Elgato launches Facecam, a 1080p 60fps camera for content creators

XDA

Elgato Facecam is a $199 webcam for streamers featuring Sony's Starvis CMOS sensor

By Kunal Khullar

Published Jul 16, 2021

The new Elgato Facecam is a premium webcam offering support for 1080p 60fps video along with a bunch of customizations.

Elgato is a popular brand that makes some of the best gear for streamers, including capture cards, microphones, ring lights, stream decks, and so on. The company has now announced a new premium webcam, called the Facecam, targeted at content creators looking for a sharp 1080p camera.

According to Elgato (via The Verge), the Facecam uses a Sony Starvis CMOS sensor that features a fixed focus prime lens, an f/2.4 aperture with 24mm full-frame equivalent focal length, and offers a field of view of 82-degrees. The webcam can shoot at 60fps, and the company says it also offers noise reduction and can be used in all sorts of lighting conditions. You can fix it to a standard tripod using the quarter-inch thread or attach it to your monitor using the low-profile mount. It connects to your Windows PC or Mac using the detachable USB-C to USB Type-A cable. It is a plug-and-play camera so you can quickly get started with video calls or streaming, and it can also be used for recording footage using any of the OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) based apps.

What’s unique about the Facecam is that it offers a wide range of customization options. Using the Camera Hub software, you can tinker around with the overall quality. It comes with a bunch of virtual knobs and switches that make it easier to get the perfect picture for your setup. You can control contrast, saturation, white balance, zoom, and even ISO (something you don’t often see on webcams). Once you have the right settings, you can even save it onto the Facecam’s onboard memory itself. This essentially means that you don’t have to fiddle around with the settings if you change your PC.

Despite all of these features, there are a few webcams that can beat the Facecam, like Dell's UltraSharp 4K webcam. But the obvious competition for the Elgato Facecam would be Razer’s Kiyo Pro and the Logitech Stream. Compared to these, the Facecam has some shortcomings. For instance, it doesn’t have a built-in microphone, it is more expensive, and it doesn’t offer the auto-tracking feature that you get with Logitech. Still, the fine-tuning options for picture control seem interesting. Along with the Facecam, Elgato has also launched two new mic arms called the Wave Mic Arm and the Wave Mic Arm LP (low profile), the new Wave XLR microphone interface, and the new Stream Deck MK.2.