Why you should trust us

I’m an associate staff writer at Wirecutter covering working from home equipment. I’ve worked on guides to the best wireless and wired headsets and standing desks.

• For this guide, I spent over 15 hours researching more than 50 webcams and ultimately tested 26 of them.
• Senior staff writer Melanie Pinola wrote previous versions of this guide. She researched and tested all sorts of office furniture and hardware, covering desk chairs, and footrests. Some of her reporting and writing are still present in this version.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
• In accordance with Wirecutter standards, I return or donate all products I’ve tested once my assessment of them is complete, which may involve longer-term testing by my colleagues and me. I never hang on to “freebies” once testing is done.

Who this is for

We’ve been reviewing webcams since 2016. Back then, most people needed a USB webcam because the optics in most built-in laptop webcams were terrible. Sadly, things haven’t changed much since then. Some new laptops, such as recent Apple MacBooks, have pretty good camera hardware, but the majority of other laptops can still benefit from a dedicated webcam.

“I’d say most new laptops within the past year or so have pretty good webcams, but the trend is pretty recent. Most laptop makers were not focusing on it prior to remote work during the pandemic, and most webcams then were 720p and mediocre,” says Kimber Streams, a Wirecutter senior staff writer who works on our guides to the best laptops, the best Chromebook, and the best Windows ultrabook. “Also, this applies only to laptops over $1,000, for the most part. Models cheaper than that still largely have 720p webcams that aren’t great at challenges like low light.”

So, it might make sense to buy an external webcam in a few certain cases:

• if your laptop isn’t a top-of-the-line model and you want to improve the quality of your videos without replacing the whole computer
• if your laptop’s integrated webcam is in a bad (unflattering or inconvenient) location
• if you use a desktop computer and don’t have a monitor with a built-in webcam

How we picked and tested


Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

A good webcam for most people should meet all of the following basic criteria, which we used as guidelines for our research:

• High resolution and frame rate: We favored cameras that support at least full high-definition video (1080p). Some high-end cameras support up to 4K resolution, which produces crisper video but also uses more bandwidth and isn’t necessary for most people, who just want to look better in video calls. We also preferred cameras that can deliver high frame rates, such as 60 frames per second or 90 fps, but we were willing to accept 30 fps in exchange for higher resolution.
• Skin-tone accuracy: We prioritized webcams that could accurately reproduce a wide variety of skin tones.
• Automatic brightness and color correction: A webcam should allow you to manually adjust these settings if you really want to, but any good model should produce a decent image out of the box, without requiring you to fiddle with settings.
• A good clip or stand: Any webcam needs a clip that makes it simple to attach to a variety of laptop screens and desktop monitors, and tilting the camera up or down to adjust the view should be easy, too. A stand that allows the camera to sit independently on a table or desk, allows the camera to swivel, or includes a tripod mount is a bonus.

We also identified the following as nice-to-haves, rather than features that most people need to worry about:

• Decent microphone: Most webcams include a noise-cancelling microphone so that the other parties can hear you easily when you’re chatting while sitting in a room with a little ambient noise, such as from a ceiling fan. But if you need better sound quality, consider either a USB microphone or one of our office, gaming, or Bluetooth headset picks with an integrated mic.
• Product-highlight feature: A few webcams we tested can quickly adjust focus onto something that you bring close to the lens and then return the focus to your face when you put the item down. People most commonly use this feature for product demonstrations. Our top pick and upgrade pick each have this feature, and it works well enough for your average business meeting. But if you plan to launch a product-focused YouTube channel, for instance, you’ll probably want to invest instead in a good mirrorless camera with faster, smoother autofocus.

Once we narrowed down the field, we took multiple pictures and videos with each webcam under controlled conditions so that we could compare them directly. With each contender, we captured the following:

• Photos: We took screenshots from each webcam’s feed within Zoom and compared them against a color-corrected image (shot using a Google Pixel 7 Pro and color-corrected in the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom mobile app) to judge how accurate the colors were, paying close attention to how well each webcam reproduced skin tones.
• Videos: Since most people use webcams with Zoom or similar video-conferencing apps, we recorded about 10 seconds of ourselves reading the Sherlock Holmes story “The Red-Headed League” (PDF) and then judged how clear the audio sounded, how color-accurate and crisp the video footage was, and—with webcams that offered the feature—how smooth the subject tracking was.

We then asked a panel of Wirecutter staffers to compare the images and videos from the different cameras, without knowing which was which, and to rank their quality from best to worst. We used that data, our findings from the previous version of this guide, and notes from other professional reviewers to arrive at our picks.

