Stream the Elgato Cam Link 4k, Panasonic GX85 with 12-32 2.8, and a Lavalier Mic by Giant Squid
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- Опубликовано: 14 май 2020
- With the recent dramatic changes in working methods, I have found that I needed much better video than I have had for years. I hate looking at horrid video from a built in webcam on a laptop, which of course means that I have suffered watching this year's American Idol and The Voice programs for example. And since I own a couple of Nikon dSLRs and a couple of Panasonic m4/3 cameras, it seemed like a good idea to try finding a solution.
Enter the Elgato Cam Link 4k, which sells for a very reasonable price. And since I already had cameras capable of clean HDMI, the overall cost was dirt cheap. But there was no stock anywhere, except of course for gougers on eBay selling them for $450 to $500 and one company selling one for over $700!! Then it came into stock at Amazon Canada earlier this week and lo, and behold, it arrived in a few days. Note: as I write this only a few days after it arrived, it is again out of stock. But keep checking!
Watch the relatively short video for the rest of the story.
Links to products I mention:
Elgato Cam Link 4k
www.amazon.ca/Elgato-Corsair-...
Giant Squid lavalier microphone:
Sadly, can't find the company, but newer versions of the microphone are available all over eBay and Amazon. Any decent brand should do, although I'd stay away from the $3 ones on junk sites :-)
Logitech Headphone Adapter (dongle):
Mine came from an actual set of headphones suring the transition to USB, but you can still get these on Amazon if you need one.
www.amazon.ca/Logitech-3-5mm-...
Panasonic GX85:
If you need an inexpensive camera with great video, consider the GX85. It even does 4k.
www.amazon.ca/Panasonic-LUMIX...
An even better camera is the Panasonic G85, which is magnificent for photography as well. It has the mic input that saves you the hassle of the dongle.
www.amazon.ca/PANASONIC-Mirro...
That link is body only, which allows you to buy a nice fast lense like the 20mm 1.7 or the 25mm 1.7 and so on.
A used Panasonic G6 or G7 would also do a very nice job for FHD. I've done videos with the G6 and it was terrific.
One last thing ... I fumbled the recording a bit by tweaking the framing in OBS, and that letterboxed the video, which I then corrected in post using Vegas Pro 14. But that means that this video is cropped and stretched. I think it still looks pretty nice given that.
Another last thing :-) ... I said the word audio over HDMI when describing the cam link 4k, which might have grated on some. I obviously meant video ... sorry about that.
Anyway, best of luck. Subscribe and hit like if you enjoyed it. If you hated it, just subscribe and hit like to spite me :-/
First off, excellent video Kim. Superb quality. Was that at 60fps? So, i am a noob at this. Not technical at all. Question: i connect my dslr via hdmi cable to cam link video usb card. My main use case is zoom, nothing else. Do i need obs or is that not necessary? Lastly, i have an external mic, plugged in via usb to laptop. Is there any issues here? Anything else i need? Sorry for so many questions. Thank you for a great video Kim.
Thanks for all the info, Kim. I do live stream with a similar setup and I'm having trouble- maybe you can shed some light on my problem. I use the gx85 plugged into a capture card that's basically a generic version of elgato camlink. This goes straight into my laptop and I stream on facebook WITHOUT OBS. For most of 2020, this worked fine with no issues. Recently when I do a FB live stream, I usually (but not always) experience this problem where the image as seen on the FB live stream is stretched vertically about 10%. it stays in 16x9 aspect but the top and bottom are cropped and the remaining image is stretched. What would cause this? Have I perhaps changed some setting on the camera that caused this? the image on the camera screen looks normal- only the image on FB is stretched. On other platforms such as Teams, I do not have this problem.
From what I found on Reddit, it seems that Facebook will downgrade the resolution of it detects slowdowns in your uplink speed, in which case it seems to stretch a dimension to fit again. The bottom line is that Facebook may have changed to try to reduce stutter on slower uplink, OR your uplink has become slower at times. Anyway, I hope that helps as it was all I could find.
@@KimLetkeman thanks. after some testing today, it does seem to be related to what you mentioned. When FB uses 720 resolution, it looks fine, but when it decides to choose something lower, the stretch happens. Could you perhaps provide a link to the reddit thread you found. much appreciated
Was this video shot with the GX85 going through the cam link?
Sorry for the delay... Yes, this was shot with the gx85 and cam link.
What kind of settings and do you use? I have a similar set up but I look really distorted in my streams. Like, my webcam arguably looks better than my gx85.
