Finally! Turn your Canon DSLR into a Webcam!

Have a Canon DSLR at home and hate your current webcam? Finally, 24 hours ago Canon released a beta utility to connect some DSLR models direct to computer via USB so you can use that $1,000 video setup that's just sitting in the corner collecting dust.

Why is this important and I'm so excited? Prior to this, most Canon DSLRs had HDMI output and that output was exactly what you'd see on screen. This meant that you either have to turn autofocus completely off (no point/average/face), physically turn the camera upside down, or use some third-party software to control the HDMI video out via a USB connection which means ~$50-60 worth of extra licensing, a more complicated setup, and multiple cables going from computer to camera on top of power ON TOP OF needing an HDMI capture card! Here's a picture of what the HDMI output looked like before the update!

Now you just need the camera, a stand, power, and the proper USB connection. PHEW!

I'm currently running a Canon Rebel SL2 that I got before my daughter was born (because baby pictures!) with an EF-S 24mm f/2.8 STM lens in relatively low light conditions in my office. I need supplemental lights so the camera can differentiate between me an the background.

Literally last week I was trying to figure out how to tell Canon they need either a firmware update for HDMI out or a host-based driver that can pull in video but their support/feedback pipelines are kind of...archaic and terrible. The webcam utility they posted is still in Beta (v.0.9.0) but I just tested it and holy moly is FAR more convenient than before!

Here's my takeaways for getting it to work (currently available on Windows):

1. Uninstall all other Canon EOS Utilities or other Canon software.
2. Uninstall all other third-party software that might access your camera via USB.
3. Go to your camera model's support / driver page. Here's the page for Rebel SL2.
4. Install the "EOS Webcam Utility Beta 0.9.0 for Windows"
5. Plug in camera via USB
6. Open your video conferencing software, start video, select "EOS Webcam Utility Beta" from camera options
7. Turn camera on to the Video setting as recommended.

Here's the updated video

Here's the computer's built in webcam in the exact same settings for comparison

And here's a Logitech BRIO. WAYYYY Better than the integrated but no where near as nice as the DSLR. For note, this picture is cropped a bit. What you can't see in this picture is how much better the BRIO does at frame rate. Most people still consider the BRIO the go-to solution even though the current model came to market in 2017.

Webcam technology has effectively stagnated in the past ~6 years in terms of field of view, software support (like saving your preset options), color balancing, adjustable focal depth, etc. I expect part of the webcam industry response to work-from-home to drive more technology advances which shouldn't be hard because they just have to upgrade to the same sensors smart phones are using and they make their software better at the firmware and host utility level. Let's see how fast they can adapt! In the mean time, DSLR for the win.