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Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

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Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#11

Post by daggersandscars »

chomp wrote: post #2

Does this actually make a better picture? Won’t your stream still be super compressed by meet/zoom/etc?

It really makes a better picture. Zoom / Meet / Teams / etc does compress a ton, but a big part of the horrendous video quality are webcams.

Another, potentially cheaper way to replace a webcam is to use the main (rear) camera of an old cell phone.

Digital photography, especially using tiny sensors, is computational photography. Webcams are too cheap to have reasonable processing power internally and webcam companies don’t have the budget to create high quality post processing software for the host computer.

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#12

Post by nomel »

chomp wrote: post #2

Does this actually make a better picture? Won’t your stream still be super compressed by meet/zoom/etc?

Here's a comparison that shows how different it is than a MacBook webcam: https://youtu.be/-Ea-xakhZmE?t=41

Dynamic range, noise, and resolution are significantly better.

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#13

Post by woleium »

lpasselin wrote: post #8
pjot wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience as well - though I had to constantly swap batteries… How did you hardwire power?

There are attachments that insert directly into the battery hole which are connected to a power supply.

also, there are aftermarket versions that cost $30 instead of $150

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#14

Post by coolandsmartrr »

pjot wrote: post #6
neuracnu wrote: post #3

I'm curious if this is any more consistent than the webcam software that Canon provided for Windows and Mac. I tried the Mac implementation briefly, but found it to be _extremely_ glitchy (even with hard-wired power).

I had a similar experience as well - though I had to constantly swap batteries… How did you hardwire power?

Not a Canon EOS user, but typically there are accessories called "dummy batteries" that take the shape of a standard battery, but is actually used by connecting to the AC socket. This way, the camera can be powered on constantly so long as the venue with the AC doesn't have a power outage.

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#15

Post by chomp »

nomel wrote: post #12
chomp wrote: post #2

Does this actually make a better picture? Won’t your stream still be super compressed by meet/zoom/etc?

Here's a comparison that shows how different it is than a MacBook webcam: https://youtu.be/-Ea-xakhZmE?t=41 Dynamic range, noise, and resolution are significantly better.

That's a pretty good difference, thanks!

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#16

Post by pjot »

coolandsmartrr wrote: post #14
pjot wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar experience as well - though I had to constantly swap batteries… How did you hardwire power?

Not a Canon EOS user, but typically there are accessories called "dummy batteries" that take the shape of a standard battery, but is actually used by connecting to the AC socket. This way, the camera can be powered on constantly so long as the venue with the AC doesn't have a power outage.

Of course! Thanks!

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#18

Post by worthless-trash »

Gigachad wrote: post #17

Nice post, but that's way too much work to be worth it. You really want your camera and mic setup to just work rather than having to tell someone to wait 10 minutes to call because you need to reload your kernel module.

I think its perhaps the perfect way to avoid meetings.

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#19

Post by lightedman »

pjot wrote: post #6
neuracnu wrote: post #3

I'm curious if this is any more consistent than the webcam software that Canon provided for Windows and Mac. I tried the Mac implementation briefly, but found it to be _extremely_ glitchy (even with hard-wired power).

I had a similar experience as well - though I had to constantly swap batteries… How did you hardwire power?

My EOS Rebel has a DC port on the side below the USB port.

Re: Using a Canon EOS camera as a webcam in Debian

#20

Post by randomf »

I've been wondering for a while and can't find an answer to this:

SD to USB adapters exist, but is it possible to hook up an SD-to-USB cable and have a driver present a virtual sd disk to the camera but write the video directly to your computer RAM via USB?

That would solve the problem for all dSLRs.

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