11 Best Streaming Cameras | Articles | Photo, video, optics

Today, any task relat­ed to media con­tent can be solved using your smart­phone. But if we need excel­lent audio­vi­su­al clar­i­ty and detail, we start look­ing for more seri­ous tools.

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Streaming camera types

Webcams

A web­cam is one of the best options for stream­ing. It is afford­able and easy to use. The web­cam is ide­al for live video chats, video game stream­ing and any oth­er live broad­cast when you are not mov­ing in the frame.

It is impor­tant to note that we are not talk­ing about a web­cam built into the lap­top, but an exter­nal one — with a res­o­lu­tion of at least 720p and a func­tion­al built-in micro­phone. The web­cams are direct­ly con­nect­ed to your com­put­er, so you don’t need a sep­a­rate video encoder. How­ev­er, if you want to improve the sound, you can pur­chase a sep­a­rate head­set or micro­phone.

Mirrorless and SLR cameras

DSLRs deliv­er excel­lent video qual­i­ty, ultra-high res­o­lu­tion pho­tos, and good low-light per­for­mance. If you need a more com­pact option for stream­ing but need the same qual­i­ty as a DSLR, con­sid­er using a mir­ror­less cam­era.

If you’re plan­ning on using a DSLR or mir­ror­less cam­era for stream­ing, make sure your mod­el sup­ports long video record­ing and offers an HDMI out­put that hides viewfind­er options and oth­er icons. Your cam­era must also be con­nect­ed to a video encoder in order for it to send HDMI out­put to online stream­ing plat­forms.

DSLR cam­eras pro­vide much bet­ter image qual­i­ty and more flex­i­ble set­tings than a web­cam. Thanks to the vari­ety of these set­tings, such as aper­ture and white bal­ance, and the abil­i­ty to change lens­es, you can achieve a much more pro­fes­sion­al pic­ture.

But to get your DSLR ready for stream­ing, you may need to down­load a firmware update. It is also rec­om­mend­ed that you exam­ine exter­nal micro­phones to get opti­mal sound qual­i­ty.

Camcorders

Prob­a­bly the best choice for stream­ing. The cam­corders are easy to set up and their ergonom­ic design makes them ide­al for hand­held shoot­ing. They pro­vide HDMI out­put with­out reduc­ing video res­o­lu­tion and frame rate.

Anoth­er great advan­tage of using cam­corders is the abil­i­ty to shoot in 4K res­o­lu­tion, which gives the best video qual­i­ty.

action cameras

Action cam­eras are great for cap­tur­ing immer­sive videos. Despite their small size, they are quite pow­er­ful and shoot good qual­i­ty videos. This makes them ide­al for live broad­cast­ing of action-packed events and sports. This type of cam­era is usu­al­ly equipped with a wide angle lens and offers a first per­son view.

What kind of cameras do streamers usually use?

Stream­ers use a wide vari­ety of cam­eras for their live broad­casts. From DSLRs and action cam­eras to smart­phone cam­eras and high-end web­cams, you can use just about any­thing.

Choos­ing a cam­era comes down to set­tings, price and func­tion­al­i­ty. If you need some­thing portable, action cam­eras are the best. If you’re broad­cast­ing from a fixed loca­tion and want high image qual­i­ty, DSLRs are a great choice. And for a sim­ple and inex­pen­sive ini­tial option, a reli­able web­cam is enough.

The best cameras for streaming

webcams

Log­itech C920 HD Pro

Con­tent shot with the Log­itech C920 HD Pro can make a big impres­sion. The cam­era deliv­ers vibrant col­ors and sharp images with Full HD 1030p at 30 fps.

This web­cam fea­tures a five-ele­ment Full HD glass lens, and pre­mi­um aut­o­fo­cus can be adjust­ed to keep video in HD through­out your broad­cast.

