Finding the best webcam for your setup is paramount. However you present yourself on screen, be it for a work presentation done remotely or a big stream, a good-looking camera can really help you stand out. Cameras, however, can be the most costly part of any setup. Enter EMEET with their SmartCam S600, a 4K webcam that is way under the $100 mark.
The EMEET SmartCam S600 comes with the camera and a USB-C to USB-A Cable, a carrying bag and instructions. The separate cable for a webcam is always appreciated as, as I have mentioned in other camera reviews, an attached cable is limiting in terms of distance from the PC, and should an issue with the cable arise, you lose the whole camera.
The EMEET SmartCam S600 comes with an indicator light to let you know when it is in use and a manual shutter to give you privacy when you aren’t looking to be on camera. It also comes with dual, noise-cancelling microphones. This camera, like every other webcam before it, could easily do without the microphone (at least if you are selling it as a content creator microphone, which they are) since the quality of webcam microphones is generally abysmal.
The EMEET SmartCam S600 is a plug-and-play camera in that you don’t need any specific software or drivers for it to work in OBS, Zoom or wherever you plan to use it. If, however, you want to keep up with firmware updates, you’ll need EMEETLINK, the company’s camera software. In the software, you can set very basic video settings (brightness, contrast, white balance, etc.) or select from a list of presets. This is unneeded in most use cases since these options exist in every piece of software that supports the use of a camera. I would recommend the software, though, if for no other reason than to keep up with the firmware updates.
The EMEET SmartCam S600 is capable of 4K resolution with its 8MP sensor and up to 60 frames per second. The 4K resolution only goes as high as 30 frames per second, though. I did find at 1080/60 that there was still a lot of artifacting and blur with any level of movement, but the firmware update (which is exactly why you get those) seemed to clean that up. The 88-degree field of view on the EMEET SmartCam S600 gives you a decent amount of space and doesn’t have you taking up so much of the screen.
“One good thing about the EMEET SmartCam S600 is the price. At $69.99 USD, it is a very affordable webcam…”
The camera uses autofocus exclusively, which makes sure you are in focus should you be moving around, but it does a lot of that focus breathing where it is searching for the proper focus settings for you relative to your distance to the lens, and it does it very slowly. The EMEET SmartCam S600 also has an auto exposure that, like the autofocus, cannot be made manual. I found that when lit properly with my Elgato Key Light and backlit by my ceiling light, I had a couple of specific hot spots that cannot be compensated for when adjusting the brightness. Once you are overexposed, there is no fixing it.
The lack of control over a lot of the critical aspects of the EMEET SmartCam S600 is a real problem for me. Focus, exposure, and more can take a mediocre-quality camera and still give you a chance to have a nice picture. The auto exposure that the EMEET SmartCam S600 utilizes averages out the exposure of the whole picture rather than the centre or your face, which will ensure a better exposure of literally the only part of the video that matters; you.
On EMEET’s website, they claim that the camera provides “grain-free images.” This could not be further from the truth. While many cameras will have some noise in darker areas as they try to increase the detail. The EMEET SmartCam S600 finds a great deal of noise, even in well-lit situations. I kept reducing the size of the image until it looked acceptable to me. It got down to about 1/8th of a 1440p screen (roughly the size of a face-cam on a gaming stream). I wouldn’t recommend this as a full-screen camera as a content creator.
One good thing about the EMEET SmartCam S600 is the price. At $69.99 USD, it is a very affordable webcam and tends to lower the bar on some of your expectations when it comes to the camera’s performance. While everything I said about this comment is a response to their own claims, looking at the camera through the lens of value, things start to sound a bit better.
As a face-cam for a streamer, this is a great price. I wouldn’t be spending hundreds of dollars to get a premium webcam to fill so little of the screen. It’s when you want to fill 1080, 1440 or 4K screens that you need to think about another option.
The EMEET SmartCam S600 can find its place in certain situations, especially for the price, but for a full-time, full-screen 4K webcam, it doesn’t hit the mark.
