Webcam subscription

[special]

For a camera you already own? WTF

Canon charges $50 per year to use a $900 camera as a functional webcam

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/01/...al-webcam/

[mattkime]

No thanks

[Carnos Jax]

Yeah, that is f’cked up.

[Robert M]

special,

I was outraged initially. However, after reading the article, I'm not annoyed nearly as much. Canon is selling hardware and offers an app that provides additional basic features free of charge. Want more features? Pay the fee for the higher level functionality. This is nothing unusual these days and, in actuality, something companies have been doing for decades.

Do I like it? No. Then again, would I use a $900.00 camera like a Canon PowerShot G5 X Mark II as a webcam? No. I'd pay a one-time fee for a cam that is designed and intended to be a web cam. There are any number of great webcams out there for under $100.00 that'll do the job nicely and it won't require special software (non-subscription or subscription) for full functionality.

This assumes the cam is being used in conjunction with a computer. If not, then I'd find a free or cost effective alternative to using the $900.00 camera as a webcam, i.e. my iPhone.

Robert

[Gareth]

[Without paying] you can connect one camera, with one default scene, at 720p, 30 frames per second and adjust everything on the camera itself if you need to. Should you pay $5 per month, or $50 per year, you can unlock EOS Webcam Utility Pro (PDF link), which provides full 60 fps video and most of the features you'd expect out of a webcam that cost hundreds fewer dollars.

Would still be much more palatable as a one time purchase though, if Canon is going to insist on charging money for more features. They already occasionally do that with certain upgrade features for some higher end cameras.

And if you can get a clean HDMI signal out of the camera (no overlays), you can use an HDMI to USB capture card to get full res and avoid Canon’s software (article states you might need different software to make this work however - might depend on your capture card).

[special]

a decent web cam is $50-100 and it includes the HARDWARE.

here you already own the HARDWARE. Just sell the SOFTWARE for like $50-100 and I would have no complains.

But $50 year after year? a good camera will last a decade or more. They want to nickel and dime you until you die? Fuck Off CANON.

[Spock]

Rent Seeking knows no bounds.

[macphanatic]

I still am not sure why anyone would need a really high megapixel camera for webcam purposes. If you're doing detailed instructional videos, yes. But for those doing conference calls, etc it's over kill. You can't use the high bandwidth when on VPN and it causes issues for some users. Maybe I'm missing the need.

[Carnos Jax]

macphanatic wrote:
I still am not sure why anyone would need a really high megapixel camera for webcam purposes. If you're doing detailed instructional videos, yes. But for those doing conference calls, etc it's over kill. You can't use the high bandwidth when on VPN and it causes issues for some users. Maybe I'm missing the need.

Because it means they don’t have to carry an extra piece of hardware around?

[Gareth]

macphanatic wrote:
I still am not sure why anyone would need a really high megapixel camera for webcam purposes. If you're doing detailed instructional videos, yes. But for those doing conference calls, etc it's over kill. You can't use the high bandwidth when on VPN and it causes issues for some users. Maybe I'm missing the need.

Perhaps it's not intended for people just doing conference calls, but rather people who actually make money via web cams...