Video calling has become a necessity for many during the pandemic and one of the things we’ve all noticed more than ever is how poor the image quality of the built-in 720p resolution FaceTime camera is with Apple MacBooks. A new application called Reincubate Camo is now available that allows iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users to use devices such as 1080p Mac webcams to make video calls with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Cisco Webex. It comes with a lot of granular control and a user-friendly design. Read on to see the new software in a practical way.
We have seen several camera manufacturers such as Canon, Fujifilm and GoPro launch software to allow their cameras to be used as Mac webcams. That has certainly been useful for some, but support has been limited to certain camera models from certain manufacturers.
How about the best camera you have available? For many, it’s the iPhone, and Reincubate’s Camo app takes advantage of Apple’s great cameras on smartphones, iPads, and iPod touch as an easy way to seriously improve the quality of your video call. Camo is not the first app to address this, but it does so in a thoughtful and highly executed manner.
Camo is made up of an iOS application and a Mac application that is very simple to install and configure. It features a much improved 1080p webcam experience over the built-in 720p Mac FaceTime cameras with the default settings, but it goes much further with granular controls as well.
Reincubate Camo in use
I have been testing the beta version of Camo for a while and this is what I have experienced.
Once you download Reincubate Camo on your iOS device and launch it, you will get a simple home screen that will guide you through downloading Camo Studio for Mac (option to download from iPhone and AirDrop to Mac, which is super stylish! ).
When you’ve installed Camo Studio on your Mac, you just need to connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with a Lightning cable, and you’re ready to go.
With the Camo Studio app, you can use the default settings, a default that you have created, or adjust the video settings manually. That includes choosing your lens and resolution, and with the pro version the frame rate, zoom, white balance, exposure, brightness, temperature, hue, saturation, contrast, gamma, and sharpness.
This is what the Camo Studio app looks like on Mac:
It also has flash control, rotation, and the ability to pause the camera.
Since you will be using an application like Zoom, Google Meet, etc. Camo Studio on Mac has a handy menu bar application to quickly change your lens, resolution, font, frame rate and pause the video.
Another great touch, as you may have noticed, is that Camo supports the dark mode of the entire macOS system.
Camo Studio on Mac has a guide for each of the video calling services it supports, but it is easy to use in various applications.
I tried switching to using my iPhone 11 Pro with Reincubate Camo with Zoom.
You just need to head to the Zoom settings and select “Reincubate Camo” as the camera.
Here’s a look at the image quality between the built-in 720p FaceTime camera on my 15-inch MacBook Pro and the quality with my iPhone 11 Pro via Camo in Zoom. Oh, and this is with the default video image settings in Camo.
MacBook Pro FaceTime camera on left, iPhone 11 Pro via Camo on right
In my time with Camo, I found it reliable and works well. Some of my colleagues have also been using it and one of them noted that it worked flawlessly during a two hour video podcasting session. Another interesting aspect is that since you are connecting to your Mac with your device, you won’t have to worry about running out of battery on your iPhone or iPad.
One thing to keep in mind when using an iPhone (or iPad or iPod) as your Mac webcam, it’s helpful to have a good tripod or other mounting system so that it is at the correct height and angle on your Mac. You don’t necessarily need anything Full-size, but something that is at least 12 inches tall will work for you on any MacBook (you probably want something a little bigger to use with iMacs).
The Reincubate team has seen almost 5,000 beta testers test Camo since May and they have released 9 updates in that period. I am sure the app will continue to improve over time. Reincubate mentioned that Windows support is in the works and is looking for possibilities to go even further with supported resolutions, but there are bottlenecks with video streaming services like Zoom and Google Meet.
IPhones are capable of producing * higher quality * videos than products like Zoom and Meet can even stream, with TrueDepth, LiDAR, and 4K @ 60 FPS. Reincubate is currently exploring support for these features, but there are currently few video products that can take advantage of them.
I think the app is an excellent choice to enhance your video calls with easy to use software for any user with enhanced granular control for advanced users. I also appreciate that Reincubate goes with an ad-free approach.
You can try Camo for free, limiting the app to 720p video with wide cameras or selfie on iOS devices with a watermark. To unlock all the features like 1080p resolution, all video image control and more, Camo is priced at $ 39.99 / year (£ 34.99 / year, € 33.99 plus EU VAT / year).
Find out more about Camo on the Reincubate website here and you can download the iOS app from the App Store to get started now.
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