The best webcam should make you look your best no matter if you’re in a dimly lit bedroom or home office. We’ve tested all the options out there to find the best ones to grab, including options best suited to video calls at work and those intended for streaming to your adoring fans.
If you’re looking for the best webcam overall, that would be the Elgato Facecam MK. 2. It’s incredibly versatile and boasts superb picture quality, as well as some quality-of-life features content creators will appreciate. Importantly, it’s a major improvement on the original Facecam, but notably cheaper too. If you’re simply looking for the best picture quality at a reasonable price, the Logitech C920 is a solid 1080p webcam choice, even after all these years.
Many of these webcams support 1080p, some at 60 fps, and a few at 4K, which adds to the price tag. If you’re perfecting your streaming set-up you might want that higher frame rate capability, but you really want a webcam that deals well with the lighting conditions wherever you’re streaming from. An extra light will also go a long way to improving picture quality.
Managing Editor, Hardware
The quick list
The best overall
A high quality webcam that improves on the original model in a number of ways, and costs less. An excellent Sony sensor makes this 1080p webcam the best blend of value and quality around.
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The best budget
A long-lasting design that still gets the job done. This webcam can be found going extremely cheap and it’s well worth it.
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The best for streamers
For 60 fps capture and the convenience of a privacy shield, you’d be surprised just how affordable the Streamplify Cam is.
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The best 4K
While there are only a few good reasons to own a 4K webcam for your average PC user, the MX Brio is a great fit for anyone who needs the extra resolution.
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The best for low light
In our testing, we found Razer’s Kiyo Pro the best in dimly lit rooms. That’s thanks to a great light sensor stuffed inside.
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The best high-end
The OBSBot Tiny 2is an excellent 4K webcam that’s further elevated by its excellent AI features and software app.
Read more below
This article was updated on September 19, 2024 to check over all our choices for the absolute best roundup out there. We have also included the Elgato Facecam Neo in our “also tested” section
The best webcam
The best webcam money can buy is the Elgato Facecam MK.2. Improving on a few key features over its predecessor, and our previous pick for the best webcam, the Facecam MK.2 delivers fantastic picture quality for video calls, streaming and recording.
The Facecam MK.2 offers uncompressed 1080p video capture. This makes for an artefact-free video stream. It’s not 4K-capable but that works just fine for anyone looking to use this camera for streaming, rather than recording, be that on Twitch, Google Meet, or Zoom.
Built using the same Sony STARVIS sensor as the original Elgato Facecam, the MK.2 does differ in its smaller ‘eye’ and generally shrunken form factor. It’s less domineering over your monitor for its size reduction, and altogether retains the same, if not better, quality. The way in which the webcam clips onto a monitor has also been greatly improved with the MK.2, and it features a privacy shield. All very useful quality-of-life upgrades.
What’s more, despite its improvements, the MK.2 was released at a lower price than its predecessor.
One of the more impressive features of the Facecam MK.2 is the inclusion of an HDR mode. This mode’s effectiveness will depend on your exact lighting setup, but we generally prefer the capture quality and appearance with HDR mode enabled.
The Facecam MK.2 will do well in low-light situations, but HDR mode also helps a great deal with high light levels, such as a bright window directly behind the user. HDR mode will lock you out of some of the fine-tuning options within the Camera Hub software, but it’s not much of a concern to the average user.
Overall, the Facecam MK.2 is simply an all-round excellent 1080p webcam, and one that will suit pretty much any gamer, streamer, content creator or corporate drone.
Read our full Elgato Facecam MK.2 review.
The best budget webcam
Most readers can stop here. Unless you’re looking for specific features in a webcam then there is no better than the Logitech C920. It’s both the best budget webcam and the one that makes the most sense for the average PC user.
The Logitech C920 has been around for years and has been floating around in our best webcam guide for about as long, too. Occasionally we’ve opted for the minorly different C922, but whichever is cheapest at the time is best.
Almost everyone in the team has used one at some point, and many still do to this day. Myself included—I have owned a C920 for probably over ten years now and it still works the same as the day I bought it. You can’t argue with that, really.
It just ticks pretty much every box from a webcam do-want list. Its sharp 1080p images, paired with a wide field of view and great autofocus, make it a fantastic video conferencing choice.For a working world filled with Google Meets and Zoom calls, it works a treat for not a whole lot of money.
It is limited to 30 fps in full 1080p mode, but if you want a slicker picture you can switch to 720p and snag a smoother 60 fps level for your video. But if you’re just needing a cam for work, or to catch up with your buddies online, that’s all you need.
But if you’re looking for a webcam that will deliver beautiful, slick, high-resolution content, then you are going to have to look elsewhere on this list, like the MX Brio or OBSBot Tiny 2. And spend a fair bit more, too.
