Hidden behind that sensor is a high-quality Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor and custom image processing engine. Push in further and what you’re holding only gets blurrier. The Facecam has its one-foot focusing distance and that’s it. With the Streamcam and Kiyo Pro, you can hold an object up inches away from the lens and it will focus in with plentiful detail. If you do product reviews or just like giving viewers a closer look at something you have in your hand, it pales in comparison to active focus. Focus breathing is a persistent issue for glasses-wearers like myself and sometimes cameras won’t relocate me at all, so this was a nice change of pace.

You can sit down and know you’re coming in clear. The fixed focus system is a double-edged sword, however. Depending on your tolerance for softness, the Facecam is more versatile than the official spec sheet lets on. The focus range is technically 11.7 - 47.2 inches but I found the focus usable as close as eight inches away and as far away as seven feet. Instead, the camera uses a fixed-focus system and is designed to keep you crisp whether you’re leaning in for a close-up or reclining in your gaming chair. Where it stands apart from those cameras is with autofocus: there isn’t any. It also has an f2.4 aperture, which is a bit slower than the Kiyo Pro or the StreamCam but doesn’t make a big difference in performance. It’s the equivalent of a 24mm lens on a full-frame camera and is just wide enough to leave you comfortably centered in your environment without any fisheye effect. It captures at a fairly wide 82-degree field of view, falling in the middle of its two biggest competitors, the Logitech StreamCam (78-degrees) and Razer Kiyo Pro (103-degrees max, but digitally adjustable to 80 or 90 in Synapse). It delivers a crisp, detailed image with smooth natural motion on recordings. The Facecam is able to record up to 1080p at 60 FPS. Much of what makes it special lies in the software, but not everything, and just like any camera, great image quality starts with the lens and sensor. To accomplish that goal and stand out from the ever-more-crowded pack, it comes loaded with features to offer an edge in image clarity while also feeling more like a professional camera than any other webcam on the market. The Elgato Facecam is a webcam designed to keep you looking sharp in the corner – or front and center – of your live streams.

Does elgato stream in 1080p or 720p