Canon EOS Webcam Utility Turns ILCs And PowerShots Into USB Webcams

Video conferencing is the in thing these days thanks to the inability to go to work and have face-to-face meetings. Despite the popularity of services like Zoom, however, users are still limited by the webcam that they may or may not have. Desktops are the biggest culprits but even laptop cameras may make some people wish they could simply use their bigger and better Canon camera instead. Well, now they can thanks to a simple software that uses the camera you already own to stream better-quality video over the Internet.

Canon's new EOS utility is a rather simple yet ingenious software solution to a hardware problem. Webcams have become as essential these days thanks to the rise in video conferencing cases but not every computer comes with one. Of course, not everyone has a Canon camera either but those that do own one will probably appreciate they can now use a better camera than the ones on their laptop.

The EOS Webcam Utility is pretty easy to use and setup. It simply requires downloading and installing a program on a Windows computer, setting the Canon camera to Movie mode, and then connecting the two together via a regular USB cable. The camera will then show up in video conferencing software as just a regular USB camera.

Canon's new tool comes at a perfect time for video conferencing but it also opens up its cameras for other uses. For example, it can help users live stream videos with a higher quality camera, something that has also become more popular during this period when people are locked up at home.

The Canon EOS Webcam Utility Beta software is compatible with only a select number of Interchangeable Lens Cameras (ILCs) and PowerShot models, but the list is quite a sizeable one. It also sadly only works on Windows so Mac users will still have to make do with their measly regular webcams.