For streamers who don’t need a full-screen high-res picture, the C920 is a great webcam to get started since you can track on down for less than $100 at most retailers.There’s also the C930e and C922, for the titans of industry among us, but we prefer this cheaper option.
The best budget webcam for streamers
The best budget webcam for streamers is the Streamplify Cam. You might not be familiar with the brand as it’s quite new, but we’ve nevertheless been impressed with the range of features its cheap and cheerful webcam offers.
The 1080p capture might not be individually convincing versus the often a little cheaper C920, though you would be missing out on the 60 fps that the Streamplify Cam offers. That extra frame rate, which is pretty rare in this price range, comes in handy if you want to stream or capture a generally smoother feed for sharing elsewhere, such as social media platforms.
The Streamplify Cam comes with a built-in privacy shield, which consists of the entire body conveniently sliding back and forth across the camera lens.
The wide 90-degree FOV comes in handy for setting up shots, and you can fully swivel the Streamplify Cam around a full 360 degrees for further adjustments. There’s also a screw-in tripod included in the box, should you wish to ditch the top down on-the-monitor angle we’re usually stuck with. Handy if you’re a budding streamer looking to make life a bit easier, or perhaps you might want to set up a secondary webcam for a different angle to zhush up your feed.
With solid performance in a range of lighting conditions, though admittedly slightly flat colours, we remain pretty impressed with the Streamplify Cam considering its price tag. You won’t find any software included to tweak much on the camera, but you can get a good deal done in third-party software, even OBS.
Read our full Streamplify Cam review.
The best 4K webcam
The Logitech MX Brio is the best 4K webcam, and the most advanced camera Logitech has made to date. It offers a combination of a fantastic 8.5MP Sony STARVIS sensor with great autofocus and auto exposure settings.
You can score either 4K at 30 fps or 1080p at 60 fps on the MX Brio. That means it’s not only a high-resolution camera when you need it, but a darn good one for streaming or content creation, too. Though admittedly the use cases for a 4K webcam are slim for most PC users, if you do need the higher resolution for recording footage then you won’t be disappointed with the MX Brio.
It’s a chunky webcam, though it’s longer than it is high, which helps keep it from imposing too greatly on the top of your monitor. Besides an active use LED, which lets you know when the camera is in use, there’s also a built-in privacy shield for peace of mind when the cam is out of action.
The MX Brio’s high resolution wouldn’t mean much if it weren’t for autofocus and auto exposure settings that really work wonders on the Brio. Where we’ve previously seen a webcam get blown out by bright light or washed out by trying to deal with low light, the Brio manages both rather well. There’s also an HDR mode that helps bring a bit more colour and depth to a bright picture.
The only major downside to the MX Brio is the price. I know, shocker. It’s more cash than the Elgato Facecam MK.2 by some margin, despite being very similar in many ways, except the 4K max resolution. You have to consider whether you really need the 4K resolution on the MX Brio before buying one—many will likely find it’s actually not altogether that useful, except in a few niche circumstances.
If you’re sure about wanting 4K, look no further than the MX Brio.
Read our full Logitech MX Brio review.
The best low light webcam
It might not be the best all-rounder, but if you’re using your cam in a darkly lit environment and can’t set up some external lighting, give this one a look because we reckon the Razer Kiyo Pro is the best low light webcam.
The original Kiyo attempted to tackle the low light problem by including a built-in ring light. But this solution, while novel, wasn’t as effective as we might have hoped. To make everything light enough it often over-exposes the foreground (ie, your face) but doesn’t brighten the scene enough.
The Kiyo Pro also tackles the low light problem, but it does so far more successfully by abandoning the ring light and opting instead for just a fantastic light sensor which can adjust to different lighting on the fly. This works out much better, making for a webcam that dynamically adjusts to lighting quicker and with better results than competitors such as the Logitech StreamCam.
So, if you need to keep the lights low, or you can’t sort out good external lighting for your setup, the Kiyo Pro helps out a ton. It also comes with other upgrades over the original Kiyo which make it better for streaming. Chief among them is its ability to stream at 60 fps at 1080p and all through its wide-angle lens.
The icing on top is that this thing is now old enough that it goes on sale pretty frequently, so is often better value than similar but more recent webcams.
There are downsides, though, which is why we only recommend the Kiyo Pro to those of you who really struggle with lighting. The main issue is its autofocus, which didn’t seem to work well for our Jorge Jimenez during his testing, causing him to switch to manual focus. Default picture settings aren’t ideal, either, so expect to do a little tinkering in the Razer Synapse software to make the most of the webcam.
Read our full Razer Kiyo Pro review.
