AVerMedia CamStream 4K Review - Turn That Pro Camera Into a Plug-and-Play Broadcast Studio

TweakTown Rating: 87%

Our Verdict

AVerMedia's CamStream 4K is a simple, niche, but powerful capture card built for one purpose, to transform any high-end DSLR or Mirrorless camera into the world's best plug-and-play webcam - and it succeeds in doing so.

Pros

• Lightweight and portable capture card
• Turns any DSLR or Mirrorless camera into a studio-quality webcam
• Plug-and-play design
• The Streaming Center app makes broadcasting simple

Cons

• Niche card that only works with DSLR or Mirrorless digital cameras
• The included USB cable should have been longer

Should you buy it?

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Introduction & Specification Details and Close-up

The evolution of digital cameras and broadband internet has led to an era in which affordable webcams make it easy for most users to join a call or stream with decent-quality video. And for most people, snapping pictures or recording video with a smartphone is the go-to option because image quality has reached a point where convenience means most won't even bother picking up a dedicated premium camera. That said, there will always be a market for high-quality digital cameras. When it comes to photography, those who are serious about detail and composition, and fully aware of the limitations and closed nature of webcams and smartphones, still use dedicated cameras.

This is where AVerMedia's new CamStream 4K (BU113G2) enters the picture: a dedicated webcam and capture interface for streamers and creators using high-end DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) or Mirrorless cameras that can cost thousands of dollars. With impressive lenses and complete control over focus and other settings, comparing a smartphone's image quality to a DSLR camera can be as stark as night and day. Likewise, comparing the video and image quality of your standard off-the-shelf webcam yields similar results.

This is to be expected, and even though you might think that pro-grade cameras have become a niche product in recent years, you'd be mistaken. Each year, DSLR and Mirrorless cameras sell in the millions, and there's a real market for lenses and equipment that can deliver a pro-grade image that, in the right environment, could rival a dedicated studio.

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Which brings us back to AVerMedia's new CamStream 4K and to what makes it a relatively straightforward, plug-and-play product. Here, you've got a capture interface that connects to a PC or capable laptop, turning any premium digital camera with an HDMI port into one of the most advanced webcams or capture devices on the market. With up to 4K 60 FPS video and even premium RGB24 capture at FullHD 60 FPS, this is one of those devices that, as soon as you connect it to a DSLR camera, you can see the difference. For this review, we paired it with a Nikon camera.

Specifications & Close Up

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Kosta's Test System Specifications

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Design & Software

Design

It's worth noting that the CamStream 4K targets a very specific market: creators and streamers with expensive, premium DSLR or Mirrorless cameras who are looking for a particular solution. This is the ability to seamlessly leverage image and video capture quality on a Windows or Mac PC, thereby elevating the quality of their broadcasts or content. Seamless is the keyword here, as the AVerMedia CamStream 4K is every bit the simple plug-and-play device it claims to be. Weighing in at a featherweight 26 grams, the CamStream 4K features an HDMI 2.0 port on one side, a USB 3.2 Type-C port on the other, and a quarter-inch thread for mounting directly to a camera or tripod.

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Setup takes a few seconds, which in our case involved mounting the CamStream 4K on the camera and connecting two cables: an HDMI cable to the camera and a USB cable to the PC. The longest part of the process was finding the Mini HDMI-to-HDMI cable that came with the camera, since the CamStream 4K ships only with a USB cable and a quarter-inch cold shoe mount. As the CamStream 4K isn't driver or software-dependent, it will appear as a video input source, with the resolution and settings handled by the camera.

This is excellent because the CamStream 4K essentially acts as the connection or interface between your camera and PC, so familiarity with camera image and video settings, lenses, lighting, and everything else doesn't require additional tinkering on the other side, other than capture settings. The CamStream 4K supports a wide range of resolutions and frame rates - from 1080p 144 FPS right up to 4K 60 FPS. It also supports different color formats, including MJPEG, NV12, YUY2, P010, and RG24, with the latter two listed as Windows-only.

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Like all webcams and capture cards, video encoding and decoding happen on the PC side, which means you'll need a capable CPU and GPU to handle all of that. Here, like with other HDMI 2.0 capture cards on the market, the hardware requirements are modest, with AVerMedia listing an Intel Core i6 6th Gen or AMD Ryzen 3 CPU alongside a GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 5700 GPU on the PC side, and an Apple M1 on the Mac side as the minimum for a seamless experience. Ultimately, the design of the CamStream 4K is impressive, as it's a compact, lightweight device packed with powerful capture capabilities.

Software

Although it's plug-and-play, AVerMedia does offer support for the CamStream 4K in its AVerMedia Streaming Center app for Windows. Streaming Center is a simple tool for those who might not be familiar with the intricacies of the powerful but relatively complicated OBS app, as its clean interface offers a simple way to combine multiple video and audio sources to capture an image, video, or even broadcast to popular platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Zoom, and more.

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Although the UI for Streaming Center is clean, AVerMedia has packed it with a wide range of settings and features, making it powerful enough for pro-grade broadcasting when the CamStream 4K is connected to a DSLR camera. It supports H.264, H.265, and AV1 codecs, with customizable video and audio bitrates. There are audio equalizers and mixing tools, with AI-powered noise reduction and the ability to tap into NVIDIA RTX technologies like RTX Broadcast and RTX Video Super Resolution to upscale 1080p video to 4K.

Performance

The fact that pristine video and image quality were immediately recognized and on-screen once we connected the CamStream 4K to our PC is a testament to its plug-and-play design. As expected, using the CamStream 4K with a DSLR camera instead of a standard off-the-shelf webcam requires some setup, including a tripod, lighting, and the right angle. Again, since the CamStream 4K is paired with a camera that costs thousands, the image and video quality are excellent. To evaluate the performance of the CamStream 4K in this review, we captured high-bitrate video at 60 FPS and observed no artefacts or stutter.

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Ultimately, the CamStream 4K is something we can see someone using to build a home studio, as it delivers pro-grade results for cameras not built for that purpose. And even when it comes to using the CamStream 4K for a Zoom call (which is arguably overkill), it's as easy to set up (software-wise) as any other webcam, which is a plus. That said, our one complaint would be that with the relatively large and bulky size of modern DSLR and Mirrorless cameras compared to webcams, it would have been nice if AVerMedia packed in a larger USB cable or extension, because the 1-meter cable length feels better suited to a laptop setup versus a desktop PC environment.

Final Thoughts

The AVerMedia CamStream 4K (BU113G2) is a compact, sleek device (available in black or white) that turns any high-end DSLR or Mirrorless camera into a professional-grade content-creation and broadcast camera when connected to a PC or laptop. At its core, the CamStream 4K is another impressive AVerMedia capture card that supports a wide range of resolutions, codecs, and frame rates, and the full HDMI 2.0 spec, including up to 4K 60 FPS. However, the physical design is such that it's a capture card built specifically for this one purpose - to connect to a camera.

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And on that note, the CamStream 4K is not something that you'd consider if you don't have a DSLR or Mirrorless camera, but as an add-on accessory for one. And even though it's not software-dependent, AVerMedia's simple, straightforward, and powerful Streaming Center app is a fantastic addition, offering quick access to capture and the ability to broadcast with pro-grade image quality in a matter of seconds.