Elgato's specsheet is hitting it out of the park on this one.
(Image credit: Elgato)
When it comes to streaming and conferencing gear, Elgato is a company I've come to really appreciate. They make some of my favourite streaming gear like great keylights, and are also behind some of the best webcams around. The brand's Facecam line has impressed us since its inception back in 2021 with Elgato's first ever webcam and continues today with the Facecam MK.2 sitting atop our list of beloved cameras. Now, we are treated to the latest in that lineup as Elgato releases the Facecam 4k, and I'm only going off specs here, but it sounds like a really great webcam.
Right out the gate the Elgato Facecam 4k presents some impressive details to drool over. We see the same Elgato Prime lens which impressed us on the MK.2 paired with an improved 1/1.8" Sony Starvis 2 CMOS sensor. These guarantee that the image the camera is able to capture with its own optics is going to be very solid, and makes for a great foundation for the rest of the performance for this webcam.
These aren't the only interesting pieces of hardware featured, as Elgato has gone surprisingly analogue here. The Facecam 4k sports manual shutter-speed and ISO settings so you can dial in the light intake and speed to help make the best of your image. If you've not got the best lighting this should be a huge help in getting the best balance without things getting too grainy.
There's also physical lens filters. You know, those bits of coloured plastic you put infront of a lens to get different effects? Some of the younger crew may not be familiar with these, as usually filters are digital here in 2025, but they definitely exist. And now they can exist on your camera, which I think more creative streamers and content creators will have a lot of fun playing with. It will fit any 49-mm filter you can find, and Elgato are currently throwing some in for those who order from the webstore.
The 4k in this Facecams name isn't just for show. These can record HDR video up to 4k at 30 fps. You can also grab uncompressed video up to 4k 30 as well, as long as you've got the bandwidth in your USB. You can also drop the resolution down to 1080 if you're after higher framerates and generally dial this in to whatever suits your setup the best.
Through Elgato's Camera Hub software you can further dial a bunch of this stuff in and play with other effects. This includes full pan and tilt controls, digital presets, and if you're packing an Nvidia RTX card you can potentially access extra features like background blur.
If Elgato's Facecam 4k turns out to be as it says on the tin, I think we could have a contender for a new top webcam on our hands. It's launching at $200 USD, which also doesn't feel unreasonable for what actually looks like a really decent upgrade from the 1080p60 Facecam which still retails for $140. $60 for better sensors, upgraded lens, 4k capabilities, and all those sweet weird lens features sounds very worthwhile and I think this will become a staple for many streamers in the near future.
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Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast right here.
No, she’s not kidding.
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