Once upon a time when I was but a wee sprout, I desperately wanted to be what we now call a streamer. I've since come to accept the fact I have a face for radio, but as a young warthog I was desperate to share my abysmal RPG opinions with a larger audience beyond just whoever was in earshot. Anyway, since you're here, let me regale you with my Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fanfic theory…
Just kidding—I'm saving that one for my AO3 account, obviously. But more seriously I've been without a webcam for months now, beaming into my work team meetings like a faceless woman-in-the-chair. As much as I enjoy the mystique, it's probably time for my eyeliner wings to grace the Google meet once more. Thankfully the Elgato Facecam MK.2, which is currently rocking the best webcam crown in our guide, is now only $110 at Amazon.
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A worthy successor to the Facecam MK.1, the MK.2 corners the streamer market by offering an uncompressed 1080p image at 60 FPS that is perfect for whacking in the corner of your picture-in-picture stream. As I said up top, I've left the streamer dream behind, so I'll just have to settle for the MK.2 accurately rendering the sharpness of my wings for all to marvel at.
Our Dave also really dug it in his Elgato Facecam MK.2 webcam review, particularly appreciating the HDR support. He writes, "In my home office space, with a couple bright windows facing the side of my screen, it's ace not having those utterly blowing out the image every time I jump on a call in the daytime."
Ah yes, tech's one true nemesis—bright sunshine, apparently. Though the 1080p mode can deftly sidestep a blown out image thanks to HDR, the 720p 120 FPS mode does not enjoy this support. According to Elgato, this isn't due to technical limitations but more user experience concerns.
Dave explains in his review, "With 720p120 capture disabling HDR... some of the more fine grain controls available from within the Camera Hub software don't work as they should. Elgato calls those instances "a conceptual issue" rather than a technical one, as creating discrete sliders for each exposure level in the HDR capture mode would end up as a pretty rough user experience."
Speaking of keeping its sights set on the user experience, the MK.2 also features NO auto-focus. To explain why this is actually not a bad thing, just think back to all the times you fought with the auto-focus on your phone camera or other devices; during a stream or video call, your webcam deciding to focus on something its pretty sure is a face on your back wall rather than you, the person sat right in front of it, is distracting to say the least. Instead, this Elgato webcam employs a fixed focus system, maintaining focus between 30cm to 110cm and ensuring it never loses sight of the real star of the show…or low-stakes Discord video call, as the case may be.
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1. Best overall: Elgato Facecam MK.2
2. Best budget: Logitech C920
3. Best for streamers: Streamplify Cam
4. Best 4K: Obsbot Meet 2
5. Best high-end: Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite
6. Best low light: Razer Kiyo Pro
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