Dpreview: $6000 webcam - Because we can

DPReview decided to try out Canon's little EOS webcam utility that allows you to use specific Canon DSLR's and mirrorless cameras as a webcam.

Let me just say that after trying it here with my M6 Mark II - the quality just blows away any Logitech, etc webcam.  The M200 and a "good" 15-45mm or the 22mm F2.0 actually sounds bigger than my Logitech webcam, but since it would be sitting on top of my monitor, would it really be that bad? I actually may do this.

Anyways, back to dpreview - they wanted to test the utility but all they had was a 1DX Mark III - so queue up the world's most expensive webcam.

Carey had some problems with skype - it's not identified what the problem or resolution was exactly. From my understanding, if you download / install skype from Microsoft's store you may have problems.  if you download and have installed skype right from their website, then you don't have problems.  In either case, you have to make sure you totally kill EOS Utility from it sitting down on your taskbar before you plug the camera into the computer's USB port.

I wonder if Canon USA developed this application because they found out they needed it for their own staff during the lockdowns.  You simply can't get your hands on a webcam right now or an HDMI capture card.  It's like trying to find... toilet paper.

There are of course are other software options for doing this, but they are a bit kludgy and involves "scraping" the video stream of a running copy of EOS Utility liveview and using that as the streaming source.  You can use the free software "OBS" to actually do this if you have an older DSLR that has liveview but isn't supported directly.  Some may find this actually far nicer because you still have all the camera controls on your computer as well because it's essentially still tethered.

Carey summed it all up;

In the end, I have to applaud Canon for making the effort to create this software quickly enough to allow locked-down workers to take advantage of it. It's free, it's valuable, and it could really benefit a ton of people out there with minimal effort. It may not be the best solution for everyone, but for at-home workers that still need to keep up professional appearances, this is a fantastic option.

Read Carey's adventures here

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Richard CanonNewsRichard CanonNews

Richard has been using Canon cameras since the 1990s, with his first being the now legendary EOS-3. Since then, Richard has continued to use Canon cameras and now focuses mostly on infrared photography. Richard is the founder and editor of CanonNews since 2017, and has worked as a writer on CanonRumors and other websites in the past.

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