Elgato didn’t pioneer the webcam, but it can be argued that they pioneered the webcam designed for content creators. From the first Elgato Facecam, the company showed that they were focused on producing a quality image that nobody else in the space could match. So, my confidence in the potential of the brand-new Elgato Facecam 4K didn’t leave me with the question of whether it would be good, but rather how good it would be.
In the box, you get the Facecam 4K, a separate monitor mount and an ultra-fast USB-C to USB-C cable. The Elgato Facecam 4K is the bulkiest of the Elgato webcams, but it is quite simple in its build. On the front, you have a large lens with an LED indicator to let you know when the camera is connected and active. On the back, you’ll find the USB-C port and on the bottom, you will find a 1/4” thread to connect to the provided mount, tripod or any other mounting solution you may choose.
The Elgato Facecam 4K is equipped with a 1/8” SONY STARVIS 2 CMOS sensor with an Elgato Prime lens with f/4.0 aperture (lower than the Facecam Pro’s f/2.0). This would be less than ideal for cameras used out in the field, but streamers are usually pretty good at getting some light on their faces, so the f/4.0 will be just fine. It also has a 90-degree field of view (21 mm focal length), which I’d have liked to see pushed to 100 degrees at least, but it is still serviceable with the narrower view.
What is interesting about the design of the Elgato Facecam 4K is that the lens comes designed with a lens filter thread for 49mm lens filters. Polarizing filters can be added to the camera to reduce reflections, diffusion filters can be added for more even lighting and neutral density (ND) filters can be added to reduce the light going into your lens without digitally manipulating the shot. There is no word as of yet if Elgato will feature its own line of filters, but there is no shortage of places to find compatible filters.
“The Elgato Facecam 4K is the bulkiest of the Elgato webcams, but it is quite simple in its build.”
The Elgato Facecam 4K feels very light for a camera that you expect to give good performance, but a part of that is the design, which requires fewer parts on the inside. Elgato was the first (and I believe one of the only to date) to build their webcams with no microphone because they understand that streamers and content creators are going to have a microphone that will be their primary audio capture source, because virtually any microphone is better than a webcam microphone.
The Facecam 4K can provide up to 4K/60fps resolutions with HDR capability up to 4K/30fps. I find Elgato’s HDR to be much better than the average webcam, where their HDR makes the video, to me, unusable. But even with no light on the subject (me) except the light emitted from the monitors, the HDR HDR (which is only available at 30fps for each resolution) managed to bring detail to the video with minimal noise.
HDR settings, like every other setting for the camera, can be controlled by Elgato’s app, Elgato Camera Hub. From within the app, you have all the traditional settings available to you on a standard DSLR or mirrorless camera. You can set your shutter speed and ISO to really lock in your exposure to your specifications. You can adjust your white balance and set your more typical webcam settings of brightness, contrast and saturation, and of course, you can set all of these to auto and let the software set itself up based on what it’s capturing.
Your camera can also be set up more like a PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) webcam with the ability to face track and follow you around. It will mean, however, the loss of your maximum field of view. You need to zoom in for it to be able to track and centre you, so people who may be further away from the camera, either doing a stream that requires you to be up and away from your desk or presenters in a virtual meeting, will take the most advantage of this. It also has four presets so that you can frame up multiple shots and switch to them with the click of a mouse.
The effects for the Elgato Facecam 4K on the app are, in part, powered by NVIDIA Broadcast, meaning that you need an RTX GPU to use them for your webcam. First, you have control of your background with AI Background. From here, you can create a background blur (and control its strength) or substitute your background from any of a number of provided backgrounds, some still and some video.
Colour correction for the Elgato Facecam 4K is also a breeze with a section for LUTs. With a number of them provided, one will likely give you the look that you are searching for. If not, have no fear. Elgato’s Marketplace has a ton of free and paid options that you can add directly to the Camera Hub for your use (this also applies to backgrounds). Or, you can create and add your own. Last, we have AR effects, which are NVIDIA’s eye contact tool, covering your eyes when looking elsewhere with copies of your eyes looking at the viewer.
You will notice that the output with these effects on will be lower than the max resolution. In Camera Hub, when turning on the AI Background or eye contact, the preview format dropped to 1080p/60. This doesn’t mean you are limited to that. You can utilize NVIDIA Broadcast’s tools on the 4K resolution output by adding them as filters in OBS or whatever broadcast software you use, but I did find that the performance of the effects, particularly on the edges around you when replacing the background, is better at lower resolutions.
At $199.99 USD, the Elgato Facecam 4K is a full hundred dollars cheaper than its predecessor at its launch, with mostly similar specs aside from the 4K’s sensor upgrade. The savings plus the quality of life upgrades, like the lens filter thread (a first in the webcam market), make this one a no-brainer if having to choose between them. Elgato has confirmed that the Facecam 4K will also be compatible with the Nintendo Switch 2, for those looking for a premium camera for their Mario Kart World sessions.
What’s most amazing to think about, though, is how far we have come from the webcams of old during the early days of streaming, when people were thrilled to have something as amazing as the Logitech C920. Then, switching to content creators moving away from webcams in favour of more expensive, full-sized cameras and capture cards. Now, we have a company like Elgato making webcams—like the Facecam 4K—that are not just broadcast quality, but could compete with cameras that can cost ten times more.
So am I saying that the Elgato Facecam 4K is as good as a DSLR or mirrorless camera? Well, sort of. There is a lot of great hardware that goes into a traditional camera, but there is also a lot that it needs to get the most out of it. My kit lens for my Sony A7iii was fine, but to get to the level I wanted my videos to look, I had to invest in a much better lens, but to save money, I got a fixed lens with no autofocus, but still spent hundreds of extra dollars on it.
The quality difference between webcams and DSLR/Mirrorless is shrinking year by year. It will be up to the Elgatos of the world to step up their webcam game with interchangeable lenses or up to the Sonys of the world to take their high-end hardware and fit it for a smaller, more affordable webcam for us to take that next step. Sensor sizes are already comparable between the two camera types (depending on the camera, of course), as are their capabilities. It really won’t take much to completely replace the DSLR in this space.
