GoPro, like a growing list of camera makers, is now enabling you to use your GoPro as a webcam. With many employers asking their staff to work from home during COVID19, many of us are participating in video conferencing daily.
While laptops have webcams, they were really an after thought (often 1MP), not something much of the budget was allocated to. This means the webcams in our laptops are generally fairly low quality.
For those of us with a GoPro Hero 8 in the drawer, it’s time to pull them out and get some extra value from that investment.
Available for Mac, and in beta for Windows, the GoPro webcam software runs a lightweight utility in the background, to enable any app that uses your camera, to access the GoPro.
In the latest release, GoPro Webcam 1.0.0.235, released yesterday, we now get additional options to configure your preferred field of view.
Like on the GoPro’s display, you can now choose between Wide, Narrow, Linear.
After having used the webcam beta on Windows for about a week now, I have wanted this option, as the default was capturing a wide FOV, showcasing more of my home office than I would typically include in-frame.
The GoPro now reads ‘Webcam’ when connected, rather than the USB that previously displayed on the GoPro display while in use.
To get this to work, make sure you head over to the Facebook Group and grab the latest firmware for the Hero 8 Black. Install the webcam software for Windows or Mac and make sure you’re camera is connected via good USB 3.1 Gen 2 cables or later or using a USB 2.0 Port or Hub.
It’s always great to see products we own getting new functionality and using a GoPro as a webcam is a great example of extracting more value for money from an existing investment.
