Use (Any) Canon Camera as a Webcam for Zoom, Skype or Microsoft Teams
Canon recently released a new piece of software for its cameras that allows you to use your Canon camera as a webcam — no capture card or other fancy equipment required!
This is wonderful news considering the current difficulties in purchasing either a webcam or a capture card, which would normally be needed to connect a digital camera to your computer. All you need in order to use your Canon camera as a webcam is a USB cable and a Windows computer. It’s very easy to get started:
Download the Canon EOS Webcam Utility
You can download the Canon EOS Webcam Utility directly from Canon. Simply select the model of your camera and download the software installer.
What if your camera isn’t on the list? The good news is that, even if you have an older camera, the software will very likely still work! We were able to use our Canon 5D Mark II using the download for the more recent 5D Mark IV. There are some limitations, which I discuss below, but overall the older 5D Mark II still works very well.
Unfortunately, you do have to be running Windows as of right now, so if you’re a Mac or Linux user, this solution will not work for you yet.
Start using your Canon as a webcam
Now all you have to do is plug your camera into your computer. Simply use the appropriate USB cable (either 2.0 or 3.0 depending on your camera). Once you turn on the camera you will be able to select it as a webcam in various programs like Zoom, Skype or MS Teams.
Instructions for Zoom:
There are three easy steps to take in Zoom to start using your Canon camera as your webcam.
- Go to settings
- Select the video tab
- Choose Canon EOS Webcam Utility Beta from the drop down menu
At this point you can also make any other adjustments like mirroring the video or changing the aspect ratio.
Instructions for Skype:
Please note that it seems like the Canon EOS Webcam Utility only works with the desktop version of Skype as of right now.
Instructions for MS Teams:
The steps for using your Canon camera for teams are also very simple.
- Click on your profile and go to settings
- Choose the devices tab
- Select EOS Webcam Utility Beta from the Camera drop down menu
What about audio?
Note that you will need a separate microphone because the Canon EOS Webcam Utility does not currently appear to be able to transmit the audio signal from the camera to your computer. You can use anything from a simple Lavalier microphone, to a USB microphone like the Blue Yeti, HyperX QuadCast or RØDE NT USB, to a professional XLR condenser microphone.
I recently picked up the RØDE NT USB and have been quite happy with the results. It’s a simple plug and play solution that will improve your sound quite a bit. Better sound will almost always make a big difference in terms of the quality of your conference calls or streams.
Some notes on using Canon EOS Webcam Utility with a Canon 5D Mark II
So far the Canon 5D Mark II has worked surprisingly well together with the Canon EOS Webcam Utility. We have tried both an 24–105mm F/4 lens and a 55mm F/1.8 Fujinon prime lens and both work very well. The bokeh with the latter lens looks great.
There are a few important notes about using the 5D Mark II:
Autofocus
Autofocus will not work on an older camera like the 5D Mark II. It seems that you need a newer camera with dual pixel autofocus in order for autofocus to work. However, using manual focus is actually fine as well since you can be sure that your camera will be focused on one area and will not spontaneously try to refocus in the middle of your conference call or video stream.
Adjusting aperture, shutter speed, and ISO
Whatever settings your camera is at before you plug it into the computer, will be what the camera will be operating at when you plug it in and start using it as a webcam. You need to make sure to have everything set up correctly before you start using your webcam. Here’s how the different presets work:
- In automatic mode, the camera will try to adjust its settings. Based on some limited testing it seemed like the camera was primarily using ISO to adapt to different lighting.
- In shutter priority, the camera seems to be able to automatically change the aperture.
- In aperture priority mode, the camera will change the shutter speed automatically.
- In manual mode, you can set the settings and they will remain where you set them. This mode will allow you to have most control over the look of your video.
If you have Magic Lantern installed on your 5D Mark II you can use that to change your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO by clicking on the Live View button. In fact, you can even refocus while using your camera as a webcam by pressing the AF-ON button when using Magic Lantern. Note that Magic Lantern will only be able to change aperture, shutter speed, and ISO if you are in manual mode. If you are in shutter priority, it will be able to adjust the shutter speed, whereas in aperture priority, it will be able to adjust the aperture.
Waiting room glitch in Zoom
We encountered a major glitch with waiting rooms in Zoom. The 5D Mark II would seem to be working when trying to join the meeting. However, while we were in the waiting room the shutter would close. Upon being granted access to the meeting the camera would try to open the shutter again, but then immediately close it so that it wouldn’t work in the actual meeting. Using Magic Lantern seems to have now resolved this issue. If you don’t have Magic Lantern on your 5D Mark II, you can try another workaround using OBS, which we used before discovering the Magic Lantern fix.
Instructions for using OBS
We were able to avoid the waiting room glitch in Zoom by using OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) as an interface. Getting this setup up is quite easy and will allow you to implement a few additional potentially interesting features in your Zoom call.
These are the steps to set up your Canon camera for use in OBS:
- Download the free OBS (Open Broadcaster Software).
- Download the OBS VirtualCam plugin so that you can turn OBS into a virtual webcam. If you are using only one camera, it should be fine to register only one virtual device during setup.
- Open OBS Studio and add a new Source by clicking the + sign in the Sources pane.
- Select Video Capture Device.
- Name your capture device. It can be any name you want. We chose Canon 5D Mark II for our camera.
- In the pop-up window, select EOS Webcam Utility from the Devices drop down menu. You can adjust any other settings for the camera at this time, e.g., the color space. It’s fine to leave everything at the default values too.
- You can now adjust the size of your camera stream by resizing the red box around your camera feed in the main OBS Studio window.
- Activate the VirtualCam in OBS. Do this by selecting Tools > VirtualCam in the main OBS Studio window and pressing the Start button. You can then close the dialog box.
- Open Zoom and go to Settings > Video (as shown above) and select OBS-Camera from the drop down menu.
OBS can also be used in conjunction with other video conferencing applications like Skype.
OBS lets you set different scenes and share your desktop as well as your webcam and also create picture-in-picture scenes. The possibilities are almost endless and we will leave you to experiment on your own at this point!