In yesterday's post, I explained the advantages (and disadvantages) of using an iPhone as a web cam, and I also explained how you can use the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe to mount your iPhone so that it has a secure spot atop a monitor. In today's follow-up post, I am reviewing Camo, software that lets your iPhone act as a web cam on a Mac or a PC. I'll also compare Camo to a free alternative on the Mac: the Continuity Camera feature.
Starting Camo
Camo consists of two sets of software that work together. On your iPhone, you simply launch the Camo app and then put your iPhone on the Belkin mount or in another location so that the camera on the back of the iPhone is looking at whatever you want on your web cam.
Note that when you are using Camo, you won't actually see the screen on your iPhone because you will almost certainly be looking at the superior battery on the back of the iPhone. (I say "almost certainly" because Camo gives you the option of selecting which camera to use, so you could opt to use the front-facing camera if that made sense for some specific use, but I suspect that use would be rare.)
On your Mac or PC, launch the Camo Studio software. The very first time that you use Camo with a computer, you need to follow the on-screen instructions to pair your iPhone with the computer. It is very simple, and basically involves scanning a QR code. After that, if your iPhone is connected to a Mac with a cable, the Camo Studio software will automatically see the iPhone. If your iPhone is connected to a PC with a cable, and if you are running iTunes on the PC, then the Camo Studio software should work the same way, although I didn't test that configuration.
In the alternative, you can skip the cable and just have your iPhone and your Mac or PC communicate via the same Wi-Fi network. For this configuration, start the Camo app on the iPhone. Then start the Camo Studio software on your Mac or PC and click the button in the middle of the screen that says Connect a device. Camo Studio will find your previously-paired iPhone in just a second or two.
The developer of Camo says that a cable connection can be better, but I've been using Wi-Fi for most of my video conferences for several weeks, and it has worked great. The only downside I've experienced is that, very rarely, the video will pause for a second or two. But I only notice that once out of dozens of uses, and it fixed itself quickly. Having said that, I suppose if you don't have a good Wi-Fi connection, you may see worse results, so using the cable might be a superior option.
Using Camo Studio
Once the Camo Studio software is running and communicating with your iPhone, the software will take the video that it is capturing from your iPhone's camera and announce itself to other programs (such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams) as another camera called Camo Camera. In the following screenshot, Camo Studio is running on my PC, but the interface is virtually identical on the Mac. There are lots of settings that you can change if you want to (more on that below), but you don't have to do so.
Now that Camo Studio is running on your computer, start your video conference software of choice—I've tested Camo Studio using both Zoom and Microsoft Teams—and select Camo Camera as your camera. For example, in Microsoft Teams on my iMac, I see the following list. Besides Camo Camera, my other choices include FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in), which is the camera that is part of my iMac, and Jeff iPhone 14 Pro Camera, which is the Continuity Camera feature that I will discuss below.
If Camo Camera was the camera that you used when you last used your video conferencing software, it should default to Camo Camera again the next time that you use the software.
Here is a screenshot from a video conference that I was attending in my office. In this first picture, I was using a Logitech HD Pro C922 webcam. I have pale skin in real life, but as you can see from my thumbnail photo in the top right, my skin seems to be even more pale with the Logitech camera.
Next, I clicked the three dots that say "More" in Microsoft Teams and I switched my camera to Camo Camera. Thanks to the iPhone, my skin tone looked more natural, and the iPhone automatically slightly blurred items in my background, which also made the picture look better.
For more comparison photos, check out my review from yesterday of the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe.
Why use Camo?
If you want to use your iPhone as a web cam on a PC, you need to use software like Camo. I say "software like Camo" because I know that there are alternatives on the PC, but I have yet to come across one that gets great reviews. Camo, on the other hand, gets very favorable reviews, and it has worked incredibly well for me.
If you want to use your iPhone as a web cam on a Mac, you don't need Camo. You can instead use Continuity Camera. Continuity Camera is better than Camo in some ways: it is free, and it starts automatically without having to first open a special program like Camo Studio.
But after using both for a few weeks, I prefer using Camo on a Mac. First, I prefer to initially launch the Camo Studio software because that way I can see how I look on camera before I even start Zoom or Teams.
Second, there are lots of settings that you can adjust in Camo to adjust how you look. For me, there is only one of them I typically change, but it is a nice one. In the bottom left of Camo Studio, you can Zoom the camera. I prefer having my face take up a little more space on the screen so that it is easier for other people to see me, so I keep it at 125%. An advantage of zooming is that you can drag the rectangle at the bottom left of Camo Studio to determine which cropped area of the screen to use. This makes it super easy to center your face within the image.
If you have a built-in camera on your display, or if you have a web cam sitting on your monitor that never moves, you probably already know exactly where you need to sit to remain in the center of the screen. But when I put my iPhone in the Belkin mount to place it on top of my display, it always seems to be in a slightly different position than the last time. But by taking about two seconds in Camo Studio to adjust the position of the crop area, I can quickly get my face in the best spot without having to fiddle with either the iPhone or Belkin mount. This is quick and easy, and a bit advantage over Continuity Camera.
Other options available in Camo Studio, but not Continuity Camera, include the ability to apply templates to the image. If you want your name and company logo below your face, or if you want to display your phone number or some other information, you can quickly create a template and then toggle that on or off.
You can also turn on or off the light used by a flash for the iPhone and you can adjust the percentage of the flash level. It's much better to use natural light, of course, but it is nice to have the option to use the flashlight in a pinch if necessary.
I mentioned above that the iPhone automatically adds a nice, slight background blur. If you want even more background blur, Camo Studio has a portrait mode feature that can make the background blur more pronounced.
You can make lots of adjustments to the picture quality: exposure, white balance, hue, saturation, etc. In my tests in lots of different lighting conditions, the iPhone did a great job adjusting this manually, so I saw no need to change anything.
Finally, Camo has lots of features that, to me, are just silly, but perhaps they would appeal to others. For example, you can change your face to an Emoji face. Or to a Jaguar. Or you can put a moving virtual cat on your head. My video conference use is just about 100% for professional purposes, and I don't need to be the next lawyer cat, but if you want to be more creative, you can do that with Camo Studio.
So in short, if you use a Mac, the advantage of Camo over Continuity Camera is that you have a lot more options. Even though I only find a few of those options useful, I miss them quite a bit when I use Continuity Camera.
Pricing
You can use Camo for free and take advantage of most of its features. To take advantage of all features, you need to pay either $5/month, $40/year, or $80 for a lifetime license. Some of the key advantages of the paid version are:
- Use on more than one computer.
- Use 1080p instead of just 720p
- Use the Zoom, pan, and crop feature that I find very useful
You can see all of the differences described on this page.
Conclusion
Apple's Continuity Camera feature is great, in part because it is so simple. Plus, it is free. But if you use a PC or if you want more precise control, you should check out the free version of the Camo app to see if you prefer it. It didn't take me long to figure out that I really like the Camo software, so I paid $40 to use the Pro features for a year. If I don't see a better option this time next year, I will either pay for another year or just buy the lifetime version.
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