Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsIf you're thinking of buying this for the background removal, then DON'T! Unusable lag, pegged CPU, oh my...
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2018
For some background on who I am as a reviewer, I worked for Xbox for 16 years as a 3D graphics developer (GPU expert), I worked on the Microsoft Kinect (which is a RGB + IR depth camera), and the Microsoft Hololens.
I'm disappointed in this product, and feel like a victim of the old "bait and switch". This camera boasts background removal, and even clearly has extra sensors that you would think means this happens in hardware. Nope. It requires you to download ChromaCam software that does the background removal on your PC. How that works is that the software creates a virtual camera, which reads the camera stream, does it's background removal algorithm (taxing your system, and introducing lag), and then outputs as a new camera. Only certain apps appear to be supported, in which they somehow know to look for the software version of the camera. For example, it doesn't work with the built-in Camera app for Windows 10. (But it does work for Xsplit and OBS, which is what most people want.)
Problem #1: The background removal doesn't very good. It seems to struggle with hair, so you end up looking bald in spots, cropping off inches of your head. I tried all kinds of foreground and background lighting. (Which really shouldn't matter to the IR depth technology.) At times, all parts of my skin would disappear (no arms, no neck or head) and I looked like an empty shirt. It's really THAT bad.
Problem #2: The background removal really taxes your system. I got this for my son's computer which is mid-range ($800). The camera works better on my high-end ($2000) PC.
Problem #3: The lag is a horrendous. A deal-breaker. On my son's computer, just a simple test saying a quick, "Wow!", you can hear my exclamation, and then 1/2 second later my mouth moves.
Problem #4: There are no software settings to tweak the above. No sensitivity to the background removal. No way to maybe say, record in 1280x720 (or even 640x480) instead of 4K so that there's less processing to do and thereby reducing lag. The Logitech settings and the ChromaCam settings are really dumbed down to about nothing.
Problem #5: The ChromaCam software costs $30, or else you get a watermark. This is the least of my concerns.
The only good thing about this camera is the 4K quality when not using background removal. But, as my title says, I'm guessing most people want this to do background removal so they can overlay themselves in the corner while streaming game. In that case, your image is only maybe 300x200 pixels, so the 4K is moot. It's the depth part of the camera that would normally justify the $170+ price. And that it simply is too low quality to be useful, I do not recommend this camera.
Even if you have a beefy system that can handle the software, and have a better experience than I, the reviews for the C922x Pro Stream are the same, and that camera is half the price. (But since it also requires ChromaCam, good luck!)
As a footnote, I spent hours fiddling with this thing and a big red flag was that almost all the content, and reviews, and tips for this camera online are over a year old. It's not mid-2018 technology. It's early 2017 technology.
