Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsThis Camera Cannot Stream at 1080p
Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2023
I bought this camera specifically for streaming, as a beginner getting my channel started. I typically like Logitech products, and I bought into their hype that this was their latest and greatest specifically made for streamers and content creators. I also got it for about $130, I think it may have been on sale.
#1 Con - this is a advertised streaming camera with 1080p that cannot actually or practically stream at 1080p. It has the feature. It just doesn't work in live practice. Maybe if you have 100% fibre optic, but I have great non-fiber internet (300+) and trying to change it to 1080 killed my feed every time. The best you can use while streaming without killing your live upfeed is 720p and even then, the picture looks pixely and choppy as a stormy sea. I don't know what all these other reviews are talking about, maybe this is my hot-take, but the picture quality -- live and watching my recording of my livestream back -- the quality is NOT GOOD. Mind you, in **OBS PREVIEW**, the picture looked great BUT not in the actual recording. You need to check your final output!!
For something advertised as a "Stream Camera" I would have expected this to work fairly well and have good picture out of the box. Even if I had somehow gotten the picture to be what I wanted (I never did), I should not have had to spend weeks digging around on the internet to get there.
I messed with settings, watched videos and help articles to try to improve the picture right up until the last minute of the return window, and ultimately came to the conclusion that this camera cannot do it. In trying to optimize the picture, I came across a video I wish I had found before I bought it, where the guy explained that this camera is missing key features, such as being able to blur the background live (it cannot do that), and instead has silly filler features, such as TWO built in microphones (no streamer is going to use the camera for recording audio, they have a mic for that), or being able to pluck the camera and physically rotate it (uh, okay, but why?). The auto-focus, which IIRC cannot be turned off or adjusted, seems to do it's best work at a distance of about 7 inches from the camera. The lines on my palm looked amazing on livestream. My face at 30-36" away, not so much. Everything in the scene behind me -- super pixelated.
For what it can actually do, this camera is overpriced and misleading.
If you are looking for a camera for Zoom/work calls, again, this camera cannot blur the background live. I stress this because some of the advertising implies that you can, but you definitely cannot! Other than that missing feature, 720p would be fine, but you can get other cheaper cameras that work just as well for simple video calls. If you're looking for a cheap beginner camera for streaming, I recommend the Elgato Camera, that's what I got when I refunded this Logitech. For the same price as this Logitech camera, you get better picture quality, and you get the blur feature if you want/need it. The Elgato also lets you tweak your settings in their desktop app, and then store those settings directly into the camera.
I gave this camera two stars because **it's fine**. The actual hardware looks sturdy enough. The return was painless. But I would not recommend this camera for streaming, as it's missing key features, and I think $130 is way too much for it for other purposes. As someone who has exclusively used Logitech trackballs for almost 20 years, I wanted to like this camera. But Logitech completely missed the mark.