So, you’ve got your stream set up, maybe you even have a few viewers. Now, you want to take it to the next level and show off your beautiful mug on camera. But what if you don’t have the money to buy a webcam?
It’s tough getting started as a streamer. The gear you need to get started can get pricey fast. The more serious you get, the more expensive things become. From lights, to chairs, to green screens, they all cost a lot of money for streamers that haven’t hit it big yet.
For those streamers, just getting started, it can be hard to find things that are high quality enough without breaking the bank. One of the easiest ways to do this is to repurpose things you already have.
We all know the obvious tricks: iPhone headphones can become your mic, a can of spray paint can make an instant green screen, but when it comes to webcams?
A lot of streamers feel stuck using whatever crappy webcam is built into their laptop. Luckily, so long as you’ve got a cell phone, you’ve got a high quality webcam ready to go. Here’s how…
There’s an app for that
Just like with everything else on your phone, the solution is to download an app and although there are TONS of different apps out there that all will let you use your phone as a webcam, there are two main choices that we like:
iVCam
iVCam is a very powerful app to turn your iPhone into a wireless webcam. There is a free version and a $5 paid version. They both have the same features, the only difference is that the free version just has a watermark at the bottom of the video. Lucky for you, you can easily crop that out in OBS. We also hear that it can be used over a USB connection, but we haven’t tested that yet.
All you have to do to make it work is download the app to your phone, download this driver from their website to your computer, and pair the two devices together.
The big downside is that iVCam is only compatible with Windows. So Mac users are out of luck. But if you’re a Windows user, iVCam is the way to go. In fact, it’s so good, we would even say it’s worth the $5 to get rid of the watermark. Luckily that’s not a deal breaker.
EpocCam
Even though the images on their website would make you think that they haven’t updated their site in about 10 years, EpocCam is the granddaddy of iPhone webcam apps and is constantly updated.
EpocCam has slightly fewer features than iVCam, but what it lacks in overall features, it makes up for in the fact that it is cross-platform and will work just as well on a Windows computer as it will on a Mac.
Just like with iVCam, to set EpocCam up, you just need to download the app to your phone, download the right driver for your computer, and then follow the instructions to pair the devices.
You’ll also find some really great resources on the EpocCam website to get set up and help troubleshoot issues. There’s a reason why they’re usually the first name people mention when talking about turning your iPhone into a webcam.
The bottom line
No matter which app you choose, once you’re set up, you just need to use OBS’s built in Window Capture settings to select the window that contains the video feed from your iPhone, and crop it until it will look perfect in the lower corner of your stream and all for the low price of $0!
Try it out and sound off with any questions or other solutions in the comments.