Camo is a strong app that permits you to use your iPhone, and any related USB digicam, as a webcam on your Mac. I take advantage of it each week to file movies and livestream podcasts. The digicam constructed into the MacBook — and even the high-end Studio Show — simply doesn’t evaluate to the readability and high quality of an iPhone digicam.
Apple constructed a primary model of this characteristic into macOS and known as it Continuity Digital camera. However like most apps which were sherlocked, Camo goes above and past with highly effective instruments and professional options.
Camo additionally works with Home windows PCs, Android telephones and most trendy cameras, not simply Macs and iPhones.
How one can use your iPhone as a webcam in your Mac with Camo
First, you could obtain the Camo Digital camera app from the App Retailer in your iPhone (or Android cellphone) and from the Camo web site on your Mac (or Home windows PC). There’s a free tier with watermark-free video recording, however it’s restricted to 720p video, the iPhone’s principal digicam lens, 30 FPS and customary picture mode. Unlocking all of the options prices $40 yearly or $5 month-to-month.
Upon getting the apps arrange, simply launch them on every gadget.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you wish to use your smartphone as a webcam with Camo, I like to recommend utilizing a wired connection. Nevertheless, in case you don’t have a cable helpful, you possibly can go wi-fi. Simply click on Join a tool in your laptop, faucet the Wi-Fi icon in your cellphone, after which scan the QR code.
Word: Whereas the Camo Digital camera app runs in your cellphone, its display will flip black after a couple of moments. This ensures your cellphone gained’t overheat or run out of juice.
Get your digicam arrange
Within the Camo app in your Mac, below Digital camera settings, you possibly can decide which digicam lens in your cellphone to make use of, and set the main focus and body price. Audio settings, instantly under, allow you to decide which microphone to make use of.
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Camo additionally offers you choices for a way your video will look if you use your iPhone as a webcam. Beneath Presets within the Mac app, you possibly can change between a couple of completely different coloration modes. You possibly can select from quite a few customizable overlay templates if you wish to present your identify and speak to data. (For those who later determine you don’t prefer it, simply click on the layer button on the bottom-right to show it off.) To customise a template, right-click and choose Duplicate and Edit.
Beneath Framing, you possibly can select to have the digicam routinely zoom out and in and pan round to maintain your face centered. For some cause, you set how shut you need the digicam to trace your face on a scale of strawberry to pumpkin (pumpkin being a tighter crop) — however it does observe my face fairly carefully.
File movies from Camo
To file movies from Camo, click on the File button within the toolbar. Click on the arrow to the fitting to select the place to avoid wasting the video. It repeatedly writes to the file as you file, so if the app crashes or one thing breaks partway by, not all will probably be misplaced.
One other nicety is that you may be on a FaceTime or Skype name whereas Camo remains to be recording.
Superior picture controls to be used with iPhone as webcam on Mac
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Camo additionally offers you further digicam controls, which you’ll find on the fitting aspect of the Mac app. Picture enhancements use depth information out of your cellphone to provide your background a blur impact. You possibly can go for a refined creative blur, a extreme privateness blur or a full greenscreen background.
This doesn’t work nice in case you (a) have a microphone on an arm in entrance of you and (b) haven’t had a haircut in six months. It seems to be enough in a screenshot, however dwell, it sparkles noticeably.
The Picture changes settings offer you detailed management over coloration correction by hand. Beneath Superior, you possibly can compensate for flickering fluorescent lights. In the UK, for instance, 50 Hz workplace lighting typically conflicts with 30 FPS cameras — set it to 50 Hz to curtail the impact.
Total, Camo is a well-made and thoughtfully designed Mac app that permits you to use your iPhone or different smartphone as a webcam. If you wish to go the additional mile and step up your video conferencing sport, it’ll allow you to take full benefit of the highly effective digicam you carry in your pocket.
We initially revealed this publish on find out how to use your iPhone as a webcam with a Mac on April 17, 2023. We up to date the information.
