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Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp

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Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#91
post #71
post #6

It's kind of wild to me how there's such a product vacuum for this stuff. I've dug around and the only real option is an HDMI capture card paired with a decent camera (I read this Sony software option is lower quality, but at least it's progress). LG camera setups target businesses and are generally overpriced crap (I have one - the LG meetup) with proprietary connections and mediocre cameras, and crappy mics/softwar…

I thought the same and went looking recently, Black Magic gear looks well suited. Camera: - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/blackmagicpocke... - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/blackmagicmicro... Capture card: - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/atemmini - https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/cam-link-4k - Generic eBay capture card

Are you using this?

When I looked the black magic camera seemed to require a human running it to get things to work well.

There were no clear winners, but these were the options I looked at as best:

- LUMIX GH5, high quality but old, bad autofocus

- LUMIX G100, new and cheaper, bad autofocus

- Sony ZV1, new and great autofocus, no interchangeable lens

I ended up unable to decide between them.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#92
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not official, and no personal experience with it, but it sounds like this is what you want: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epoccam-webcam-for-mac-and-pc/... > Just download drivers to your PC/Mac and you're ready to go! Connection is fully automatic, no need for manual setup. You can connect wirelessly over WiFi network or with with a USB-cable.

I use this. It kinda sucks, and the battery goes way too quickly.

I agree it kinda sucks. I found it (and alternatives) to be flaky, and had an audio delay when I had them running. Plus the setup experience each time you want to use it (put iPhone in tripod, position in correctly [because you moved the tripod], plug it in, launch app, check focus etc..) is enough of a pain that a dedicated webcam is just way better even if the picture quality is lower.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

these cheapo hdmi capture cards work great: https://www.ebay.com/itm/HDMI-to-USB2-0-Video-Capture-Card-1...

Do those work at 1080p 60 FPS? It claims to support 4K 30 at least.

Be careful as you read: that whole listing is dubious.

The listing is actually covering three completely different products: firstly, an HDMI-to-USB-2.0 capture card (HDMI female, USB-A male). And secondly and thirdly, red USB-C– and Lightning-to-HDMI cables (USB-C/Lightning male, HDMI male, plus USB-A male for a power source), which I will call broadcast cards for the rest of this comment, for want of a better name. Leastways, I’m pretty sure they’re broadcast cards, though the text doesn’t mention anything at all about them (except possibly for one line, discussed below), and the images and single line description in the “Item” dropdown are hardly conclusive.

The listing conveniently blurs the lines about what it’s talking about.

The capture card claims to support 4K 30fps input. Not output.

In the text, it says “Video Output Resolution: Max output can be 1080p (lightning cable)/ 4K (Type C cable)”. The mentions of Lightning and USB-C imply that this line is talking about the broadcast card… even though everything else in the listing is talking about the capture card (I think). I know the saying, “never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence”, but I can’t explain this with incompetence. I’ve got to attribute this to malice, >99% they’re flat-out lying to make the product sound better. Adding a USB-to-Lightning or USB-A–to–USB-C adapter can’t improve a product that’s limited to USB 2.0. There is certainly no 4K output on the capture card. So by this point, we know nothing about its output, save that they lied. 1080p seems the most likely reconstruction and reconciliation of the lie.

One of the images (probably talking about the capture card) says “1920x 1080@30Hz”, but frankly I don’t believe this represents reality—even if it is mostly true, it’s certainly lying by omission. USB 2.0 simply isn’t capable of channelling full-quality video at that level (1920×1080, 3×8-bit channels, 30fps), so the only way they could hit that frame rate is by compression, meaning lowering the quality of the signal markedly.

From my research, many report USB 2.0 HDMI capture cards having terrible image quality and not even hitting 30fps consistently. I have not actually purchased any myself to verify this one way or another, but I have found quite a few reports of these sorts of thing, some in reasonable technical depth, whereas I have not found a single technically-detailed review that looks favourably upon these units. So I say avoid USB 2.0 ones like the plague, because there’s simply not enough bandwidth for them to be good products. You’ll have better luck with USB 3.0 ones, and make sure that they explicitly say 1080p/60fps output. (There are 1080p/30fps USB 3.0 ones, but they seem to be commonly associated with complaints as well, so that I imagine they’ve been cutting corners severely; so even if 30fps is all you want, I suggest getting one that advertises 60fps output—that’s what I’ll be doing when I get one.)

