So this is the first time I’ve experienced a gimbal style webcam before and I must say I can really see the appeal, especially if you’re the type of creator who is going to be up and about and walking around, or if you’re going to be giving some kind of virtual lecture and have a white board behind you, like a teacher type scenario. Well, I’ve been testing the OBSBot Tiny SE, which is actually quite a small gimbal-style webcam and the baby sibling of the Tiny 2, that sits on the top of your monitor, and produces a fairly decent image. Now of course I’m no teacher, but I do make content for YouTube, and could in future see me using this camera for my own content, so let’s have a chat about it.
Being a gimbal camera, it means the lens can look up, down, left and right and having AI capabilities it means it can track your movements and actually, it does it quite well, as you can see here with me going over to my window to close it. It can also me manually controlled, but more on that when we talk about the software including all of the AI bits and pieces that also comes with the camera. But first, let’s talk specs.
Inside yo ucan find a 1/2.8″ CMOS sensor which is capable of 2 megapixels of quality, or 1080p resolutions. It shoots at up to 100FPS at this resolution though can do 120FPS slowmotion recording too if you’re willing to drop the resolution to 720p. It has a f/1.8 aperture which is fairly wide, and a field of view of 71 degrees or equivalent focal length of 26mm which I must say I am most impressed with, and compared to the OBSBOT camera I took a look at not too long ago, is seemingly a lot wider. It probably sits on par with my Elgato Facecam though albeit much smaller. It’s got a minimum focus distance of 10mm which is insane and pretty much means it can focus on an object on top of the lens, which brings me onto creating content with this thing.
During my gaming keyboard and mouse videos I like to show off gameplay while using the gear. But what I usually do with my Elgato Facecam is use a tripod sitting next to said keyboard or mouse on the desk. However, I was excited a bit here because this thing has a two-axis gimbal on it, it can look down, and I can manually set that too. So now when I make my content for my keyboard and mouse videos, I can just set this OBSBOT Tiny SE to look down at my desk, and then make content. Super nifty I think and saves me having to trail cables around to suit the way I do it at the moment with the Elgato Facecam. And also, being 1080p, it means the quality is pretty decent too while using this as a webcam for my content. Now I know for full sized video, it’s not going to be too clear compared to a 4K webcam, say for talking head videos, but for livestreaming where your webcam is usually in the bottom right or left corners of your screen, then it’s ideal.
I’m unsure though if it’s not being used as a static camera, that the quality is all that great if you’re going to be using it while walking around. I tested this in my living room here which I thought had a decent amount of light in it, but whether it was trying to find me to focus on me or if it was just the fact it’s a 1080p webcam I’m unsure. But to be honest, if you’re going to be using it online on a virtual call, filming in super high res 4K pin point quality, might not be the best bet anyway in case you have some bandwidth limitations. For sitting at your desk though, and for maybe some simple standing desk type content, say if you’re going to be building a PC on a livestream, then it’s a pretty decent option I think. Let’s talk about some software.
Diving into the OBSBOT Centre, you’ve got some pretty standard settings that you’d come to expect nowadays from higher end webcams on the market such as quality controls of which you can film in up to 120FPS at 720p or 1080p at 100FPS. You’ve got your image enhancements, auto and manual control over your image quality, and some beauty modes on there too so you can look all thin and pretty when on stream. Most interestingly though is the AI capabilities which offer various tracking for your face, body, feet, yes I know if that’s your type of content then no judgement here, and also your hands for when you’re filming on your desk. It’s all neatly packaged together and very easy to use, though do take note that to use this on third party software like OBS Studio or even Teams and Zoom, please turn on the virtual camera which is a button at the top so your effects and presets get carried across to said software.
And in terms of microphone quality, it has a dual omni-directional microphone with noise reduction, which did work alright seeing as my PC case fans were whirring away at the time of recording this next segment, btu yeah, just take a listen. It connects to your PC using USB Type-C though it does come with a Type-A to Type-C adapter in the box.
Overall, it’s not a bad webcam at all, OBSBOT have done it again and yes, they’ve definitely impressed me with the quality, and also the fact it has a gimbal too so I am absolutely going to be using it for my PC gaming videos moving forward, especially for desk shots. It’s not too badly priced either coming in at £109 though if you did need 4K footage, you could go for the Tiny 2