Reincubate Camo Studio
1 Mac + 1 iPhone = a brilliant webcam
Free (Pro $4.99/month) From reincubate.com
Made for iPhone, Mac Needs iOS 12.0 or later, macOS 10.13 or later
Reincubate’s Camo turns any iOS device running iOS 12 or later into a webcam far better than anything you’ll find in most Macs. Camo’s iOS app is free on the iOS App Store. Camo Studio for Mac is available as a free download at Reincubate’s site, where you can also purchase a license to unlock its Pro features. Pro costs $4.99 a month, $39.99 a year, or $79.99 for a lifetime license.
Camo’s easy to set up and use. Download the iOS app to your iPhone or iPad. Install Camo Studio on your Mac. Physically plug your iOS device into your Mac, fire up both apps, and Camo connects and begins streaming live video from your iOS device’s camera. It uses the rear camera by
default, but if for some reason you really prefer the front camera, Camo’s got you covered there, too. You can also use any of the mics on your iOS device for audio.
Once connected, you can close the Camo Studio window — controls remain available through a small icon in the upper right of your menu bar — and pipe your video to a host of popular apps and browsers.
Thanks to the superior optics and processing power in even a years–old iPhone, video looks superb in the free version’s 720p resolution; better than even a 2017 iMac’s FaceTime camera.
Pay for Camo Studio Pro, you’ll notice an even greater improvement. Depending on the power and quality of your iPhone and its camera, you’ll get at least 1080p video. Reincubate says it can support higher resolutions on more advanced models.
Pro also adds fine–tuning tweaks, just in case you don’t like the iPhone’s automatic image processing. Slider bars let you adjust shutter speed, brightness, and more. The manual controls ensure a more consistent image. You can also rotate or zoom your image or add a watermark.
Camo’s Portrait feature, which is still in beta, is also very impressive, blurring the background neatly around your portrait, without issue.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A great upgrade over a Mac webcam. NATHAN ALDERMAN
REINCUBATE CAMO STUDIO
Free 720p version an improvement
Pro version offers 1080p and higher
Controls to refine image quality
Works with many video apps