Ever wanted to turn your DSLR camera, camcorder or action cam into a high quality webcam for your computer? Are you a gamer looking to livestream your PS4/5 or XBox sessions to your audience on Twitch, Facebook or Youtube? Or do you wish to make educational screencasts from devices and platforms that natively have not screencasting support? If that’s you, then the $129 Elgato Camlink 4K Video capture is one of the best choices I have used so far.
In the box, you’ll get the Camlink 4K, USB 3.0 extension cable which is about 150cm/59 inches and a quick startup guide. This device supports MacOS from 10.12 and above and Windows 10 (64bit). For optimum performance, Elgato recommends that your Computer has at least Intel Core i5 Quad Core CPU 4th generation or better.
I have been using the Elgato Camlink 4K to mostly make educational video tutorials and how-to guides for Fire Stick and Roku streaming players. You can sample of the videos on Dignited’s Youtube Channel. This device has been serving me faithfully for almost a year now with almost no glitch at all. You’ll experience almost no lag or latency with this device. I have been able to capture Full HD 1080p at 60fps screencasts using Elgato Camlink 4K for Youtube. It can also handle 4K video at 30 frames per second if your source outputs 4K.
The Elgato Camlink 4K plugs into a USB 3.0 port of your computer or USB-C HDMI Hub with USB 3.0 ports if you have any. You can’t use USB 2.0 because the device requires high bandwidth to transfer video streams from your source device to your computer without latency.
On the other end of the Camlink is an HDMI Port. You can connect a gaming console such as Playstation 5 or Xbox or your laptop. Generally anything that outputs video through HDMI and doesn’t support HDCP(High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) — the digital copy protection standard aimed at preventing copyright infringement. Any standard HDMI cable will work just fine for connecting this device to a game console. As I mentioned earlier, I use this device to take screenshots and screencast of my Roku streaming stick.
Read more: How to take Screenshots and make Screencasts on Roku Streaming Stick
You can also use it to turn your DSLR camera into a high quality webcam for your laptop or computer. This can come in handy during those lengthy Zoom calls or Google Meet or Microsoft teams calls. I have used it to turn my Canon EOS M50 DSLR camera into a webcam. This camera currently goes for $679 on Amazon. This device also works other camera brands such as Nikon, Canon, Sony, Panasonic, Fufifilm, GoPro and more. You’ll need to a Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable. I got myself this $9 UGREEN Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable Adapter from Amazon. The HDMI cable plugs into the HDMI port of the Camlink 4K while the micro HDMI end of the cable plugs into your DSLR camera’s micro HDMI port.
Read more: How to use a DSLR or Mirrorless camera as a webcam for Zoom calls or Live Streaming
The Elgato Camlink 4K works out of the box with OBS Studio which is the gold standard software for live streaming. Images or Video content is saved directly to your computer’s hard drive. This device supports the following video resolutions;
You can get the Elgato Camlink 4k on Amazon for $129.99 $99.