This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
There are so many apps that will let you use your SLR or phone as a webcam. I've played around with a few, because I use 1 old phone and an older SLR as cameras for FBT in VR.
Shit is kinda ridiculous that it doesn't just show up in the OS as a fuckin' camera without some "hacking." It should literally work out of the box.
The funny thing about my camera (DC-G9), is that it obviously had the 30-minute limit, as required by the WTO. But at the end of that limit, it seamlessly stopped recording and started recording to a new file, thus making two separate recordings that you just had to stitch together later in post.
Since 2019 however, it got a firmware update after the limit was no longer required by the WTO. It now records to a single file without limit. Or so I'm told, I use mine for stills only, and almost never take any video. Oh, and it obviously works as a webcam.
another company to avoid.
I've always had Canon. I've worked with their professional trainers. C100s, 5Ds, R5... All of them.
Good thing I've also used Nikon and Sony as well. Guess when I finally get sick of the R50 I just use around the house in... Ten years or so I'll see who in the game isn't a shit head.
So, I guess I'll never buy another camera, eh?
Even better, let me know if y'all are offloading any good RF glass! I'll pay bottom dollar!
Sell your glass NOW.
The old adage that lenses keep their value so you're only ever really renting them is about to fall off a cliff.
Until consumers learn to reject proprietary software this will be the case
Remember that GNU was founded after RMS had to deal with proprietary software on peripherals
Wasn't the first ever webcam just a regular camera that took shots of the office coffee pot? I'm pretty sure it was a bespoke script
I also remember the dude who made a homebrew app for his DS to control his Canon DSLR for long exposure shots because the alternative was to drag a fat laptop around or buy a $300 Canon PDA.
regular camera that took shots of the office coffee pot?
well it predated 'digital' cameras, was around when film was still big - 1993.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_Room_coffee_pot
128x128px greyscale feed was achieved with a video camera connected to an Acorn Archimedes quipped with a video capture card.
It's not even a $5 one-off fee, it's a $5/month subscription!
I found a way to use my old Nikon as a webcam using an HDMI capture card. Hooked it up to the camera's mini HDMI port and wham! had a working webcam!
But after thirty minutes, it would always switch off the live view, so i was left with a camera feed of the menus. Turns out this is an import restriction so it can be imported as a "still camera" and not a "movie camera" for significantly less taxes.
Enter some wonderful soul who found a way to hack the firmware to allow live view to stay on continuously, so now it works great as a webcam!
The limit is only true if you’re also recording to internal memory. My understanding is that it’s a European Union issue that we all have to suffer for.
That understanding is untrue, it was actually an internationally agreed upon tariff by the WTO. It has since been repealed though, so cameras built after 2019, or ones that have had a firmware update since then, no longer have the limit.
I have a D3000.
Literally the last DSLR to be made without a live view ... if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any.
You start to feel badly for legacy tech manufacturers like Canon.
Then they do things like this, and suddenly I am happy to see them die.
You can't treat your customers with contempt and not expect them to return the sentiment.
I have such fond memories of shooting on my old Canon DSLR.
It’s been 20 years since I bought my last DSLR (life, you know?) and I recently started thinking that maybe I should buy another before they close out the DSLR product line.
A huge disappointment to see this enshitification.
I have a fair collection of Canon glass, a few of which are L series.
I haven’t taken them out of the closet in a damn long time.
Oof. That hurts to hear.
There's a reason mirrorless is here to stay, the autofocus is basically cheat mode compared to a DSLR. I do miss some aspects of the optical viewfinder though.
Yeah, I know. And I know there’s way more market demand for mirrorless, as well as simpler mechanicals, so they have less failure points, but do I ever love the sound and that subtle feeling of a mirror slapping up and the shutter flicking out of place.
The feedback that offers when you capture a photo feels like you’re doing something ‘real’ when you take a photo. Everyone knows that you captured that moment. Those photons are yours forever, trapped in your little art-making box.
It’s kind of romantic, in a way. I feel like modern tech is great, but tends to be inscrutable.
Is there an open source solution? I actually stopped using my Canon camera as a webcam because the software was so shitty, now they want me to pay to use it 🤣 All they've done is stopped me from ever buying another Canon camera again.
You can do this on Linux using gphoto2, ffmpeg, and v4l2loopback. You probably won't get full resolution but the quality will still be good enough for video conferencing. See here for a guide.
Cheers! Thank you
Sony gave us that webcam feature for free. Please don't get any bright ideas, Sony.
Geez, during the pandemic Sony released its functionaltiy for free! It was really nice.
Man a one time fee, like fine I’d suck it up I guess but a subscription? Just why
Salesforce, that's why. It started with them and now it's the first thing regarded MBAs from Ivy league "top" universities consulting on behalf of McKinsey, PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte recommend to any Ctype position as soon as they are onboarded. If there was a virus that deleted consulting and marketing firms from the face of the earth, I'm positive we could end war and world hunger in a decade.
Panasonic provides the software for free for their cameras. Still only 720p but at least you're not paying for it.
This reminds me of when I tried to buy an insta360 camera, only to learn after the fact that it requires an app to function. And that the app isn't even compatible with all phones and tablets.
Maybe it's buried on the store page somewhere that installing the app is a requirement, but I was pretty annoyed to learn that I had just bought a plastic brick unless I also wanted to upgrade my phone.
Same with DJI pocket cameras - you need to use their app and allow it to connect to the internet as part of the out of the box "setup" process.
