- The Logitech C920 has been the default choice
for budget friendly streamers for the past eight years.
But this week Logitech have released a brand new webcam,
specifically aimed at streamers.
They've called it the StreamCam
and given it the tagline,
"The ultimate experience for streamers."
But at over $100 more than the C920,
is it really worth the hype,
and does it deserve that title of being
the ultimate experience for streamers?
In this video, we're going to be taking a look at the StreamCam
and testing it out in a variety of different lighting setups
comparing it side-by-side with the C920,
the slightly more expensive Logitech BRIO,
and then a more professional mirrorless camera setup,
to see if it is the right purchase for you,
or if you're better off saving your money
to spend elsewhere.
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So right out the box,
a couple of things surprised me
about the Logitech StreamCam.
Firstly, it's quite a bit larger
than other webcams that I've been used to.
It's not quite as wide as the BRIO
but it's much taller and thicker
than most webcams I've used before.
A bigger camera usually means a bigger sensor,
hence a large aperture,
which should create more aesthetic
and a higher quality image.
The other thing worth noting is it's USB-C and not USB-A.
Judging from the fact that people are still buying C920,
eight years after its first release,
it's just smart future-proofing from Logitech
because in eight years time,
people may well not have any USB-A slots anymore.
But I do realize that USB-C is a decision that they've made,
and many of you out there might not even have a USB-C port
on your motherboard or laptop.
So, just bear in mind if you do pick up this webcam,
you may well need an adapter.
Right, enough setup.
Let's jump into some comparisons
between the Logitech StreamCam and the Logitech C920,
the BRIO and the more expensive mirrorless camera setup.
So here we have the side-by-side,
all four cameras mounted,
as close together as I could get them,
and all capturing a fairly standard shot
with their automatic settings.
So top left, we have the new $170 StreamCam.
Top right, is the $70 C920.
Bottom left, is the $200 Logitech BRIO.
And bottom right, is the Sony a5100
with a Sigma 30ml f/1.4 lens,
which total cost is around $500 to $600.
So the first thing that jumps out to me
is the field of view with both
the StreamCam and the C920 up top,
having that smaller 78 degree FOV.
Which when you compare to the BRIO,
can go up to 90 degrees,
and the Sony mirrorless camera is about 85 degrees.
Now FOV is kind of down to personal preference
but the BRIO does allow you to choose between
65, 78 and 90 degrees in the software,
so that is definitely the most customizable webcam,
as well as giving you the option of the largest FOV,
which I know some people desire.
In saying that, the BRIO definitely would need
the most work in color correction and white balance.
If you look at my skin tone,
as well as the color of my jumper,
it's the most inaccurate of the four cameras.
So you'd definitely need to spend some time
in the Logitech Capture settings,
as well as maybe adding some filters or alert
in the streaming software to make sure
its colors look better.
If we take a look at the StreamCam
cropped side by side with the C920,
you can see that again,
both of these images may require a bit of tinkering
in the settings of your streaming software,
but they are relatively comparable.
I don't know how much of this is going to still be visible,
after I've rendered it out and uploaded it,
and YouTube's compression has kicked in.
But for me, the StreamCam definitely picks out
more details and has less noise in the darker areas.
The auto-focus and auto-exposure also seem
to be quite a bit quicker than the C920,
which you'd expect with the higher price tag.
It's still in my opinion, mightily impressive
how well the C920 holds up in comparison
with a camera that is newer and over double its price.
Next let's take a look at the StreamCam versus the BRIO,
and if we ignore the color and FOV differences,
that we mentioned before, I'd say that,
again, I prefer the image out of the StreamCam.
The BRIO is capable of shooting in 4K,
which the StreamCam isn't,
but I really don't think
that's going to be an issue for streaming,
since nobody is streaming in 4K anytime soon.
And even then, you'd have to be running your camera
in full screen for it to even be possible to notice.
As for the StreamCam versus the mirrorless camera,
it's really just not a fair comparison.
As expected, the colors,
the depth of field, the image quality,
all look so much better in the mirrorless camera,
but we are comparing a $170 webcam
with a $500+ camera setup.
When we look at the low-light tests,
I left the mirrorless camera on its set ISO of 100,
so it was doing no compensation
for changing the brightness of my lights.
Firstly, I turned both of my key lights completely off,
so the only light is coming from my monitors.
You can see that the BRIO actually does the most work
in attempting to brighten up the image,
but really this is a non-ideal setup.
You'd want to at least have some form of lighting
for your streams if you are going to use a webcam.
Next, I turned both lights on
to around 5% of their max brightness.
And you can see that the StreamCam and the C920
both do a good job of changing exposure to match,
whereas the BRIO also adapts,
but it appears to always prefer this
rather over-exposed shot,
as even when I start to then increase the brightness
10% at a time, it always looks a little bit blown out.
When we go all the way to 100% brightness on these lights,
you can see from the mirrorless camera bottom right,
that this would be a completely unplayable condition.
As I switch from 100% all the way down to 5%,
you can really see how quickly the cameras adjust,
and what a variety of different lighting conditions
they can support.
Next, let's look at the four cameras
in a more likely scenario.
Some of you may use a full-screen webcam from time to time,
but I imagine the majority are arranging their scenes,
something like this, with the gameplay behind,
and a smaller camera source and overlay on top.
