Advanced Cameras for Live Streaming at a Glance
Camera technology has come a long way in the past ten years, which has greatly impacted the world of photography and surprising live streaming too.
Direct image quality may not have changed much in the last few years, but image stabilization, form factor, ease of use, formats, batteries, and many other factors have seen advances which would have been near unthinkable ten years ago.
What is Live Streaming
Live streaming is providing a live feed of whatever you choose to a particular audience. This has become widely common in the gaming sector with live-streaming platforms like Twitch but is by no means limited to just video games.
Like tennis betting being popular in NZ, Vlogs or Video Logs have become a very popular entertainment medium on a live and pre-recorded basis.
DSLR for Live Streams
DSLR cameras have been a popular choice for photographers for many years. The digital nature, portable nature, good battery life, excellent quality and wide range of interchangeable lenses make DSLR hard to beat for a professional photographer.
As the perfect tool for single still shot photos, why has it taken to such extreme popularity amongst live steamers who focus on videography and not photography?
The simple answer is the quality.
With internet speeds being extremely high in cities, streaming in qualities of up to 4k has become common practice.
At such an incredibly high resolution, needing a consistent and smooth frame rate and looking for the best lighting and image quality possible, a typical webcam or digital camcorder is no longer up to the job. While high-end videography equipment would likely produce better results, they lack the ease of portability and cost-effective nature of modern DSLR camera offerings.
High resolution cameras like DSLR offerings are the perfect middle ground for streamers who want to achieve high quality content and great resolution without sacrificing on cost and portability.
Can a Normal DSLR Stream?
A lot of professional photographers are surprised to find out that their every day DSLR camera is being used to stream video. Surly, after years with a device, one would be aware of all the device’s capabilities. That, in a sense, is the strange part.
Natively, not all modern DSLR cameras have the pass-through support to allow it to bypass its own memory and stream a video feed directly to another device. To allow for this, almost all DSLR manufacturers offer specialized computer software and firmware for a camera to allow it to be used as an incredibly high-quality webcam.
Best Cameras for Streamers
When it comes to the overlap between photographers and streamers, it’s surprising to see that they share a lot in common. A great DSLR for photography is likely to be just as good for use as a streaming camera.
The biggest difference between the two use cases is the available storage and battery life, as streamers tend to capture video directly on another device while supplying the camera with constant power.
The Canon EOS 5D mark 4 is a great example of a DSLR which excels in both streaming and photography thanks to its impressive sensor and capabilities.