How to Use a Mirrorless Camera as a Webcam

Did you know you can connect your mirrorless camera to your computer and use it as a high quality webcam? If you're already a podcast and video creator, you're probably using a mirrorless camera, maybe to capture talking head videos or B-roll of products. Well, you can use that same camera for your video calls and your video recordings using Riverside.

Most of the models from makers like Sony, Nikon, Cannon, and Panasonic have utilities you can down onto your computer to then just connect one USB cable from your camera to your computer and use that nice camera as your webcam. We're gonna walk you through how to do that with several different models and some of the limitations of using a mirrorless camera as a webcam.

The first thing you wanna do is download the utility made by your camera manufacturer to your computer that allows it to talk to the camera over a USBC connection. We've put links in the video description to Sony, Nikon, Canon, and Panasonic, and you can download the utilities to use your camera as a webcam at those links.

You also wanna make sure that the firmware on your camera is up to date. Follow the instructions with your manufacturer on updating the firmware of your mirrorless camera. Once you've installed that utility software from your camera manufacturer and your camera firmware is up to date, connect your mirrorless camera to your computer using a USB cable.

Most modern mirrorless cameras are gonna have a USBC connection. That's that port right there, and that's where you're gonna connect a USB cable and connect the other side to your computer to use it as a weam utility. Now, depending on your camera model, you might need to change the USB connection type on your camera.

So I'm gonna go down to my camera settings, go down to USB. Again, this is the Sony A74, and where it says USB connection, You'll see there's an option for mass storage, which is to transfer footage from your camera to your computer over USB cable or USB streaming. Again, it might be different on your camera model or manufacturer, but USB streaming or USB webcam is what you want to use your mirrorless camera as a webcam.

Once you connect your mirrorless camera to your computer, you should see it as a video input option here in the Riverside Studio. When I click down on the camera dropdown, you can see that the Sony Imaging software is there as an option, but also my individual camera, which is the seven mark four, I can select that as my video input.

So the video you see here in the Riverside Studio is from my mirrorless camera, connected to my computer over a USBC cable. And once I enter the Riverside studio, I can start the recording. And so this is actually the live video of my mirrorless camera connected to the computer over a USBC cable. And you can see you get great quality, way better than a typical just webcam.

And so we recommend using your mirrorless camera if you already have it for some video content. Use it as a webcam utility, and you can get great podcast and high quality video right inside the Riverside Studio. A few things to consider when using your mirrorless camera as a webcam with your computer.

Most of the webcam utility softwares, don't export the full resolution of your camera in the webcam input. So if you have a 4K mirrorless camera like this one, it's not going to use the full 4K resolution as a webcam utility. If you want full 4K resolution, especially if you're doing a video call recording in Riverside, which can do 4kK, you're probably gonna need a capture card like this one.

‍

Subscribe to the channel and we'll explain about that in a future video. Also, depending on what camera model you have, some will overheat when recording for extended periods of time, so you can just use it as a webcam and it will probably last longer. But if you're recording locally to that camera in 4K high resolution, there might be a recording limit depending on heat.

So that's how you use a mirrorless camera as a webcam with your computer. You should subscribe to the Riverside Channel because we actually have great video tutorials on using high quality video and audio devices and equipment. You can also check out this video above about using video switchers inside Riverside, which allows you to connect multiple cameras and get more quality out of those mirrorless and other HDMI output cameras.

Hit the like button and drop a common below. Let us know what you create with Riverside, or what questions you have about creating podcast and video content that you'd like to see here on the channel. Thanks for tuning in. We'll catch you next time.

‍