We also downloaded and used each webcam’s software, where available, for the cameras we tested. All of these webcams are automatically detected by Windows 10 and 11, macOS, and other modern operating systems, but fine-tuning certain settings such as the field of view is easier with the help of each camera manufacturer’s software.

Top pick: Logitech Brio 505


Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

Top pick

The Logitech Brio 505 is the best option for most people who need a standalone webcam thanks to its superb image quality, ease of setup, and helpful (but optional) software.

Its video—which can stream at up to 1080p at 30 frames per second—was crisp and clear in our testing, and the autofocus and auto white balance features worked better than those of any of the other webcams we tested in the sub-$200 price range.

**It produces sharp, natural-looking 1080p-resolution video. **Whether you’re recording video locally (say, for a presentation) or streaming through Zoom, footage from the Brio 505 looks crisp and clear. In our image-quality evaluations, it beat out all the other webcams in its category—including several with 4K resolution—by a long shot for the best skin tones and the best overall picture quality.

Its autofocus works quickly, and its exposure and white balance are very accurate. Even in rooms with a mix of sunlight and warm overhead light, or where we sat in front of a bright window, the Brio 505 delivered a more color-accurate image with snappier autofocus than the higher-resolution Logitech Brio 4K.

**Subject tracking works well, too. **When the Brio 505 had to work to keep us centered in the frame, the results didn’t look quite as natural as similar footage we captured with our upgrade pick.

On the plus side, however, subject tracking works in Zoom, even if you don’t have the desktop software open. (If you don’t want this feature, you need to open the software to disable it, unlike with our upgrade pick, which allows you to turn the function on and off with a simple hand gesture.) The tracking itself looked similar to Apple’s Center Stage but with less zoom-in, which we prefer.


The Brio 505 can pan left and right, which is helpful if you can’t place it directly in front of you. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

It works right out of the box on Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS. Simply connect the Brio 505’s USB-C plug to your computer and launch your software of choice.

Logitech’s software gives you nuanced control over many camera settings. If you need more control, you can manually adjust exposure, gain, brightness, contrast, color intensity, white balance, and focus using Logitech’s Logi Tune software. In addition, you can toggle options such as RightSight, which tracks your face to keep you in the frame, and Show Mode, which quickly refocuses on an object you’re holding up to the camera before returning focus to your face.

You can also customize the camera’s zoom and pan, if you prefer not to use RightSight. Alternatively, you can physically tilt the webcam up or down or swivel it left and right to control what’s in the frame.

It clamps securely to most monitors, and it works with tripods, too. A fold-out foot braces against the back of your laptop or monitor, while a large plastic tab sits in front to hold the camera in place. The base of the clip also has an adhesive lip that you can use to stick the camera to a surface (including the back of your monitor, for extra stay-put-ness). Lastly, you’ll find a tripod mount at the bottom of the camera, hidden under the magnetic button that grabs the monitor mount.

The Brio 505 has a privacy dial on the side that’s fast and easy to use. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

We love the integrated privacy shutter. Using the shutter—which you activate with a simple dial on the right side of the camera—is easy and satisfying, since it closes with a light magnetic pull and a little click. When you aren’t using the camera, you can rest assured that you’re not inadvertently recording video, and you don’t have to resort to taping the lens to protect your privacy.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The mount can come loose. The Brio 505 adheres to the monitor mount via a small magnetic button, which you can unscrew to reveal a tripod mount. The button allows for left-to-right adjustment, and the magnet is pretty strong, but we found that it can come loose. When that happens, the webcam does not stay firmly in place. It’s fast and easy to fix — just retighten the button — but it’s a little annoying.

Budget pick: Anker PowerConf C200 2K


Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

Budget pick

If you want to spend as little as possible on a decent webcam, we recommend the Anker PowerConf C200 2K. Its sharpness, autofocus, and auto white balance aren’t as good as what you can get from the Logitech Brio 505, but it’s just as easy to set up, and it offers the best video quality of any webcam we’ve tested under $70.

The C200 2K can tilt up and down but can’t pan from side to side. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

**The software is basic but works without issue. **You can make adjustments to exposure and white balance, and you can control how zoomed-in the picture is.

Its design is simple and straightforward. You can perch the C200 2K on top of your screen, on your desk, or on a separate tripod, depending on the angle you prefer. Though it can tilt up and down, it can’t swivel from side to side like our top pick. On top, it has a switch to hide or use the privacy screen. We like that Anker chose to make the lens cover bright red; it was easy for us to see when the lens was covered.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

**It’s no match for our top pick in image quality. **In our tests, the C200 2K’s images and video were darker than the Brio 505’s, and its autofocus wasn’t as smooth. But overall, its image quality was still superior to the results from a 2023 Apple MacBook Pro’s built-in webcam.