With HD Auto Light Cor­rec­tion, the cam­era adjusts image qual­i­ty and adapts to dif­fer­ent light­ing con­di­tions to make videos look clear and bright even in dark places. Log­itech is equipped with stereo micro­phones (on either side of the cam­era) that reduce back­ground noise and cap­ture real­is­tic sounds from all direc­tions. As a result, the sound becomes loud­er and clear­er.

Microsoft Life­cam HD-3000

If you are look­ing for an inex­pen­sive cam­era with­out sac­ri­fic­ing image qual­i­ty, this is the cam­era for you, it will give you bright and col­or­ful shots.

Designed in the sig­na­ture style of Microsoft­’s Life­Cam series, the HD-3000 sup­ports 720p HD video for true HD qual­i­ty. In addi­tion, the 16:9 widescreen for­mat offers a first-class cin­e­mat­ic pic­ture. The cam­era uses True­Col­or tech­nol­o­gy to cre­ate bright, col­or­ful videos in all light­ing con­di­tions.

The cam­era has a uni­ver­sal stand for desk­top or lap­top, and a flex­i­ble head to eas­i­ly adjust the view­ing angle.

Log­itech C930e Full HD

The Log­itech C930e can be described as the busi­ness ver­sion of the C920. Equipped with advanced tech­nol­o­gy, it pro­vides clear video and sound in all con­di­tions, includ­ing low light. Designed for busi­ness use, it fea­tures 1080p res­o­lu­tion, H.264 video com­pres­sion and a wide 90-degree view­ing angle for easy video con­fer­enc­ing.

Use the C930e to show your best side dur­ing video calls, con­fer­ences and live broad­casts. The C930e sup­ports H.264 with scal­able video cod­ing and UVC 1.5 cod­ing. This ensures that the device can con­tin­ue record­ing even with lim­it­ed com­put­er or net­work resources.

Best DSLR/Mirrorless Cameras for Streaming

Canon EOS 80D

The Canon EOS 80D is pop­u­lar with blog­gers for its near-per­fect ISO range, High Dynam­ic Range (HDR) movie mode, and aut­o­fo­cus capa­bil­i­ties — equipped with a 45-point cross-type AF sys­tem for accu­rate, high-speed aut­o­fo­cus in all light­ing con­di­tions.

This cam­era is ver­sa­tile and can be used almost any­where. The EOS 80D includes an intel­li­gent viewfind­er that pro­vides 100% frame cov­er­age as well as com­pre­hen­sive image data.

A pow­er­ful 24.2‑megapixel (APS‑C) CMOS sen­sor and Dual Pix­el CMOS AF for Live View shoot­ing deliv­er impres­sive image qual­i­ty. After record­ing, you can save the video in mp4 for­mat and trans­fer it wire­less­ly.

Pana­son­ic Lumix GH4

This Pana­son­ic cam­era mod­el can best be described as a hybrid cam­era with out­stand­ing pho­to and video per­for­mance. This is the best mir­ror­less cam­era for stream­ing as it fea­tures a 16.05MP Dig­i­tal Live MOS sen­sor and a 4‑way Venus Engine. This means you can count on it to cap­ture high res­o­lu­tion JPEG and RAW pho­tos and videos.

It shoots cin­e­mat­ic-qual­i­ty DCI 4K video at a max­i­mum res­o­lu­tion of 4096x2160 at 24fps. It also eas­i­ly records UHD 4K video at up to 30 fps and 1080p video at 60 fps.

For max­i­mum dura­bil­i­ty, the Lumix DMC-GH4 fea­tures a mag­ne­sium alloy water­proof hous­ing. It also offers improved res­o­lu­tion on the OLED mon­i­tor and elec­tron­ic viewfind­er.

Pana­son­ic Lumix GH5

Pana­son­ic Lumix DC-GH5 is an updat­ed mod­el of its pre­de­ces­sor GH4. This is high-qual­i­ty video and pho­tog­ra­phy in a com­pact body. Some of the fea­tures are sim­i­lar to the GH4, but at the heart of this cam­era is a 20.3‑megapixel Dig­i­tal Live MOS sen­sor, as well as the new Venus Engine. The cam­era can record 4K video at up to 60 fps, Full HD video at up to 180 fps, and shoot con­tin­u­ous­ly at up to 12 fps.

