4K Webcam Blind Test Results — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] These are six of the most purchased and most recommended 4k webcams for new streamers and creators. Those were six of the most purchased and most recommended 4k webcams for new streamers and

[00:14] creators. But there is a problem, other than the fact they're on the floor. How the hell are you supposed to pick the right one? Especially when you can't trust reviews because influencers like me are sponsors. That's how we make our money. That's why today we are going to take all six

[00:29] of these 4k webcams off the floor and blind test them to remove any bias from me or you. We're going to score quality, low light, color accuracy, sharpness, depth and of course price.

[00:41] Then that score will be added together on my trusty little homemade graph all without revealing which is which until the very end of the video. But first we need a baseline. On screen right now you've been able to see five different shots. All of the images you are seeing are shot in the same

[00:57] environment with the exact same lighting. The only thing I am changing, the only difference between these will be raising the ISO so that each image is properly exposed roughly. Now that you've seen our baseline test, can you do me a favor and comment down below your thoughts? Let's lock in

[01:13] your favorite now from the baseline. Guess which is which if you want, and that way if everyone in the comments disagrees with the scores at the end of the video, you'll be able to tell if I am biased. And now, let's get blind. And no, I don't mean go to the pub, I mean let's find out which webcam is the best in low light.

[01:31] Let's take each webcam, turn all our lights off so that we're sitting in a medieval torture dungeon, and slowly raise the ISO or digital brightness. As you can see on screen now, this will test how well the webcams perform in low light, or in this case, no light.

[01:45] But also, most importantly, how much digital noise is introduced by digitally brightening the image. In short, we're learning how good the f-stop and sensor on all of these webcams are at letting the light in and capturing its quality. Looking over the results, webcam A only required roughly 2000 ISO before it felt usable.

[02:02] And the digital noise in the shadows, like the background or parts of my shirt, is there, but not distracting. A solid combination of f1.9 and a large 1 over 1.3 inch sensor is what has allowed this to do well here.

[02:14] webcam be in order to be even slightly exposed to ever required 19,000 higher. So, I don't want to comment my personal opinion and bias. I want to keep this as solid as possible. So I'll explain instead this low light performance is a result

[02:29] of the brand removing key features from the camera. Such as removing autofocus and in turn they had to raise the f-stop to f4 so that people weren't out of focus all the time. This then cuts fusion out the light from ever reaching the sensor.

[02:44] which is bad because the sensor on this is also smaller. It's only slightly larger than a half-inch sensor at 1 over 1.8 inches. Webcam C was totally usable, anywhere between 3,000 and 2,600 ISO.

[02:58] I think the digital noise is handled really well. Webcam D, 3,600 to 4,000 ISO, totally usable, but the noise was more noticeable compared to Webcam A and C. Finally, Webcam E, surprisingly, despite having a half-inch sensor,

[03:11] the smallest of the group we're testing today, started out strong in the original blind test. It really captured the light, but when I push that small sensor hard, you can see the noise really comes out. Second low light test, we will set all

[03:23] our webcams to ISO 320. This is the base ISO of these webcams. This should be where these webcams have the least digital noise when exposed correctly. So we will slowly raise the power of a single 2800

[03:36] lumen newer light that I use until the shot is usable or at least decently exposed. And doing this is crucial because it allows us to see how well this webcam will perform in a budget one light setup which is the most common setup that you guys are using. Webcam A looked really solid anywhere

[03:53] from 30 to 50 percent of the 2800 lumens and felt very clean at those 50 to 60 percent power tech. Webcam B again I don't want to color your opinion but it did require two full 2800 lumen lights

[04:05] 100% brightness in order to expose properly at 320 ISO, aka the base ISO. Again, smaller sensor, f4, it's not going to do well in low light from a purely technical plate,

[04:18] and having to use two incredibly bright lights at max brightness was not enjoyable What it seemed felt like at the lower power outputs of 20 to 30 it was darker than Webcam A but once you hit that 40 mark it started to feel very clean and the

