As more and more streamers begin to understand the need to improve the quality of their livestream because of increasing competition, a popular choice in doing so has been to upgrade from a webcam like the ever popular Logitech C920 to a professional DSLR or Mirror-less Camera.
Up until recently the only way to do that has been to purchase a capture card that allows you to connect your camera to your computer as most camera manufactures did not allow you to connect your camera directly to your PC and use it as you would a webcam.
Recently, Canon, and now Sony, have both released beta software that allows just that. But they still limit you on the resolution as well as frame-rates you’re able to use causing a capture card to still be the best option for streamers right now.
The most popular option for doing this so far has been the Elgato Camlink 4k which costs $129.99 USD and allows you to capture 4k at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps.
Recently, however, there has been a device that has been getting a lot of attention on the internet as the quality from it has been on par with Elgato’s Camlink, however, you can pick it up for a measly $20 bucks off Amazon!
There’s only one downside to it though…it doesn’t offer 60fps at 1080p and most streamers prefer having a higher FPS over a higher resolution and will happily settle with a lower resolution if it allows them to have 60fps for their stream, especially in high action games like modern first person shooters.
That is until now…
A brand new update to this little device was just released which now features USB 3.0 and offers both 1080p 60fps as well as 4k 30fps!
So in today’s video, we are going to put it to the test by comparing it to both the Camlink 4k by Elgato as well as the difference in quality if you wanted to forgo a capture card entirely and just connect your camera to your PC using the new beta software from the camera manufacturer of your camera!
God, I’m pumped to try this thing out!
ROLL THE INTRO!
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Alright, with the formalities out of the way, let’s dive in!
We’re going to try to keep this video simple and to the point!
First, before we jump in to the actual footage of the device, I do want to mention that while the previous version of this device can be found on Amazon for as low as $20 bucks, this version cost me about $45. However, I will say that when the first version of this launched it also was around $40 – $50 dollars and quickly dropped in price so while it’s a bit higher now then the previous version if you’re willing to wait a month or two, I wouldn’t be surprised if the price goes down as more sellers start selling it on Amazon.
Second, even at $45 dollars, it’s still $85 dollars less than the Camlink 4k and if it performs as well as the first version I have feeling you might not even care about waiting that month or two.
Third, I will be using the Canon M200 as my camera for this test as it offers both 1080p at 60fps as well as 4k at 30fps and is a camera that a lot of people pick up as a great starter mirror-less camera for streaming with. I also have an EOS 80D but it doesn’t offer clean hdmi output nor does it offer 4k.
Okay, let’s do it!
First on the screen we have the M200 plugged in directly to the computer via USB and I’m running the most current version of Canon’s EOS Webcam Utility program. Again, the biggest drawback currently software for the camera directly is that it’s still in beta and currently the max resolution you can get with it is 1024 by 576 and is limited to 30fps. Now, when and if Canon or even Sony release updates to their software in the future and increase the resolutions possible as well as the frame-rates possible, it could drastically improve so if you’re watching this video at a later time, make sure you check your camera manufacturers website to see if they offer that, because free is always the best option! Although I guess it’s not free if you paid hella money for the camera…
Next up on the screen we have the Camlink 4k. I really don’t have much to say. This device performs great and Elgato produced a great piece of technology that was needed in the space and in a small form factor compared to traditional capture cards and extremely easy to use. The details great, the pictures sharp and overall for the price it launched, I think it was worth every penny… However, that leads us to our third device because if it performs nearly the same or better yet even better…
Last on screen we have the no name HDMI Video Capture device. I’m not sure because of YouTube compression if you can even notice a difference or not, but from my own viewing of the original video files, I will admit. The Camlink 4k does look just slightly better. And I mean even I could barely notice with the original quality video files the difference. I think the results on screen speak for themselves.
While Elgato created a great product, there’s now an option, that doesn’t seem to be limited by Covid as the CamLink 4k has been that performs nearly identical to the CamLink and for much much less…
If you’re interested in picking one of these bad boys up, I’ll throw a link down in the description below as again, there are now two versions of this device selling on Amazon and the first version does not offer 60fps in 1080p or does it offer 4k at 30fps!
Thanks so much for watching, if you enjoyed this video don’t forget to leave a like, it helps me out so much and if you like videos like this one related to streaming, gaming and content creation then make sure you hit the red subscribe button below as well as ring the bell next to it to be notified when I post new videos!
And until next time… Peace out everybody!