You don’t need much to be a streamer these days, outside of a winning personality, a connection with your audience and a decent webcam with which to broadcast your face to the masses. I’ve got at least one of those requirements and dear lord why are my streams so empty my parents were right about me after all. Anyway, there’s no shortage of cameras on the market today and with a healthy streaming scene to supplement those sales, manufacturers like to future-proof their products with an eye on those gamers who spend all day on Twitch for a living.
Logitech’s got a new piece of hardware in town for just such a person, that goes by the name of the StreamCam. You can throw it on your surface of choice in either horizontal or vertical mounting positions, rotate and give it a 90-degree tilt if needed so that it can be propped at just about any angle under the sun.
Internally, it has some neat hardware! There’s an always handy smart autofocus, it uses USB-C and the f/2.0 can beam your face over the world wide web at 1080p and 60 of those fantastic frames every second. That’s a chuffing good aperture for streamers when you look at the numbers, one that should still provide a pretty decent image in low-light situations but chances are that you’ll probably have a secondary light source set up if you’re serious about your streaming.
The StreamCam also supports OBS and XSplit software, with a three-month subscription thrown in for the latter to help you get your stream on if you purchase it. Here’s the big catch though: The StreamCam ain’t cheap. It currently has a $170 price tag on the Logitech site, making it a pricy alternative to other hardware such as Razer’s Kiyo webcam or Logitech’s own long favoured C920 and C922 cams. .
It’ll be a bitter cost pill to swallow, although Logitech is hoping that the bump in hardware and their own branded software will make it easier to do so when it hits a market near you.
Last Updated: February 12, 2020
MechMachine
February 12, 2020 at 14:04
I was watching one of the steamers, Professor Broman, I believe, and he was checking out his viewers setups. They all seem to have streaming rigs. Huh ? 3 monitors, a expensive mic and a streaming deck. This seems to be a thing.
Pariah
February 12, 2020 at 14:05
In first world countries, yeah, tech is more affordable relative to salaries.
MechMachine
February 12, 2020 at 14:11
Fair point. But do all these people honestly believe they are going to be streamers ?
Pariah
February 12, 2020 at 14:11
Yeah, a lot of people think it’s just a matter of clicking “stream” and they’ll make it big. Many people don’t realise the amount of work that goes into being a successful streamer, along with a healthy dose of luck.
MechMachine
February 12, 2020 at 14:11
And some measure of talent I believe.
Pariah
February 12, 2020 at 14:11
Wait you mean just playing a game with a camera on isn’t enough to get viewers? Kappa
HvR
February 12, 2020 at 14:55
Get the idea that most people are realistic that it will not become their day job. They just do it for fun.
Yozzie
February 12, 2020 at 15:16
I have a professional Rode Podcaster mic for casual MP and co op gaming since all I do is game together with friends. And I hate having a headset on my head while also not wanting my friends to endure the crazy noise that you get with cheapo freestanding mic’s.
MechMachine
February 12, 2020 at 15:57
Well, that’s reasonable.