Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Sony cameras can now be used as webcams for Mac

support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–118 of 118 posts

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

#111

Post by seltzered_ »

arvinsim wrote: post #84
seltzered_ wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just tried it as well and haven't had luck. Tried doing this: - installing the linked 'imaging edge webcam' software. - restarting - hooking up my sony camera (it's compatible per the list) over usb - opening Quicktime Player, going to "new movie recording", selecting "Sony Camera (Imaging Edge)" - Instead see a logo for the software (instead of the camera output) but no connection. Tried futzing with opening camer…

It's not clear to me if plugging the camera via USB would provide enough power to the camera without using batteries. Is that the case?

Unsure, I've assumed it provides enough power. There's reviews of some sony cameras using an external usb battery for video recording.

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

#112

Post by bschwindHN »

morsch wrote: post #98
bschwindHN wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So it maxes out at 1080p30, right? That's still good to know, and it's a good point about it being good enough for web conferencing.

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

#113

Post by morsch »

bschwindHN wrote: post #112
morsch wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So it maxes out at 1080p30, right? That's still good to know, and it's a good point about it being good enough for web conferencing.

The device claims to do 1080p60 Motion-JPEG. I don't know if it actually works and there's no guarantee a similar looking device will be exactly the same. See also [1], their device falsely claimed to be USB3 and only did 1080p30. In practice, none of the tools I use let me specify the frame rate anyway.

  $ v4l2-ctl  -D -d /dev/video0 --list-formats-ext

   [0]: 'MJPG' (Motion-JPEG, compressed)
    Size: Discrete 1920x1080
     Interval: Discrete 0.017s (60.000 fps)
     Interval: Discrete 0.033s (30.000 fps)
     Interval: Discrete 0.040s (25.000 fps)
     Interval: Discrete 0.050s (20.000 fps)
     Interval: Discrete 0.100s (10.000 fps)
[1] http://ciko.io/posts/cheap_usb_hdmi/

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

#114

Post by novok »

morsch wrote: post #59
synackrst wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is slowly changing, at least with some of the high-end consumer/prosumer Sony cameras. I'd like to see some of the other features in your list added, but Sony's past slowness to add features doesn't inspire much hope that they will be added any time soon. All of the recent (4+ years) cameras have a "share to mobile" feature, where the camera acts as an AP, and your phone connects to pull photos from it. You can…

There's a lot of functionality, but all of it is clunky as hell. Connecting to the camera is a PITA, the apps on the camera (at least my a6300) are slow as molasses. I updated the -- again, full featured, but clunky -- remote app earlier and had to enter my account information using the camera 4-way stick, one letter at a time, as if it's 1995. Edit -- forgot the best part: during the update, the camera locked up dis…

EXACTLY. Many cameras have had PITA wifi sharing modes for over 10 years now, even eyefi existed for quite a while. It's just clunky as hell, slow and annoying that you might as well not use it. They're stuck in some stagnation loop.

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

#115

Post by hbogert »

rado wrote: post #95
vitorbaptistaa wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have a similar one [1] (they probably all use the same chip). Can't go wrong for the money. Just don't believe it's USB3 and can do 60fps output.

[1]: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HDMI-to-USB-3-0-Video-Capture-Car...

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

#117

Post by santiagobasulto »

dognotdog wrote: post #70
floatingatoll wrote: post #9

Mac support is implemented using a CoreMediaIO plugin, hinting that they are not updating the camera firmware to speak USB webcam, which prevents driverless use of the device: /Library/CoreMediaIO/Plug-Ins/DAL/ImagingEdgeWebcam.plugin Could someone with a Sony camera please verify on macOS 10.15 (with ASR enabled) whether this webcam support is usable from within Apple's desktop FaceTime app? What protocol version an…

FaceTime, Safari, and on Big Sur, apparently even QuickTime Player can no longer use 3rd party CoreMediaIO DAL plugins due to codesigning/sandboxing/SIP issuess. The short of it is that generally within the SIP (system integrity protection) domain, no 3rd party code is allowed to be loaded. 3rd party apps can generally be made to work by removing codesigning, but Apple's stuff is generally very intertwined with servi…

I have just bought a Sony ZV-1 to help on my screencasts. I liked a lot the simplicity of the "Use as Webcam" feature [0].

Very disappointed I was when I found that it doesn't work with ScreenFlow (the main software I use to record my screen) and it only does work with OBS. So seems I'll be switching to OBS then .

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

#118

Post by paulirish »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #108
paulirish wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On Mac OS, I run Camera Live (which works off the EOS sdk), and then CamTwist. I use these with a Canon EOS M6 Mark II. I have solid 720p video 30fps video, no problems. You don't need a capture card unless you want better than 720p30fps. (Then again, I have no idea about the linux/windows situations)

Do you have an instruction set? I tried following most others I could find and they all tended to fail at some stage.

Mostly https://docs.crowdcast.io/en/articles/1935406-how-to-use-you...

But use Camera Live v11. (Newer versions hit some problems with Catalina)

And tweak CamTwist settings to do 720p 30fps. Browsers won't acknowledge CamTwist new/changed virtual cameras until you restart them.

Post reply on HN