Using a Canon Camera as a Webcam With Mac OS
Quarantine period all around, and you’re stuck at home with family members making you crazy; and a potato webcam, on your Mac desktop computer, or MackBook Pro. It’s really time for Apple to upgrade it. However, since that is not under your control, it’s time you looked for a better solution.
With professional video calls on the rise, maybe you want a creamy smooth blurred out background to hide all the mess in your bedroom. And to your help, has come Canon, the God of good cameras, and your fate, cause you have a Canon camera lying around.
So, let’s get started. For this thing to work, you will need a supported Canon camera, and EOS Webcam Utility Software.
Now, this software is in Public Beta, but works pretty fine most of the time, and gets the job done. Plus you can sign up to be notified for further releases, and even for the final version of the software.
This is a complete list of cameras that are currently supported by Canon.
EOS-1D X Mark III
EOS-1D X Mark II
EOS 5DS R
EOS 5DS
EOS 5D Mark IV
EOS R
EOS 6D Mark II
EOS RP
EOS 7D Mark II
EOS 90D
EOS 80D
EOS 77D
EOS Rebel T7i
EOS Rebel T6i
EOS Rebel T7
EOS Rebel T6
EOS Rebel SL3
EOS Rebel SL2
EOS Rebel T100
EOS M6 Mark II
EOS M50
EOS M200
PowerShot G5X Mark II
PowerShot G7X Mark III
PowerShot SX70 HS
If you have any of these, you are good to go.
Check if you’re running the latest version of MacOS, or at least High Sierra, for this software to work.
Head over to this website: https://1.shortstack.com/VChq6Z
Click on “GET BETA SOFTWARE”.
A page will open up. Choose your camera model. On the following page, Choose “Drivers & Downloads”, enter your OS if not detected and download the EOS Webcam Utility Beta for Mac.
Once downloaded, install the software on your Mac.
Restart your Mac after successful installation. Connect the camera and the Mac using a USB Cable. Turn on the camera and set it to Movie Mode. Quit the Utility program if it launches.
Now, open the video calling software of your preference, and set it to EOS Utility Webcam Beta.
And you’re done. Seriously, it’s easy to set up, with almost no hassle, with the added benefit of having wonderful image quality that will not only make you look better but will better hide the mess of clothes on your bed.
Note:
A good camera with good lighting will make a world of difference in image quality.
For a blurry background, set your aperture to the maximum allowed by your lens, and for the sharpest image, set your aperture to 2 f-stops lower from the maximum.
In case you needed it, here’s the f-stop scale for you, with f/1.4 being the widest, thus allowing the most light in, and f/22 being the smallest and allowing the least light through. Realistically, don’t go below f/5.6.
f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22
For the most natural motion blur, set the shutter speed to double the inverse value of the frame-rate at which your video is getting recorded. So, if you’re recording at 24 fps, the shutter speed should be 1/48, or 1/50 depending on the camera settings.
As an added bonus, you can shoot at 24 fps, for the most cinematic look, and lowering the file-size needed to stream over the internet for the most seamless transmission of video.
