Our Verdict
With its intelligent face monitoring and handy distant management, this gimbal-assisted webcam is right for these looking for a digital camera that may sustain with their actions. Add its wonderful picture high quality, compact measurement, fashionable appears, and first rate audio, and it is clearly the very best webcam in its class.
- Implausible picture high quality
- Sensible and helpful face monitoring
- Handy distant management
- Compact and trendy design
- Costly
- Microphone noise cancelling is not wonderful
- Some customers may not just like the ‘AI’ options
The OBSBOT Tiny 2 is, as its title suggests, the second era of the corporate’s appropriately compact webcam design. Nevertheless, whereas its small measurement is the named function right here, it’s really all the things else about this webcam that’s so outstanding. It’ll monitor you as you progress round, it has slick gesture management, it features a distant management for manually adjusting the view, and it has nice picture high quality too.
All these options add as much as this webcam immediately incomes a spot on our greatest webcam information, supplanting its predecessor the Tiny 4K because the go-to choice for these looking for a premium webcam, or those that want the straightforward follow-me features it supplies.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 specs
| Decision | 4K |
| Body fee | 30fps |
| Sensor | 50MP CMOS |
| Area of view | 85.5 levels (W), 72.9 levels (H) |
| Focus kind | Auto |
| Equal focal size | 26mm |
| Minimal focus distance | 10cm |
| Microphone | Twin, omnidirectional with noise canceling |
| Extras | Motorized two-axis gimbal, magnetic base, USB-C connection, distant management |
| Worth | $329 |
OBSBOT Tiny 2 options
It is a severely feature-packed webcam, as you’d count on for its premium worth of $329. Essentially the most outstanding function, although, is its two-axis gimbal. This motorized motion potential lets the digital camera pan left and proper and up and down, and you’ll be able to management the motion both by way of the system’s auto-tracking function or utilizing the distant management.
The distant makes use of a USB dongle to speak together with your PC and thus the webcam, with the OBSBOT software program appearing because the go-between. Consequently, you possibly can’t simply use the distant management as a standalone system with the webcam. That’s a little bit of a disgrace, however comprehensible given the additional complexity of integrating an IR receiver on the webcam. Plus, it permits the webcam to be managed by software program, in addition to the distant.
The recording potential of the digital camera is supplied by a big 1/1.5-inch CMOS sensor, which has an enormous 50MP decision from which it downscales to its output decision – utilizing the additional decision to denoise the sign. This supplies a recording decision of 4K at as much as 30Hz, with as much as 60Hz recording accessible in the event you drop all the way down to 1080p decision.
The digital camera additionally has a normal digital camera mount thread on its base and has a magnet that enables it to cling to its monitor mounting plate. The latter contains three steel plates hinged collectively, with the highest one used to connect to the digital camera, and the underside two utilizing their rubber backing to softly grip any monitor or different system on which they is likely to be rested.
A light-weight on the entrance of the digital camera shines inexperienced when it’s powered on, and the digital camera will drop all the way down to face its base when in standby mode, supplying you with an affordable diploma of bodily privateness – there’s in any other case not a privateness cowl for the lens.
Connections are supplied by a single USB-C port within the rear of the digital camera’s base, making it simple to swap out for the perfect size cable in your wants. In the meantime, a pair of tiny front-facing microphones present voice pickup with noise canceling accessible if wanted.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 design
The Tiny 2 actually does reside as much as its title. It’s astonishingly small contemplating the big measurement of its sensor, and that it comprises a two-axis gimbal. It’s dwarfed by the likes of the Logitech C920 (see above), Razer Kiyo Professional, and Elgato Facecam Professional, at the very least by way of footprint. The Tiny 2 is sort of tall however nonetheless shorter than the Kiyo Professional.
It’s additionally a smart-looking system with its easy squircle-shaped base and digital camera, together with its muted black/gray/silver coloration scheme. The end of the plastics can also be notably extra premium-looking than the shiny black plastic of the Logitech C920, for example.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 setup and ease of use
The Tiny 2 is plug and play however to get probably the most from it you’ll want to put in the OBSBOT WebCam app and plug within the supplied USB dongle to get the distant management working too. The app in all fairness quick and compact with no additional adverts or any distractions in the best way.
The compact interface has buttons alongside the highest that allow you to energy on and shut down the webcam, allow the distant management, change on/off hotkeys, setup a digital webcam, allow assist for OSC (a protocol for permitting management of the digital camera by different software program), and open up a video preview window. The beneath picture reveals the 4 fundamental digital camera settings tabs of the interface – proper click on or maintain down your finger on the picture and open in a brand new tab to see the total measurement picture.
The latter allows you to document video and pictures, change mic acquire, and rapidly change the decision/body fee. It’s additionally helpful for previewing all the opposite options of the software program, letting you follow utilizing gestures to manage the digital camera, manually place the digital camera the way you want it, arrange filters, and extra.
Additional down are choices for controlling the AI monitoring settings, manually transferring the gimbal, zooming the digital camera (with fast presets for vast, medium. and slim), and rapidly turning movement monitoring on or off .
A number of picture tweaking choices are additionally accessible, together with focus, publicity, white stability, flicker removing, distinction, sharpness, and extra. Magnificence filters may also be utilized, with the software program providing a cringe-inducing trio of face retouch choices, with ‘native’ and ‘basic’ choices for girls and easily a ‘males’ choice for males.