Upgrade pick: Insta360 Link 2


Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

Upgrade pick

The most feature-packed webcam

Insta360 Link 2

With its smart features, 4K resolution, and reliable exposure and white balance, this webcam can provide a flattering image in just about any situation. But it costs nearly twice as much as our top pick.

If you spend most of your time in video meetings and want to look your best, be in focus, and stay in frame even if you move around a lot, get the Insta360 Link 2.

In our testing, it provided the best combination of image quality, white balance, and subject tracking. In addition, for privacy, the camera body automatically faces down and turns off when you close your video-conferencing software. But be aware that this best-in-class tech comes with a considerable price tag: This model costs almost twice as much as our top pick.

When you plug it in, it’s ready to go. As soon as you turn the Link 2 on, it quickly adjusts its exposure and white balance; you’ll see the brightness and colors change over the course of a few seconds. But once it has done so, the results look great—in our tests, they didn’t require any further tweaking.

It has hand-gesture-activated smart features. For example, making a peace sign puts the Link 2 into “whiteboard” mode, while making an L with your thumb and index finger causes it to look down at your desktop so that you can show off something you’re working on.

In our experience, the Link 2’s camera didn’t pan directly down at the desk—it aimed more at our tester’s lap than at their keyboard—but you can customize how much it tilts via Insta360’s software.

Hand gestures work right away, too: We were able to activate subject tracking moments after starting up Zoom, even before we installed the Insta360 software.

The Link 2 can follow you around just about anywhere, thanks to its gyroscope-mounted lens. Marki Williams/NYT Wirecutter

Insta360’s software opens up additional features and controls. You can manually adjust white balance, exposure, and contrast through the software, but for the most part we didn’t think any additional fine-tuning was necessary. Perhaps the best reason to install the software is so that you can download and install firmware updates, but that’s true of all the webcams we tested.

You can easily disable and re-enable tracking. Touching the dot on the base of the camera disables auto-tracking. Touching it again reactivates it, and double-tapping recenters the webcam.

Those controls are especially useful when you want to turn off tracking but don’t want to be seen using hand gestures or rummaging through settings in the middle of a meeting.

It feels more fragile than other webcams we’ve tested. Because of that, we don’t recommend it for people who travel with their work gear.

There’s a budget alternative. If you like the advanced features of the Link2, but it’s out of your budget, consider the Obsbot Tiny SE. It shares a lot of the same functionality, but it costs roughly $100 less. The trade-off is a lower top resolution of 1080p, as well as the fact that you’ll have to spend time tweaking the settings to get the picture quality anywhere close to that of the Link 2.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It’s a bit tall. The camera of the Link 2 is mounted on a gimbal, so there’s more vertical space than usual between the eyes of the person you’re talking to and where the webcam sits. This creates more eyeline offset, making it seem as though you’re looking away from the person you’re speaking to. The difference in height between the Link 2 and the webcam built into my MacBook Pro’s screen, for instance, is subtle but noticeable.

How to turn a DSLR camera or a phone into a webcam

If our picks are unavailable, or you simply don’t want to spend money on a webcam, you have several ways to turn a DSLR camera, a phone, or a tablet into a webcam for your computer. The video quality can be even better than that of a traditional webcam, too, although you have to deal with some trade-offs such as difficulty positioning the camera and potential overheating depending on how long you use the camera.

Generally speaking, these options all work the same way: After you install software and connect the device (over USB or Wi-Fi in some cases, but USB is more reliable), you can select that device as the camera in web-conferencing and video-streaming apps. You should also have a tripod or some other way to raise the camera or mobile device to the proper height.

After two days of testing popular options, here’s what we recommend.

**If you own a DSLR: **Check with your camera manufacturer to see if it offers webcam software for your model. Software is available for both Windows and Mac.

• Canon EOS Webcam Utility
• Fujifilm X Webcam
• Nikon Webcam Utility
• Panasonic Lumix Tether for Streaming
• Sony Imaging Edge Webcam
• GoPro Webcam

If you use a Mac and have an iPhone or iPad: You can use your iPhone as a webcam via Apple’s Continuity Camera feature. Your phone must be running iOS 14 or later, and your computer must be running macOS Monterey or later, so if you have older devices, this method won’t work. (We plan to test this software for a future update to this guide.)

If you’re using an older Mac, you can use Camo. The free version offers 720p video and lets you use either the front or back camera, but it places a watermark over the video. To get even higher-quality, 1080p video and remove the watermark, as well as to unlock professional features such as color correction and zooming, you pay $40 a year.

