Canon’s Webcam Utility is great…

as it allows you to quickly plug in your Canon DSLR via USB, right into your PC, to use as a native webcam. In the video above, I show you what the EOS R looks like, connected via USB-C 3.1 using OBS. Unfortunately, the video resolution out of camera is only 1024×576 which does produce quite a soft image. But utilizing a great lens (on my camera I’m using the RF 15-35mm at 2.8) will still produce an image far more pleasing than any webcam can give you. And in fact, those looking to use this software for streaming gaming will most likely scale down the image anyway, which will only negate the resolution difference.

It’s far from perfect though; remember, it’s still in beta. But the biggest issue I found was choppy playback and frame drops. In the video above you’ll notice this a bit (using 24p framerate). But previously, I was using this software on my streaming rig connected only by USB-C to USB-A 3.0 extender (not the USB-C 3.1 connection I’m using in the video) and I was noticing so much frame drop it was quite unusable. I’ve also seen many videos on YouTube showcasing this software from other Canon models, and the image looking terrible. Check out this video from everyone’s friend, Gordon Laing.

As you can see, the image quality is atrocious, and you’d be much better off with a webcam. Lastly, there is no Mac OS support, so those looking to utilize your new ultra-fast Thunderbolt 3 ports are out of luck. So the software isn’t perfect and still has a bit of a ways to go before becoming something easily recommendable. All that said, it’s so great to see Canon focusing more on giving creators what they want out of their tools. Imagine being able to plug in your Canon R5 via Thunderbolt 3, and passing through a native 4K 10bit full-frame image for your PC to capture your ultra-fast NVME SSD’s for capture,  or sending native signal to OBS for streaming, all while also powering the device …. through one cable. These are the types of software features we’re all dying to get from these camera companies. Hopefully after the buzz around this software, it entices Sony, Fuji, and Nikon to implement the same kind of software for their devices.