Quick Start Guide

How to Use Your Camera or Camcorder as a Webcam
In today’s connected high-definition world, audio and video quality are everything. The built-in “HD” webcams
in recent laptops are made with low resolution, tiny sensors that simply can’t produce the best version of you
― and you don’t want to be that person stuck in the shadows.
If you already own a Canon VIXIA camcorder, or an EOS DSLR, mirrorless or PowerShot camera, there’s good
news: you most likely have a much better webcam at hand! Below, we’ve detailed a quick checklist of the gear
and steps you need to take for your compatible camera or camcorder to perform as a higher-quality webcam.
Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you: you’re on a video chat at night and you notice your face is in
the dark, but your lamp is perfectly clear. How did that happen? Well, the webcam on your computer (or
mobile device for that matter) might not let you adjust where your light source is coming from, and
subsequently, what the camera should be focusing on ― it simply sees the lamp and assumes that this is the
main focus and adjusts to that. Most Canon cameras and camcorders, on the other hand, use Dual Pixel
Autofocus technology and let you choose your focus point to tell the camera “Hey! Look at me!” The camera
will be much better in low light than what a traditional webcam can offer, thanks to its much larger sensor.
The Checklist
A compatible Canon camera or camcorder with a clean HDMI output
An HDMI cable with one end to plug into your camera/camcorder and the other end to
plug into your HDMI video capture card
An HDMI video capture card
Software that will recognize the signal from your camera and capture card
A fully charged battery or an AC adapter (for those all-day meetings or longer streams)
So Why Should I Use my Camera/Camcorder?