The best high-end webcam
If money’s no concern and you’re looking to do some serious content creation with your webcam, we think this OBSBot Tiny 2 is for you as it’s the best high-end webcam.
While the Tiny 2 certainly won’t be for everyone, thanks to its very steep price tag, this cost is justified by the fact that it’s much more than an ordinary webcam. Apart from being incredibly high-quality in the usual respects, this thing is also packed to the brim with AI.
We’re talking different modes (such as desk mode which aims down at your desk to present what you’re working on), auto-zoom, hand tracking, gestures, voice control, filters, the whole shebang. You can even set it to stream a pre-set video or picture when you set it to privacy mode, which is something streamers will certainly appreciate.
All this makes it feel a little more like a robot with a camera than a camera with robot tech —heck, it even physically looks down and heads into privacy mode of its own accord when you’re done with it.
On the traditional webcam front, it offers stunning 4K video at 30 fps, or 1080p at 60 fps, and can output in HDR, too. It’s not the best camera we’ve seen for low lighting environments, but we’d expect as much from a small sensor, and it’s great under most other lighting conditions. It outputs in plenty of supported formats, too, meaning it gels well with most streaming and recording applications.
Just bear in mind that this quality might be wasted if you’re only placing your face in the corner of your screen while streaming a game. But if you’re doing some serious content creation, the Tiny 2 will work wonders.
That’s one of two primary use cases, I reckon: serious content creation.
The other is for when money’s no object and you want some genuine AI-aided convenience, for instance using gestures and voice commands. This convenience might require a little pre-streaming/pre-recording setup, though, which can be done in the app with extensive features such as presets, tracking tweaks, and even a virtual joystick for gimbal and zoom control.
This webcam certainly won’t be for most people. However, if you’re looking for the best of the best in terms not just of quality but also functionality and convenience, and if you have a very large budget, the OBSBot Tiny 2 might be the webcam (or robot) pick for you.
Read our full OBSBot Tiny 2 Review.
Also tested
How we test webcams
Discord’s video conferencing feature has taken the world by storm. As such, we’ve included it in our testing software suite alongside more staple corporate video calling software, such as Google Meets and Zoom. We test the video quality in both apps at the maximum supported resolution. OBS is still our choice go-to app for streaming and video recording.
We use OBS to stream and record videos from each camera, testing them both fullscreen and scaled down to a “face cam” size. We also use each manufacturer’s webcam software to get a feel for it. We take the highest possible resolution pictures with each webcam and manually adjust settings like white balance, brightness, auto-focus, and others where applicable.
We tend to use the latest and greatest webcams ourselves for a period of at least a few weeks to really get to grips with what it’s like to use the product day-to-day.
Software for webcams is just as critical—if not more so—than other peripherals. Although many streaming and conferencing apps have built-in adjustment options, using the manufacturer’s driver software allows you to adjust the settings globally. So we make sure to see how this all stacks up in actual use.
Aside from the video quality, we also look at their ease of use. Each manufacturer has a different method of attaching a webcam to the monitor, so we test them across different monitor shapes and sizes. We consider whether the webcam cord is long enough to reach from the top of a monitor to a case underneath a desk.
Webcam FAQ
What resolution webcam do I need?
If you plan to record at full-screen resolution, you may want to look at a 4K webcam. However, if you plan on streaming or keeping your webcam confined to only a small portion of your screen, the improved resolution will likely be lost, so sticking with a 1080p webcam should be more than enough for most folks.
What should I look for in a webcam?
The process of selecting the right webcam is much like choosing a good camera. Most of the metrics we use to determine camera quality also apply to webcams. You should pay attention to image quality, color accuracy, focus speed, and customizable features. Although many of us have dedicated microphones, the onboard microphone can come in handy too.
One of the greatest determiners of image quality is the amount of noise present in an image. Most webcams have no trouble producing good image quality when lighting is ample. The extra quality of the best webcams is more accurately reflected in low light; however, the camera needs to compensate for the lack of light digitally. Generally speaking, more expensive webcams come with higher quality sensors and usually have less pesky color blots compared to cheaper ones.
The other crucial aspect is the color of the images. Before we even begin to examine the color quality, we should pay attention to the white balance. White balance gauges the temperature of the lighting from your surrounding environment and sets the white point accordingly. The image may be masked with a blue or yellow tint if the white point is incorrectly set. Unless a tuning utility is included, the webcam’s processor usually automatically adjusts the white balance.
Next is exposure, saturation, and contrast—all three are equally important. Exposure is the brightness of the image, saturation is the depth of the colors, and contrast is the difference between black and white. Brightness ensures that you can be seen clearly, while saturation and contrast make your images pop. Again, unless the software is included, the webcam’s processor normally adjusts these settings automatically. More expensive webcams are more adept at replicating the most accurate scene.
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