Razer says its Kiyo Pro Ultra webcam can seize uncompressed 4K footage

Razer’s new 4K webcam, the $299.99 Kiyo Pro Ultra, is offered beginning right now from Razer’s website and at its retail stores. Razer guarantees DSLR-like video high quality with its 1/1.2-inch Sony Starvis 2 sensor, which it claims is the biggest ever in a webcam. This webcam affords an f/1.7 aperture that ought to permit for natural-looking bokeh and hopefully stable low-light efficiency, too.

Like many webcams today, the Kiyo Pro Ultra was made to tempt creators away from shopping for an expensive DSLR digicam. The Pro Ultra even seems like a DSLR lens, a design it shares with 2021’s Kiyo Pro, a promising however barely underwhelming 1080p 60fps webcam. It’s type of arduous to tell apart from that older mannequin, although Razer gave the Pro Ultra a twist-to-close privateness shutter.

Razer says the Pro Ultra beats the Logitech Brio and the newer Elgato Facecam Pro by delivering uncompressed 4K video at 24fps or 1440p/30fps, and it could possibly seize 1080p at 60fps or 30fps with HDR. (The Facecam Pro can seize uncompressed 1080p / 60fps footage). If compression doesn’t matter as a lot to you, the Elgato Facecam Pro beats it in a single main method: with the ability to seize in 4K at a sooner 60 frames per second. However, the Kiyo Pro Ultra has an omnidirectional microphone, whereas Elgato’s has no mic.

The Kiyo Pro Ultra is a plug-and-play machine, however to customise its many options, you’ll want to make use of the Synapse companion app for PC. There, you are able to do issues like tweak the digital zoom and activate its new AI face-tracking characteristic, in addition to customise shutter pace, publicity, and the way responsive it’s to snapping across the body to search out you. The Kiyo Pro Ultra options onboard reminiscence, so it could possibly bear in mind your settings even when you plug it into a unique pc.

Companies love evaluating their webcams to DSLRs, although video high quality is just one side of a fantastic webcam. Others embody mic high quality, reliability, how helpful the companion software program is, and different options, like face monitoring. The Kiyo Pro didn’t fairly hit the mark at $200 (it prices round $100 today), so I’m curious if its 4K improve will really feel well worth the cash.