There are additionally physique slimming filters, with ‘leggy’ and ‘legs’ choices, together with ‘waist’, ‘shoulder’, and ‘head’. Sure, transfer the slider for the latter all the best way to the fitting will actually shrink your head, as proven beneath.
You may as well invoke a movie noir really feel with a black and white filter, together with varied different general picture coloration filters with titles corresponding to ‘clear’, ‘crystal’, and ‘sheer’.
The ultimate fundamental options are the gesture controls, of which there are three. Maintain up your hand with an open palm and it’ll begin or cease monitoring, maintain your hand with a single pointing finger and it’ll zoom in on you (which occurred a couple of occasions by chance whereas I used to be on calls, leading to a comedic dramatic zoom into my face). The ultimate gesture is a double upwards level which helps you to manually zoom out and in.
When sitting at my desk, I discovered the gestures didn’t show tremendous helpful, however in the event you’re utilizing the digital camera from a distance, utilizing its monitoring to comply with you as you progress across the room, as you may whereas demonstrating a brand new product or educating a category, the gestures are undoubtedly helpful, as is the distant. These options will even be helpful in some gaming streaming and basic video chat conditions, significantly in the event you have a tendency to sit down again a bit of out of your monitor when utilizing a controller to play video games, for example.
As for the monitoring, it really works extremely effectively. It’ll fortunately and rapidly comply with you as you rise up, stroll left and proper, transfer ahead and again, and customarily simply problem the digital camera to maintain up. Nevertheless, when it does lose its place – as it can in the event you stroll out of the room, for example – it’s barely annoying that you simply usually need to manually reset the digital camera’s place as, at the very least in my expertise, it tended to get caught wanting up on the ceiling each time I left the room.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 picture high quality
The Tiny 2 has, fairly merely, excellent picture high quality. Its sensor delivers extremely crisp photos even in difficult lighting circumstances, placing many rival cameras to disgrace.
The obvious high quality is that there’s hardly any noise within the picture. Even in low gentle, the excessive base decision of the sensor, and presumably some neat software program trickery, means there’s seldom any apparent graininess and shimmer colours to the picture. The picture beneath reveals the Tiny 2 on the left and Logitech C920 on the fitting, with vibrant lighting circumstances for each. The latter is admittedly not in the identical league as this digital camera, being solely a 1080p 30Hz mannequin, nevertheless it demonstrates the distinction between a primary and high-end digital camera.
It definitely helps that the software program allows you to change how the digital camera units up its publicity ranges, with choices for international publicity or face-compensated publicity. With the latter it regulates the picture to make your face look as pure as potential, whereas most webcams will simply over-expose your face (as proven beneath on the fitting) if the remainder of your background is just too darkish.
That stated, I haven’t been in a position to vouch for a way the digital camera copes with completely different pores and skin tones in my testing but, so it’s potential these automated options don’t work as effectively for darker pores and skin tones. The picture beneath reveals the Tiny 2 and C920 once more, however with no lights aside from from the monitor.
Nonetheless, the uncooked efficiency of the digital camera is clearly there, and with all of the software program choices to set it up in your wants – you possibly can all the time change to guide management of publicity and white stability – you shouldn’t have any points discovering a mode that works for you.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 sound high quality
The Tiny 2’s onboard microphones are surprisingly succesful, choosing up clear, full-sounding audio in stereo, and offering a level of positional listening. The noise canceling wasn’t vastly efficient in my checks, with it nonetheless broadcasting a lot of the errant music being performed from a cellphone moved across the room whereas I used to be talking. Nevertheless, there have been additionally by no means any complaints about extreme background noise after I used the microphone for conferences.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 worth
Let’s face it, the OBSBOT Tiny 2 worth is excessive. That’s to not say it’s dangerous worth, nevertheless it’s a restricted sector of the market that’s trying to spend $329 on a webcam, even when it’s one that may comply with you around the room.
Nonetheless, webcam costs have crept up lately, with many way more typical fashions going for $200 or extra. As such, given the additional options and distinctive picture high quality on supply right here, the Tiny 2 is much from poor worth.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 assessment conclusion
Sure, the Tiny 2 is sort of costly, and for many avid gamers the additional gimbal, distant management, and face monitoring options are prone to be of restricted use. Except you’re within the behavior of streaming your Simply Dance classes, maybe.
Nevertheless, for anybody who will discover these options helpful, this webcam delivers them fantastically. The monitoring simply works, the distant is simple to make use of, the picture high quality is superb, and even the onboard mics are first rate. As such, the Tiny 2 comes extremely advisable, so long as you aren’t weirded out by all of the AI stuff.
OBSBOT Tiny 2 options
Elgato Facecam Professional
If in case you have the funds for a premium webcam, however worth pure picture high quality over face-tracking and gimbal motion, the Facecam Professional is the higher solution to spend round $300. Its 4K at 60Hz picture high quality is phenomenal and Elgato’s software program could be very highly effective too.
Logitech C920x HD Professional
In case you’re on a tighter funds, the Logitech C920x HD Professional is a strong choice for a mere $60. It delivers 1080p 30Hz video that whereas not of wonderful high quality, is ok for many video conferences and entry-level streaming video high quality.