[04:36] digital noise that I could see in the shadows felt less noticeable or cleaner than the digital noise of Webcam A. WebcamD is quite a contrasting image which is why I think despite it having almost identical technical specs of f1.8 and 1 over 1.3 inch sensor, it didn't really start to expose

[04:53] properly at 320 ISO until I was at the 60 or 75% power. And finally, webcam E looks okay at 30%, 50% it was exposed nicely, but there is a washed out feel that's hard for me to overlook,

[05:07] which is most likely caused by the half inch sensor. Now how the hell do we score these cameras? I'm going to rank them from worst to best with a relative score of 1 through 5, And honestly, this is tough, but starting at the lowest performer, Webcam B obviously gets one point.

[05:22] That F4 really killed this webcam in this category. Webcam E can take second last here, the noise got in the way of the quality, two points. I'd score Webcam D next in line purely from noise and ISO performance, but honestly, I'm stuck.

[05:36] Because Webcam A captured light better when there was less of it, looking brighter at the lower intensities and needing less ISO. But webcam C did seem a bit dark, as it'll hit that 35-40% mark, but it seems to deal with noise balance.

[05:49] So I'm going to tie them here to try these better. Both of these cameras get 4 points. Alright, what about colors and color accuracy? This is going to be difficult. But first, funny enough, I want to add something.

[06:02] I have been paid in the past to review every single one of these webcams, whether it's the Elgato or the YoloCam or the Insta360 Link 2. You'll find reviews for all of them on the channel individually, but today is a little bit different.

[06:16] OBSPOT have reached out and specifically asked me to compare their two products, the Tiny 3 and the Tiny 3 Lite, to their competitors. So I want to say thank you to them for being up for this brutal and honestly potentially catastrophic sponsorship.

[06:32] That takes all. I'm going to set all of my lights to 60% and 25% and set my Kelvin rating on those lights to 4800. I will turn all my other lights in the room off to remove any potential color spill.

[06:45] Then I will set each webcam's light balance to 4800 to match the 4800 Kelvin. Then we will use a vectorscope and my white shirt to judge roughly how close to accurate white we are, which will not be perfect at all because my red shirt will spill some red,

[06:59] but people wear colored clothes to deal with this. And we're also going to take into account how my skin tone and the saturation of the image look as well. So don't worry. Webcam A, right away, the thing you'll notice is I come out looking pink.

[07:13] Very pink. Lush. That's not how I tend to look in real life. I've lost a lot of weight this year. My resting heart rate is 55. Unless I'm at the end of a 10K marathon, my skin does not look this pink. My vectorscope also says that we are pushing more towards these reds and pinks.

[07:28] But in its favor, the overall colors are quite nice. They're not oversaturated or overly flat. They're very, very solid. It's just that pink that stands out. Webcam B, the first thing I noticed was I was very washed out.

[07:42] Okay, that's the second thing I noticed. I actually noticed the noise first. Sorry, that was, I'm adding bias. I'm adding bias. I apologize. Webcam C's skin tones did come out a tiny bit pink, but honestly, it's really nice.

[07:55] This feels very natural. I'd say this is the closest to how I look in real life. Vectorscope did say it's a little bit red as well, but my skin tones don't feel oversaturated in the image, and neither do my clothes. Webcam D is punchy. It is contrast. There's definitely a lot being punched into those reds.

[08:12] And my skin feels overall a bit too warm. The whole image is saturated. Vectors lean that way as well. Finally, webcam E, I felt in terms of accuracy, was really close to webcam C, but more washed out, just slightly.

[08:25] I like this, but you can see it is a lower quality sensor, or at least it is the smallest sensor of the group causing it. Scoring these is very difficult. I am going to only judge them by how they look at 4800 white balance.