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#94
post #90
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, I would report it but I’d be afraid they’d “fix” the copied app workaround as well. I suspect it crashes because Handoff tries to start the last FaceTime binary I used, but some kind of signature has changed so it kills it immediately. I’m not sure why it’s spotlight that crashes except that maybe its index is used to launch the last FaceTime I used?

What happens if you disable handoff for calls?

it probably works just fine, it's 100% triggered by handoff.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#95
post #13

RX100 VII on macOS 11 doesn't work with the recommended settings, quelle surprise from Sony software. The €9 capture card I read about here works perfectly and at higher res.

Which capture card are you using? I couldn't find mentions to it in this thread.

Not sure it has a name, but it looks like this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDMI-to-USB-Video-Capture-Card-10... It's fantastic, works anytime with no issues.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do those work at 1080p 60 FPS? It claims to support 4K 30 at least.

Be careful as you read: that whole listing is dubious. The listing is actually covering three completely different products: firstly, an HDMI-to-USB-2.0 capture card (HDMI female, USB-A male). And secondly and thirdly, red USB-C– and Lightning-to-HDMI cables (USB-C/Lightning male, HDMI male, plus USB-A male for a power source), which I will call broadcast cards for the rest of this comment, for want of a better name.…

Thanks for the detailed response. Like you, I was very suspicious of it mentioning USB 2.0 and 4K in the same description. Seems like these aren't worth the trouble, especially when considering 60 FPS to be a bare minimum.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#97

We should also look at addressing the issue of conferencing tools not actually being able to handle true high quality streams like you might get on Twitch or YouTube Live. My Canon EOS R and L lens may look great in 60fps through an HDMI capture card, but what point is there when it's still going to be a 24fps 360p[0] video stream on Zoom even if I choose the HD option? Sure, the pandemic is somewhat to blame[1], but…

I think a self hosted Jitsi Meet can do 1080p, if configured right.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be careful as you read: that whole listing is dubious. The listing is actually covering three completely different products: firstly, an HDMI-to-USB-2.0 capture card (HDMI female, USB-A male). And secondly and thirdly, red USB-C– and Lightning-to-HDMI cables (USB-C/Lightning male, HDMI male, plus USB-A male for a power source), which I will call broadcast cards for the rest of this comment, for want of a better name.…

Thanks for the detailed response. Like you, I was very suspicious of it mentioning USB 2.0 and 4K in the same description. Seems like these aren't worth the trouble, especially when considering 60 FPS to be a bare minimum.

I just got mine, it's great. 1080p30 is currently more than enough for web conferencing, which is what I need it for. Much better quality than the tethering feed that I assume this new Sony tool uses.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#99

When they originally announced the Windows version there was a lot of fine print such as the resolution being horribly low. I don't see that listed this time at least on this page, so was wondering if that was resolved, or just more hidden now? I use the 4K Cam Usb stick and get full resolution and works great with Sony A7Riv though ideally of course always nicer to have one less thing to plugin but sounds like this…

They just hid the resolution constraint disclaimer one click away at the end of the [usage instructino / "how to use" guide](https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/webcam/en/instructi...):

The resolution is 1,024 × 576 pixels.

Re: Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

#100
post #71
post #6

It's kind of wild to me how there's such a product vacuum for this stuff. I've dug around and the only real option is an HDMI capture card paired with a decent camera (I read this Sony software option is lower quality, but at least it's progress). LG camera setups target businesses and are generally overpriced crap (I have one - the LG meetup) with proprietary connections and mediocre cameras, and crappy mics/softwar…

I thought the same and went looking recently, Black Magic gear looks well suited. Camera: - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/blackmagicpocke... - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/blackmagicmicro... Capture card: - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/products/atemmini - https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/cam-link-4k - Generic eBay capture card

I read about that too and they take canon lenses.

Then I realized... yikes! they cost more than many canon bodies!

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