I think at this size,
it's even harder to see the differences
between the StreamCam and the C920,
even though we're talking about
over $100 difference in price.
You also here get a better sense
of that Field of View difference for the BRIO,
which to be honest with you,
is the only real reason I would recommend
getting one over the StreamCam or C920.
So if you'd really do want that huge field of view,
then I would recommend getting the BRIO.
One thing that a lot of you guys wanted me to test out,
which apparently is still a problem in the C920,
is whether or not the camera saves the settings
in between uses and in between reboot cycles.
Apparently on the C920,
you can go in and adjust things like the auto-focus
and the auto white balance and things like that.
But sometimes when you restart your computer,
all of those settings are forgotten.
And that seems like a crazy bug
that must have existed for eight years.
I did power on and power off my PC about five times
with some custom settings on the Logitech StreamCam,
and it seems to remember them.
So I can only assume that the settings
are being saved to the camera.
One thing that does kind of rub me in the wrong way
about the Logitech StreamCam is the fact
that they named it the StreamCam,
they've given it the tagline,
"The ultimate experience for streamers,"
and yet, on their sales pitch,
they brag about all these features
that really don't make any sense to streamers at all.
I mean I understand that streaming
is now more than just gaming,
and that we have to be thinking
about these other content creators
that are wanting to live stream,
but a portrait video really doesn't make any sense to me
'cause all of the platforms that you can live stream to,
from your computer, they're all landscape,
they're all 16x9 players.
So the only use case I can possibly think about,
for having a portrait camera,
is if you had like a 4x3 game, like an old school game,
and you wanted your camera
to fill the rest of the 16x9 frame.
To me, it just doesn't make sense.
I'm sure this feature has been built
actually for content creators,
people for Instagram and TikTok to record videos,
not for streamers, not for live streaming.
You can't even live stream to Instagram from your desktop,
you have to do it from your phone.
So I just don't think this is a feature
that's has been built for streamers.
Image stabilization, that also makes no sense.
Surely if you're using this for streaming,
you are having it mounted on top of your monitor,
or on a tripod of some sort.
So when are you ever going to need
some sort of image stabilization?
Unless you're slamming your desk in rage often,
then maybe that kind of make sense
to have some kind of image stabilization.
But I just don't get it.
Why would you need that in a streaming camera?
And then there's the stereo microphone.
Please please please tell me
that if you are spending $170 on a webcam,
and you're considering using that microphone
built into the webcam for your live streams,
you need to reorder your priorities.
What you should be spending is maybe
$100 on a quality USB microphone,
of which there are so many on the market right now,
and then spending the rest, the $70,
on something like the C920.
Do not spend your whole $170 on this webcam,
and then use the microphone built-in.
It's going to sound 100 times worse
than even a relatively cheap USB microphone.
Listen, I have no problem with Logitech
building these features,
'cause they do have use cases
for some webcam applications.
But don't dub it the StreamCam
and "The ultimate experience for streamers,"
as if you've dived really deep into this market
and researched what people want.
I think probably what has happened in this case
is that Logitech were building
this camera for a number of years,
and then at a later date,
marketing came in and saw this massive
opportunity in streaming, there's a market,
people willing to spend money,
so they've given it the name StreamCam,
just so that they can try and sell
more to a growing industry.
When in reality, it's a good webcam,
that has a variety of different uses.
So let's answer the all important question.
Is the Logitech StreamCam worth $170 of your own money?
And it's a really strange price point
because you can certainly get a slightly worse image
for a lot less money.
And the C920 in that aspect
is still a fantastic product.
Then it's kind of comparable to the Logitech BRIO,
obviously they've interchanged some features,
like the 4K for the BRIO.
But then the next level up from those cameras
really is to invest in a cheap mirrorless setup
which of course means you need a camera, a lens,
and a capture device,
some way of being able to feed
that camera into your computer.
And those kind of go, even if you're looking second-hand,
for about $400 all in.
So over double the price of the StreamCam.
I'd say that if you are on a tighter budget,
or if you're just starting out,
the Logitech C920 is still a fantastic choice,
especially if you can pick it up
on Amazon Prime Day or Amazon Black Friday,
because those days seem to have
massive discounts for the C920.
But the C920 does have its own issues,
especially that one about saving the settings,
and having to redo them every time you start your stream.
So if you don't want to have to deal with that,
or you want a combination of the better image quality,
the better low-light performance, and the better auto-focus,
and you have $170 that you're willing to spend on a webcam,
then the Logitech StreamCam is probably
a pretty good option for you.
Just don't go quoting it to your Twitch friends,
as "The ultimate streamer experience,"
because it's really not.
It's just a good and relatively expensive webcam.
If you haven't yet joined the Gaming Careers
Discord channel, there's a whole bunch
of content creators and streamers in there,
that love talking about tech like this.
So come and join the conversation.
There's a link in the description.
Also last week I finally launched Episode one
of the the Gaming Careers Podcast,
where we talk the CEO and founder of Streamlabs,
about all of the streaming opportunities in 2020.
So if you haven't yet listened to that,
there's also a link to the Gaming Careers podcast
in the description as well.
Thanks as always to the Gaming Careers patrons
that have supported the channel this month,
and I'll catch you all in the next video, peace!