Since the rise of the Coronavirus-led lockdowns, video conferencing saw a huge increase in usage as people started to work from their homes. However, getting a decent picture quality during a video call is out of the question as most laptops come with pretty basic (and inferior) cameras. In light of the situation, major camera companies are now helping people use the DSLR and mirrorless cameras as webcams to get a high-quality picture during their video calls. We saw Canon taking the necessary steps. Now, Panasonic stepped up and pushed an update to its Lumix Tether app that allows a user to use a Panasonic mirrorless camera as a webcam.
Now, the Lumix Tether app is still in its beta form. It is basically a software that helps users stream the live feed of the camera (with some on-screen elements) on a laptop or a desktop. However, with a recent update, Panasonic gave support to use the cameras in video conferencing platforms like Zoom or Skype.
It works by connecting the camera to a laptop or a desktop via a USB cable. Users can then remove the on-screen elements like the focus box and the control buttons to feed just the video to an app like Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). Then you can transfer the video stream to any video-conferencing app of your choice. You can watch the video below to get more details on how to set up your Panasonic camera as a webcam.
Now, unlike Canon’s software, the Lumix Tether app is currently only available for the Windows platform. So, Mac users with a Panasonic mirrorless camera will still have to rely on their FaceTime cameras.