GHS is also expand­ing its image stor­age and trans­mis­sion capa­bil­i­ties. It is equipped with two UHS-II SD card slots and can con­nect to mobile devices via Wi-Fi and Blue­tooth.

Sony Alpha a7 III

Sony’s Alpha a7 III mir­ror­less dig­i­tal cam­era is a ver­sa­tile cam­era suit­able for pho­tog­ra­phy and videog­ra­phy. Works super fast in low light. Equipped with a 24.2 MP Exmor R BSI CMOS full-frame image sen­sor and a BIONZ X image proces­sor, you can rely on it for aut­o­fo­cus, reli­able sub­ject track­ing and wide frame cov­er­age.

In addi­tion to improve­ments in speed and aut­o­fo­cus, its high-per­for­mance proces­sor reduces noise for greater image clar­i­ty.

The best camcorders for streaming

Pana­son­ic HC-V770

The Pana­son­ic HC-V770 can shoot 1080p video at 60fps and has an HDMI out­put. It fea­tures a 20x opti­cal zoom and a 4‑drive lens sys­tem so you can cap­ture sharp images from a dis­tance. Ambi­ent light sen­sor sup­press­es noise for clear images cap­tured in dim light.

The HC-V770 also enhances shots tak­en in over­ly bright or dark areas with the HDR Movie func­tion. It sup­press­es shad­ows and high­lights.

The cam­era also has built-in Wi-Fi, 5‑axis image sta­bi­liza­tion, remote mon­i­tor­ing, and built-in micro­phone and head­phone jacks.

Canon XA15

If you’re look­ing for the best stream­ing cam­corder, check out the Canon XA15. It’s a great cam­era for both stream­ing and event cov­er­age and doc­u­men­taries.

It shoots high-qual­i­ty HD video with a pow­er­ful DIGIC DV 4 image proces­sor and a 20x opti­cal zoom lens. You can also seam­less­ly stream uncom­pressed video with audio and time­codes thanks to the HD/SD-SDI ter­mi­nal.

Light­weight yet durable, the Canon XA15 fea­tures an LCD touch pan­el and 1.56 mil­lion dot elec­tron­ic viewfind­er for long hours of use, no mat­ter the con­di­tions. This ver­sa­tile and com­pact cam­corder deliv­ers the per­for­mance you need for 24/7 oper­a­tion.

Pana­son­ic AG-UX180

The Pana­son­ic AG-UX180 is ide­al for pro­fes­sion­al shoot­ing as it fea­tures an advanced opti­cal image sta­bi­liz­er and intel­li­gent aut­o­fo­cus. The mod­el has an advanced com­pact lens with a wide angle of view of 24 mm, 20x opti­cal zoom and a high­ly sen­si­tive 1.0 type MOS sen­sor.

You can switch between 59.94 and 50 Hz for seam­less inte­gra­tion with var­i­ous broad­cast sys­tems. In addi­tion, the cam­era includes 16-axis col­or cor­rec­tion for fine-tun­ing col­or, a fea­ture you don’t often find on stan­dard cam­corders.

The best action cameras for live streaming

GoPro HERO7

The GoPro Hero7 is the most advanced GoPro cam­era to date. This action cam­era cap­tures ultra-smooth footage even with­out IS.

On top of that, you can count on the Hero7 for your active trav­els: the cam­era body is durable and water­proof up to 10m. , take a pic­ture” and “GoPro, turn on”, etc.

For those who care about details, the Super­Pho­to func­tion can make your shot even sharp­er and more detailed thanks to HDR tech­nol­o­gy, noise reduc­tion and local tone map­ping.

This cam­era also allows you to shoot time-lapse and is of course per­fect for stream­ing.