And you can see down the bottom here,
where I've got noise reduction.
So I currently have that off.
If I turn it on
you can see it removes some of the digital noise or grain
from the darker areas of the shot.
So you can see on my shirt here,
if I turn it back on you get a bit more detail,
a bit more grain in there.
So I love that you have the ability in here
to dial everything in and to really lock everything down.
But one of the biggest features
that I absolutely love,
this is a standout for this camera
is that you can then come up the top here and hit save.
And it's not just gonna save them to your computer.
It's actually saving and writing these settings
to the camera itself.
Meaning that if you unplug the camera,
put it into a different USB port
or even into a different computer,
it's gonna save these settings here,
as the new default for this camera.
Now to show you what this looks
like straight outta the box,
without any settings applied.
If I come over here to the settings
and I go restore factory defaults,
it's gonna go through and do its thing.
And this is what it looks like straight outta the box,
but you can see the overall look,
it's not bad.
I think I look a little pink
or a little orange in this,
which is where customizing up these settings
and tweaking the brightness and things
is going will allow you to fully control,
what the image looks like.
Quick comparison again,
with the Elgato settings adjusted,
this is the Elgato
and then this one here is the Logitech Brio.
Now in all fairness,
I've done nothing here with the Logitech Brio
and up until very recently,
their software was absolute trash.
So now if I open up the Logitech software
I'll show you what you can do in there really quickly too.
Again,
this is the Logitech Brio camera that you're seeing now,
and this is the Log Tune Software.
So we can adjust the zoom at the top here.
We can also adjust the field of view.
So we've got 90 degrees,
78.
So this is much closer
to what you're getting on the Facecam.
And then you've also got a 65 option in here too.
Now you can see here,
it's still really clear.
It's still really crisp.
Yet it doesn't seem to cope as well
with the details low light,
but it's still not that bad.
If we scroll down further
we can turn on or off the autofocus.
Now this is something that I definitely recommend
you're gonna do
because the autofocus here is terrible.
But if we go over to color adjustments,
there are some really bad presets
and things that are built in here.
Bright blossom for us.
These are terrible.
But if I go back to original
and then to adjustments,
then in here,
is where we can dial it in a little bit further.
So it's good that we've got some settings,
but this is nothing like what you have access to
inside of Elgato features.
And again,
this is what it looks like on default.
You can see even just the slightest movement
as it's totally change the light in the shot.
So here is another side by side comparison,
on the left we've got the Logitech Brio,
then we've got the Logitech C922 in the middle.
And then the third one on the right is the Facecam.
Let me know your thoughts,
which one you think is the best camera down in the comments.
Now in terms of pricing
the Elgato Facecam is currently selling for 19999.
So it's definitely not on the cheaper end of things.
There are much cheaper webcams out there,
but I do think with the amount of features and controls
and everything you're getting here
and how well it works low light,
it is a pretty good option.
Now for comparison
the Logitech Brio 4K is currently selling
for around $160 and the Logitech C922,
I've seen cheap as $70,
but the C922 comparing it to the other two,
I really don't think it's a great option.
But overall I think the Elgato Facecam is an amazing webcam
and a really great option.
I really like the low light capabilities of the Facecam
and just how awesome the software is,
as someone who loves to dive in and dial everything down
is so awesome that you've got all of those setting
in there,
but even better is how you can just save them
to your webcam.
So you don't need to dial them in.
You can spend the time to do it once
for your setup and then just save it there,
so you're good to go.
After having that,
It's actually a big annoyance for me,
when I do use the Logitech Brio
that I have to dial it in a one day.
It could be looking awesome
and you come back in the next day,
plug it into a different port
and it thinks it's a completely new webcam.
So it's lost all of its settings and everything.
So being able to save everything
to the camera itself with the Facecam is huge.
And with the Brio,
it is a noticeably sharper,
clearer image.
And it's probably because of the 4K capabilities.
So even if you're using it at 1080,
it is still sharper and clearer than the Delgado Facecam.
But it's also something
that unless you're comparing them side by side
you're probably not gonna know the difference,
but I also like how the Brio looks just with auto settings.
For the most part,
it does a really good job,
without even the need to dive in and make job adjustments.
But the autofocus,
I don't think is good
and that something that I'm normally turning off.
So I'm a big fan of the Elgato,
how it does have the fixed focus too.
So rounding this out,
if I had to pick one overall winner
and which webcam I'm gonna continue to use from here on in,
as my primary webcam,
it is gonna go to the Elgato Facecam.
I personally think for how I use webcams
and for my setup here in a,
not overly a bright room
that that is the best option for me.
But also I just love that I can set it up once
and know that my settings are all saved
to the camera itself,
so I don't have to set it up every single time.
So now that you've got your webcam sorted,
if you wanna know how to get the most out of your webcam,
the highest quality
and the best recording or live streaming,
then check out the video linked on screen
and I'll see you in the next one.
Cheers.