For every streamer whether it’s a professional gamer streaming on Twitch or YouTube, most of them are not shy or bashful to show their faces on each live-stream through a webcam overlay in the bottom-right or bottom-left corner of the screen.
Adding to the professionalism of streaming to thousands of viewers, using a webcam gives every viewer a front row seat to see your reactions first-hand as well as the background behind you in your so-called gaming studio with your posters, action figures, and what-ever else you have in your studio…not all people though like their viewers to see what their gaming studio looks like and vice-versa for viewers who don’t like to see a giant webcam overlay square taking up space on your live-stream output.
Outside of using a webcam for streaming, a webcam can be useful in other applications such as video-conference calls with Skype for people who work-from-home and have to attend online weekly meetings or for people who may do online tutorials such as doing “how-to” videos on YouTube to other “product reviewers” who may pose while explaining their target product.
In this review, we are going to showcase and review the Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam as far as some of the features and software that make this one cam one of the best webcams currently used for live-streaming purposes.
Wide Image Capture…Logitech C922 Webcam Specifications & Features
Getting into the design of the Logitech C922 webcam, the camera itself provides a decent field of view (FOV) of about 80 degrees with a high-definition lens to capture video and image recording. In addition to the wide camera lens view, the C922 webcam support 1080p resolution at 30 frames per second as well as 720p at 60 frames per second.
For streaming, it is our recommendation to use the 720p resolution since you get that full 60 FPS with no lag, the 1080p is not adequate enough to run the camera during a stream since there would be possible simultaneous lag trying to run the webcam in a heavy application load environment along with the capture software and game app in the background.
In terms of general specifications of the construction of the webcam itself, there is 2 ways to mount the Logitech C922 webcam with the first way using the plastic folding monitor mount built to the webcam that would hold steady to most monitors (including to our Acer 27″ GN276HL monitor)…there is a possibility that the folding mount would stay on curved monitor screens.
The other way to mount this webcam if you’re not comfortable mounting atop of your gaming monitor would be to used the mini-tripod that comes with C922 webcam to screw the webcam down to the pivot mount on the tripod…just place the tripod atop of some hard-cover books, on a top portion of your desk beside your monitor, or another position based on your personal location preference.
As for connection, the Logitech C922 Webcam connects to the computer with a USB cable that is about 5 feet long which should be plenty enough length to reach the rear USB ports on the back of your PC if your PC is placed on the floor next to your feet or next to your desk. There is a possibility that it would be long enough even if you have a “sit-to-stand” desk (just as long as it doesn’t lift too far to stretch the cable).
No More Background…Logitech C922 Background Replacement
One of the best features the Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam has is the opportunity to make your background transparent or invisible regardless of what is placed behind you whether it is that luxury trophy case from your gaming tournament wins or your posters hanging on the wall…what this all means is that you don’t need a green screen backdrop setup behind you taking up space in your tiny gaming studio or “man-cave.”
There is a catch or in this case a slight downfall to using the Personify Chromacam software Logitech C922 uses to replacing the background and that downfall is that Chromacam can only be used with limited compatible video capture applications…Chromacam is only compatible with XSplit and OBS (which is a free open source capture program available to everybody) that supports the software.
Otherwise, if you use another capture software such as Mirillis Action! or Bandicam, then you would need a Chroma Key green screen backdrop setup. Alternatively, you could “paint the wall” behind you green, or place green poster board behind you to enable the transparency background through this webcam. These two capture applications use an application
Customization Options…Logitech C922 Webcam Software
In addition to the background removal technology support provided through the Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam, there is also the general software and customization support through the Logitech Gaming Software provided with the webcam where it gives the option to adjust the general settings such as the brightness and contrast of the webcam as well as more advanced options.
As a part of the webcam’s properties, the Logitech C922 Pro Stream webcam has it’s own advanced settings to adjust common camera controls such as zoom, focus, pan, and tilt
Under the Logitech Gaming Software for the Logitech C922 Webcam, the advanced settings for the cam itself provides further details as far as customization such as zooming the webcam in and out, backlight compensation, panning and tilting with the cam.
There is also a way to play with the auto focus feature in the Logitech camera settings and the anti-flicker refresh rate for the camera (by default anti-flickering is set to 60hz…just leave this alone).
For our personal preference of setting the Logitech C922 webcam up through the settings, the only thing that we messed was the zooming feature since we mostly placed the cam up on top of our 27″ monitor with hopes of compensating being a slight distance from the webcam. As for lighting, since we only have a floor lamp behind us lighting up the background, the low light compensation has to remain enabled to help prevent blurring of the outputted image.
Other than this, the default settings for this webcam were nearly dead on out of the box…if you’re using a photography umbrella lighting setup along with your green screen backdrop, then there would need to be some adjustments to the webcam to dial it in. Possibly optimizing the Logitech C922 webcam by disabling low-light compensation to decreasing the brightness slightly to compensate for the lighting exposure in the background…just be sure to keep the white balance and exposure settings on automatic for proper tweaking.