Though such features are more than what most people need, Camo is a more affordable alternative to buying a DSLR. The software is simple to use, and we found the video quality excellent at both 720p and 1080p (tested with an iPhone XR).

If you use Windows and have an iPhone/iPad or an Android device: If you have a newer Android device (running Android 14 or later), you can connect your phone to your laptop via USB and choose the option to use it as a webcam.

If you’re using something older, use DroidCam. In contrast to iVCam, DroidCam was the only app that actually worked for us (tested with a Windows 10 Surface Book, a MacBook Pro, a Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and an iPhone XR).

The free version of DroidCam for Android provides only 480p video and shows ads. The free version for iOS offers 720p resolution but adds a watermark. For $5, you get 720p video on Android, remove the watermark on iOS, and unlock camera controls.

We found the quality of DroidCam’s video grainy and just barely acceptable in comparison with the results from a dedicated webcam or a laptop’s built-in webcam, but it will do in a pinch. Camo is also available for Android, but we haven’t tested that version yet.

Other webcams worth considering

If you need a wireless camera or require a setup that involves multiple camera angles: Check out the Obsbot Tail Air. It’s a great option for streamers and content creators, since you can connect several Tail Air cameras wirelessly using the Obsbot Start desktop software or mobile app (iOS, Android) and use them to create a multi-camera setup for conference calls or streaming.

The camera has a mic input, so you can use a lavalier mic or small shotgun mic for better audio quality, and it accepts microSD cards for recording footage. It also provides lots of different ways to connect to your devices, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and Micro HDMI. You can even contact Obsbot to obtain an NDI code for more advanced Ethernet networking.

In our testing, this wireless camera performed just as well as our wired picks, delivering responsive and accurate automatic white balance and exposure. Its 4K resolution at 30 fps and 1080p at 60 fps provided exceptional image clarity.

The only way to use it is with a tripod, though, because it doesn’t offer any built-in way for you to mount it to a monitor, as our picks do. It’s also notably expensive for just one camera, let alone the Multicam Combo kit (which also includes a remote and USB-C–to–Ethernet adapters).

If you want to be able to control your webcam using voice commands: Check out the Obsbot Tiny 2. You can use phrases like “Hi, Tiny” and “Sleep, Tiny” to turn it on and off and say “Zoom in closer” and “Track me” to adjust your framing. In our tests, the voice commands worked even when we had music with lyrics playing in the background.

This webcam has most of the same features as our upgrade pick, but we found that its image quality required more finessing via Obsbot’s (robust) software in order to look as good as output from the Insta360 Link 2 right out of the box. It’s also $100 more than the Link 2.

If you want the smart features of our upgrade pick but have a smaller budget: The Obsbot Tiny SE has many of the same software advancements as the Insta360 Link 2, including a gimbal-mounted lens and gesture-based controls, but it costs $100 at this writing — half as much as the Link 2.

The resolution is capped at 1080p, and the picture quality on the Tiny SE isn’t as attractive as that of our top pick — and much less than the Link 2, which can capture 4K. Compared with those webcams, the Tiny SE produced more contrasty footage that skewed slightly green. Playing around with the Obsbot Center software, we were able to correct these flaws (mostly). In the end, the Tiny SE’s footage never looked as natural as that of our picks, though you’d notice the difference only in a side-by-side comparison.

The competition

This is not a comprehensive list of all webcams we’ve tested. We have removed models that are no longer available or do not meet our criteria.

Obsbot’s Meet SE is a small, square camera that sticks to its mount with magnets. The thin privacy cover sticks to the camera, but isn’t attached, so it’s easy to lose. Placing this webcam on its magnetic stand can also be tricky, since it doesn’t always stay facing the exact angle you set it to. It’s also more expensive than our budget pick, but the image quality is unflatteringly contrasty.

The Insta360 Link C has a lot of the same features as our upgrade pick, including excellent auto-exposure performance and high-resolution output. Unlike the Link 2, it’s not mounted on a gimbal, so the tracking happens in software, essentially cropping in to different parts of the camera’s field of view. In our tests, this felt jarring, even when we set the tracking speed to the slow setting. If you want great-looking footage but don’t care much about tracking, save yourself the extra money and get our top pick. If you do care about tracking, the Link 2 is the way to go.

The Opal Tadpole is a small, simple webcam aimed at laptop users, with a built-in clip that can grab onto the lid at the top of the screen. Unfortunately, its image quality was not as good as that of the webcam in my laptop (a 2023 MacBook Pro). Ultimately, our picks are not much more cumbersome to carry and offer significantly better image quality.