[08:37] And in saying that, webcam B is washed out and very noisy. I mean, just washed out. I'm not allowed to talk about the noise. Webcam A is nice but my skin came out very pink which I dealt with on this webcam before Webcam D very contrasting Love the red but my skin is just a bit too warm for me It looks unnatural Webcam E weirdly I loved this It a little bit washed

[08:59] out, but it still feels more natural and human. Webcam C, however, I noticed the quality and the colors are really natural. They're very, very nice, and the skin tone are really what took it for me.

[09:11] I was really happy with webcam C. Now, a small note here before you all rush to the comments. color is very difficult because what I can see on my professional film graded monitor is very different to what you guys can see on your screens and TVs. So that's why we're doing this blind so

[09:27] that you can just pick which one you like best. Now let's expose all of these webcams again 50%, 12%, 4800 Kelvin with 5600 white balance. Turn our backing lights back on and really take a second

[09:39] look at our sharpness, our crispy crispy 4k. I'm zooming in, I'm showing you guys my wispy terrible mustache, my cubic beard, you can look deep into my pupils and my irises. Does this feel like true 4k?

[09:53] And while we're here talking about sharpness, of course we have to talk about depth as well. Do we manage to pull off that beautiful out of focus effect that is so hard to achieve on a webcam? Well, webcam A is incredibly sharp. This webcam blew me away when I first started using it. It was the

[10:07] first time I felt the 4k was real 4k. You can see that quality in the image and when I zoom in to 2x or 3x I don't see really any quality loss. It's only when I push it all the way to 4x digital zoom

[10:20] that the quality seems to start to dip but also the depth on this webcam is nice. Looking at that squirtle you can see that separation from me to my background is noticeable. Webcam fees. Look

[10:32] being unbiased if it wasn't so noisy I think this would be a very sharp webcam for the sensor's size side note there is also no autofocus or depth to the camera because it's a wide angle on f4

[10:47] my entire room is in focus webcam c gives me a true difficulty because again I have to be unbiased it's very similar to webcam a it might honestly be high but to me it does feel sharper that could

[11:00] just be the extra contrast in this image making it feel sharper but I like it. I also love the depth behind me it feels very clean the separation is lovely. Wacom D is interesting because I have flip-flopped a lot on this image I spent

[11:15] a week staring at this image trying to decide if I like it or not. There's something over-the-top crisp about it like the detail in my hat feels too sharp but at the same time the depth behind me is very nice. It's a strange image and I'm

[11:29] not sure where it fits me. Webcam E, look, I'm sorry, it's not bad, but it's a half-inch sensor trying to do 4K. It's going to struggle with the sharpness, it's going to struggle with looking crisp, and with doing digital zoom. That's just a technical fact. Bottom to top, I'd say webcam B

[11:47] has the worst depth and overall sharpness. Camera E with the half-inch sensor is next. Then we'll have camera A. It looks amazing, has so much quality packed in, except I think camera D's snuck in ahead, but they're both beaten by camera C. As I said, I went back and forth on this segment

[12:02] a lot, but the out of focus look on webcam C feels more consistent and natural, while the sharpness on my face and beard also looks incredible, but not overdone. Truthfully, webcam D also did have issues with autofocus, which helped push C over the line. This was fixed

[12:19] by switching it to face tracking, so I don't want to be too harsh, but I didn't have to switch any the other webcam for face tracking, so that's important to note. In fact, now that I say it out loud, I think I need to swap DNA. Now, these scores need to, of course, be added together for

[12:34] the final graph, but we also need to adjust for price and also bonus features, because not all of these webcams have the same built-in tools and options, and they certainly don't cost the same. So let's reveal the price and the features, adjust our scores, and then we can show the final results

[12:50] while revealing which is which. I'm so excited for this. Of our five cameras, let's start with the Elgato Facecam 4K. This is 200 USD, and for the quality we have seen in this video, it gets one point.

