MacOS Ventura Continuity Camera Turns Your iPhone Into a Webcam
Computer Accessories
Speaker 1: With the latest Ventura OS update for Mac, you can now use your iPhone as a web camera for any Mac using continuity camera. So even if you're using the best web camera available on a MacBook like this one, your video's gonna look like this. Isn't it? Way better? Well, it's easy to set up and I'll get it into it in this video. Hey, I'm Justin Tech and I am a MacBook Pro user. So when Apple announced continuity camera for the iPhone, I got super excited and not just for the camera upgrade, but also [00:00:30] for some new video effects from center stage which follows you as you walk around the room and desk view, which displays your desk to the people you're video chatting with on FaceTime. I'll be covering how to do all of this in today's video. So let's get into it.
Speaker 1: This is the all new mag safe mount from bekin. It's 29 99 and to use it, you just pop it right onto your iPhone like so it connects, it's got this little [00:01:00] socket for your finger. Can twist it around FaceTime like that or just use the phone with one hand and you can also put it on your desk and use it as a little stand. Now the most important part and relevant to today's video is this hinge right here. So this can be pulled out and then placed right onto the laptop and then your cameras are right there ready to be used with FaceTime or Zoom or any video chatting app. This mount isn't mandatory. You can use any other stand. In fact, I have one that I use at [00:01:30] the office that will work really well. Plus Dan Ackerman of cnet, also 3D printed his own.
Speaker 1: I'll throw that file down below the description along with his article talking about it Before you can start using continuity camera, there are a few things you need to set up on both the iPhone and the Mac. So let me show you how to do that. Now the first thing you'll need to do is make sure that wifi and Bluetooth are turned on for both devices and that they're both logged into the same iCloud account on the Mac. To check your iCloud account, just go to system settings and then [00:02:00] you'll see right on top you've got the id and that means you're signed in. If you don't see an id, that means you need to sign into your iCloud account. Once that's signed in, you're good to go on the Mac, on the iPhone. Let's also check the iCloud account now too. First you'll need to go to settings and on top you'll see the iCloud account.
Speaker 1: If you're not logged in, you'll need to log in. And then next you'll need to go down to general and then you'll need to go to airplane handoff and make sure that both handoff and continuity camera are turned on. From there, [00:02:30] you are ready to go and start using your iPhone as a camera on your Mac. I'm gonna open up FaceTime and then it automatically switched to my iPhone camera. And that's because if you go up to video in the top left, you'll see I have automatic camera selection on. If that wasn't turned on, it would start with the FaceTime HD camera, which check out the difference is way more blurry. Wow, like this upgrade between the two is obviously notable and I would would absolutely [00:03:00] opt to go with this camera for sure in in most meetings. And also if like you're an actor and you're doing like a casting call, you'll want like the clearest quality video for something like that.
Speaker 1: Now let's go check out how you pick it up on Zoom. It's pretty similar as you do it with any other camera. You open up Zoom, go to Zoom preferences, and from there you'll go to video and you'll choose, It's already set on Justin Tech camera and there you go. Now, something I've noticed when [00:03:30] on Zoom is that it's still a bit blurry. Um, that's definitely a Zoom thing and not the iPhone. Uh, it's just compressing your video. But between the two, it's definitely better quality than the FaceTime camera on the laptop. Now let me show you all of the video effects you have available to you using the iPhone camera. To access the video effects, just click control center and the top right and you'll see video effects in the top left. Give that a click. And first let me show you portrait. [00:04:00] What it does is it blurs out the background similar to portrait photos on iPhone. Now there's also Studio Light and you can double them both up. So you see how it, what it does is it creates a better contrast and it puts lighting on me and darkens out the background. I can get rid of portrait mode if I want to. And then there's center stage. So center stage will do is follow me and it will switch to the ultra wide camera for this. So watch, you'll notice that the quality of the camera is reduced a bit, but I'm gonna get up and walk around [00:04:30] and it's following me.
Speaker 1: Come over here and it does a pretty good job of it. We'll see if how far to the side I can go. Okay, so that's as far as it's gonna go over there. Now let's see how far I can go over here. Pretty good.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a lot. That's a lot of area. Now one thing it doesn't seem to really do. Yeah, it doesn't seem to really zoom in, which is something you [00:05:00] get on a device like the Facebook portal, which I like. But I guess, um, I also do like how it's giving you a good view of the entire room. Welcome to our set and then I'll sit back down and then we're back. The last effect I wanna show you is desk view. This can be used to show whoever you're talking to with the iPhone camera, what is going on on your desk. This can be used for whether you're drawing something out, you wanna show them some unboxing, something [00:05:30] like that. So to turn that on, go to the control center, same area, and then you'll click desk view. A Window's gonna pop up for you and you'll be able to either zoom in or zoom out of what you're showing them.
Speaker 1: The picture that pops up is definitely a bit warped, but let's say I had this box art from the Bekin device and I wanted to show someone, or I even wanted to film my own on boxing. I guess I could screen record and you know, use this in a YouTube video if I wanted, although it's not the best quality. And then there I could be like, Oh, check out this new device [00:06:00] I got. Or even better, I can just use like my Apple Watch and I can be like, Oh yeah mom, this is how you do. This is how you reply to a text on your Apple Watch. You know, this could be used for a lot of cool, a lot of cool reasons. It is obviously a bit warped, but still a cool feature to have. And what happens is when you're FaceTiming someone, there will be two squares open up on their screen.
Speaker 1: It will be both a picture video of you and the video of desk view. So someone gets both angles at the same time, [00:06:30] which is pretty awesome. The last thing I want to do is compare the iPhone 14 Pros camera to my laptop's web camera, which has the 10 80 p, the latest, and the best webcam you can get on a MacBook Pro. And the seven 20 P one on the older max, plus the current 13 inch MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air with the M one chip. Those all have the seven 20 P model. Now here I'm gonna pop the other one on screen. As you can see the one below me, the 10 80 p that's [00:07:00] on the MacBook Pro. 14 inch is way less resolution. You're getting a big bump by using an iPhone and I can, I would say at least the iPhone 11 on those are probably gonna give you much better quality.
Speaker 1: Now let's pop on the seven 20 P model. As you can see, this is an even bigger jump from those and a lot of you may still have that on your max because they just switched over to the 10 80 P model web camera on this latest round of MacBook Pros. So as you can see, this is a really [00:07:30] big upgrade just by using your iPhone. So now it's your turn. Go out and enjoy using your iPhone as your web camera. There are also a ton of new features with Ventura os and we made a video covering all of them, so check that out up there. We've also got some reviews and hands on with the iPhone 14. If you wanna learn more about those, you can check these out as well. For more videos like this, be sure to subscribe to the scene at channel and click that bell down if you want alerts. I'm Justin and I'll take you later.