The Center Cam is designed to sit in the middle of your monitor, providing more direct eye contact with the person or people you’re talking to. It dangles at the end of a flexible housing, so you can hang it over the end of your monitor and adjust it to whatever height you need. However, in our tests the webcam wouldn’t stay firmly within the clip, and after we fiddled with it a few times the USB connection started failing. Plus, since it sits lower than a traditional webcam, it can create an unpleasant, up-the-nose point of view.

Like the Center Cam, the iContact Camera Pro is designed to hang down into the center of your monitor. And as with the Center Cam, the point of view from the lower position is not as flattering as when the webcam is higher up. The image from this camera looked bleached, with skin tones devoid of any warmth.

The image quality from Obsbot’s Tiny 2 Lite and Meet was largely similar, with colors shifted toward blue and green tones. The desktop software has plenty of controls and ways to adjust the image, yet after spending around 30 minutes trying to fine-tune the colors, we were never able to get the image to look as natural as the results from of our picks.

The Logitech MX Brio has a premium feel and does better than most in low-light settings, but the image from this webcam, in general, is dark, contrasty, and unflatteringly green-tinted.

The Logitech Brio 500 is nearly identical to our top pick, except its USB cable isn’t detachable, and it comes with only a one-year warranty (as opposed to the three-year warranty of the Brio 505). The Brio 505’s features make it worth the extra $25 over this model.

Though the Logitech C920s Pro was our top pick for several years, it’s starting to show its age. Its footage looks grainy, and we’ve concluded that if you’re going to buy a webcam in this price range, you’d be better off getting our budget pick instead.

The Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam costs the same as our top pick and offers 4K video, but its image quality was not as natural looking as the Brio 505’s. In our photo evaluation for the clearest picture, it scored last, and in our video evaluation it didn’t get a single vote for overall picture quality.

The Logitech C930e is a more expensive version of the Brio 505 that’s aimed at group video-conferencing situations rather than an individual user. It has a wider, 90-degree field of view that can capture large meeting rooms, but that isn’t something most people working from home need.

The Anker PowerConf C300 shares a lot of features with our top pick, including subject tracking, but its output in our tests was over-sharpened. In our photo assessment, the C300 scored last for natural-looking images and second to last for best-looking skin tones. In our video survey, it didn’t score a single vote.

The Razer Kiyo was a popular option in its day, but now its footage looks outdated. Newer webcams, including our top pick and our budget pick, do a much better job of exposing for low light.

When we first plugged the Razer Kiyo X, Kiyo Pro, and Kiyo Pro Ultra into our Mac, the image quality was especially rough, with blown-out highlights and white balance so cool that our test scene looked blue. The picture quality improved drastically after we plugged them into a Windows machine to install firmware updates (you can’t update them on a Mac), but we still needed to play with the settings to make them stop overexposing highlights, and the Synapsis software for the settings adjustments was glitchy. When we finally got the picture dialed in on each, they looked very good, but we preferred our upgrade pick, the Insta360 Link 2, because we didn’t have to download or install any software to get excellent image quality on that camera. The Link 2 is also a quarter the size of the extremely bulky Kiyo Pro Ultra and offers a host of smart features that make it handy for a wider variety of uses.

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam WB7022 shoots 4K video, but its out-of-the-box output was overly contrasty, to the point where dark areas were totally crushed into inky blackness and the overall image looked far too cool. Software for this webcam is available only for Windows, but even after installing it and playing with the settings, we still couldn’t find a decent balance of highlights and dark areas. In our evaluations, this camera failed to score a single vote in any image-quality category.

Footage from the Lumina was unimpressive out of the box, but what really turned us off was the long list of permissions required to use its software. Even after we installed the software and tried to calibrate the Lumina using the included color checker, it still produced footage that was too warm and too soft, especially for a 4K camera. It has other flaws, too, namely a cheap-feeling plastic build and a privacy cap that attaches to the camera with a weak magnet (which we lost just a day after opening the box). Overall, this is not what we expect from a webcam that costs almost $200.

Obsbot is a popular webcam line among certain reviewers, but the warranty oddly covers different parts of the webcam for different lengths of time. We think a company should be transparent about its products and offer clear warranty programs.

The Microsoft LifeCam Studio ranked poorly with our panelists in video and image quality, as it produced terribly overexposed output with lots of motion blur. Although it’s an inexpensive webcam, you’re better off using your laptop’s built-in camera.

We considered webcams from AVerMedia but decided not to test them due to the volume of negative feedback about glitchy software or the webcams’ failure to work after just a few months.

This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.