Idk if its mental or I am doing something wrong.
Hi, someone else commented on streaming looking really bad and distorted. The little bit of research I did showed that you have to be careful about the Uplink speed matching what you are trying to send. If the Uplink speed is poor, it will try to down convert but doesn't always down convert evenly, so the image distorts. Something like that. I'm not sure where that was, because I can't find it on this particular video comment section. Also, be sure that you are not trying to send 4K, but rather either 720 or 1080. Personally, I've been trying 7:20 and it works very well. Anyway, let me know if something like that helps.
I managed to get it working with a cheap camlink worth 10$. Awesome stuff.
Which one device do you use?
@@PavlentijIvani4 It's the GOODROAD Audio Video Capture Card 15$ on amazon now.
@@kylecuizon3496 thanks! Am I right that it doesn't support 4k?
For autofocus what settings did you use? I’m having trouble setting it up to set it up to stay focused on my face, I have a Panasonic 25mm f1.7
Since I made this video, I have purchased a Panasonic G7 as a dedicated video cam using this Elgato. I always use face detect mode for autofocus, and I find with the Olympus 45 1.8 that it is reasonably responsive. What I have been doing lately, is using a viltrox speed adapter with an old Nikon 50 mm 1.8. That gives me a 35 mm 1.4 equivalent but with no autofocus. Obviously, I have to keep my head in one place but I've gotten quite good at that. And the image is pretty stunning. I shoot it wide open, and the bokeh in the background is amazing. I suspect that there are probably better bodies to use as a dedicated video cam, but I can't bring myself to dedicate something really expensive like the latest EM1 Mark 3 body, which would probably work really well with it's pdaf. Alas, I make do. But I do think that the G7 with the 45 1.8 and eye focus did fairly well. What I noticed though, is that after a while the bodies do give up on tracking eyes. It's a weird thing, but I can't really explain why it seems to take longer later on to see your face and eventually track it back into Focus.
@@JoeHan268 the GX85 is a great cam, but not a great web cam for several reasons. No mic input, which means I can't easily sync audio with video. And no articulated screen, so I can't see myself easily without starting an app. While these are just inconveniences, they add up. Plus, the G7 is simply cheaper, which helps.
@Big Tam Adding to my reply of a year ago... The G7 does very well and rarely needs prodding to focus on my face. But once in a while it does lose track of I move around, so I keep a remote attached and lying on my desk on front of me so that I can wake up the camera with a half press of the button. This gets the face tracking fired right back up. Easy and pretty cheap solution.
@@JoeHan268 the screen will move to face upward or downward, which can be very handy for various situations such as macro or low to the ground etc. But it cannot face forward, and that's fatal in my opinion for web cam use.
@@JoeHan268 yeah, I think the G7 hits the sweet spot...
Does it take the audio straight from the camera from the external mic?
Yes, that's how I use it now... With a condensing mic through mixer into g7...
@@KimLetkeman that's good to know. Thanks for your help with this video.
How do you get all the menu options to not show on the screen?
I'm not really sure what you mean. When the camera is turned on, you see the preview in whatever movie mode you have set. The preview is visible on the rear lcd and should not show anything but what the lens is seeing. That is what the capture card will see.
Does this device actually capture 4k30 with the Gx85? Read lots of conflicting information, some saying 1080p50 is the maximum.
It will send 4k to the pc to my knowledge. It crushed my pc so I forced it to down convert.
Hi, I can't get my Gx85 to output any video signals. Whenever I go from my camera to the Cam Link 4k the camera will only do "Tv Output".
That menu entry, TV output, is their idea of a video out selection. I consider it pretty crappy, but when you think about it most people just hook up to be able to display their images on their TV. Anyway, if you plug a cable from the camera mini HDMI to the TV or monitor or Cam link, you should be seeing signals on the other end. I find one of the easiest ways to test this is to run Microsoft teams and set it up in settings / devices on the video tab. You should see the video immediately, I have never had any problem with that. Let me know if it doesn't work.
@@KimLetkeman My gx85 is in Tv Output mode, without being prompted while plugged in and the Cam Link's led is glowing but I'm getting no output unless I go and view already taken photos.
I feel supremely dumb, I have a gx850, it will not output a hdmi signal. Thanks for helping anyways!
@@QueenBirdGirl check to make sure that your settings under that menu are like this: photos.app.goo.gl/RCFZYx42CwgMc75W8... And make sure that you select "cam link" as your video camera in any app you choose to use.