[13:03] Next up is the Insta360 Link 2C Pro. This also costs 200 USD, which is amazing for the quality it produces. I going to go so far as to give this a 4 YoloCam S3 is 200 USD Pretty solid but the colors being so crunchy and contrasty and that sharpness that just unsettled me a bit lost me Okay I sorry I like a more natural look

[13:26] so 3 points. The OBSBOT Tiny 3 Lite. This is also 200 USD. That seems to be the price point people are putting 4K cameras. It has a smaller sensor, and compared to the Link 2C Pro at the same price, I'd say two points. Finally, the OBSBOT Tiny 3. This is 350 USD. Wow, that's a much higher

[13:50] price point than the other competitors. I'm not sure if 100 to 150 USD is better, so I'm going to say two points. If I'm just being really honest, adding those price scores to the graph, our results

[14:03] are starting to look pretty clear to me, and I'll show those to you in a second. But first, there are a few quick adjustments we need to make. Now, for example, these odd plots, both the timing tree and timing tree light, are actually full tracking dimples. Look at that. It goes all the way around.

[14:17] So if you stand up and walk around with this, you can have it follow you around the room, making it great for things like cooking streams, IRL streams, or really anything where you want a cameraman but don't have the money to hire a cameraman. The YoloCam S3 and the Elgato just don't have those.

[14:31] So I'm going to bump the OBSBot up 2.5 points for having that physical auto tracking. And I'm going to finally throw in the Link 2 Pro onto the list. This is the big brother to the Link 2C Pro.

[14:43] It has the exact same sensor, exact same technical specs. So the image quality is the exact same, except this also has the physical moving gimbal that will track you around the room.

[14:55] And it costs 250 USD. I'm going to give it a 2.5 bumps for the tracking and a 3 point bump for the price. Now, a little bit of drama for the final scores, I also need to subtract three points. I know, late in the game subtraction.

[15:09] Specifically, from the Elgato Facecam 4K. It doesn't have autofocus. Granted, it did have the least depth because it's F4, so you'd assume it's always going to be in focus. But no, I've seen dozens of paid Elgato partners use this webcam and review this webcam while being completely out of focus.

[15:28] I'm sorry, three points gone. And with these additions and subtractions to the score, we have our final result. And it's time to... I can't drumroll, man. It's time to reveal the scores, starting at the lowest in last place,

[15:43] which is two points out of a potential 25 points. Webcam B, aka the Elgato Facecam 4K. The decision to remove audio focus, have a small sensor, and a large f-stop of f4,

[15:55] and then price it the same as webcams like the Link 2C Pro or YoloCam S3. has really held this webcam back. In second last place, webcam E, the OBSBOT Tiny 3 Lite. At 14.5 points, it performed well across the board,

[16:11] but it fell short in categories where it just can't compete with those 1 over 1.3 inch sensors. Even with the boost, thanks to the gimbal and tracking, it couldn't beat our next camera. At 15 points, webcam D, the YoloCam S3.

[16:23] The camera performed perfectly fine. It had middling results across every category while still looking solid. It just had a few things that held it back for me when it was compared to the other webcam. Now, we have a big jump from 15 points straight to 18 points with webcam A, the Link QC Pro.

[16:42] Look, it's 200 USD. This webcam is solid. It has great quality and amazing sharpness, but it was those pink skin tones that lost out here. That said, the Link 2T Pro does beat it thanks to the built-in gimbal sitting at 19.5 points

[16:59] while having the same image quality and the same pink skin tone. It's important to note. And finally, our winner, Webcam C, the Popspot Tiny 3, at 23.5 points.

[17:11] This thing got New Year's Perfect scores, which you should expect because, wow, that price is crazy. 350 USB is a lot. I like it, guys.

[17:23] That's expensive even for me, and I'm a camera nerd. So the question I pose to you is, which of these webcams look best to you? And based on the price, would you buy that webcam? I really want to hear from you in the comments.

[17:36] No, I need to hear from you in the comments to make sure everyone is getting the best information, opinion, and help on our creative journey. See you next week.