One of the most surprising announcements at WWDC 2022 was Apple’s plan to let you use your iPhone as a Mac webcam, thanks to a new feature called continuity camera. But while the software tricks showcased in this macOS 13 Ventura feature are impressive, I wish Apple had just put them in a new version of its old 2003 iSight webcam instead.
On paper, the pass-through camera makes a lot of sense. Many Mac users also own an iPhone, so why not use their phone’s superior cameras to provide a better webcam experience for video calls? Plenty of people are already using third-party apps like EpocCam and Camo Studio for this, and (unfortunately for them) Apple’s feature looks like a slimmer, wireless equivalent.
But no matter how good the software looks, the implementation will always feel a bit clunky. You’ll need to attach your iPhone to your Mac using an accessory like Belkin’s coming later this year. Rumor has it that Jony Ive still has his head in his hands after witnessing this desecration of the Mac’s clean silhouette.
Since the Continuity Camera works wirelessly with your Mac, there is always a risk of video lag as well. And that means Apple is certainly using some form of video compression to make the experience usable, which could impact video quality. These are things I’m excited to try – but expect a few more blips than the demo call being shown at WWDC 2022.
computer webcam
To be fair, some of the features showcased in this walkthrough cam demo were extremely impressive.
There were a few familiar ones – Portrait mode, for example, blurs your background, while Center Stage crops and zooms the wide-angle camera image to keep you in the center of the frame as you move.
But the truly impressive features give us a good indication of the kind of processing power that’s likely to accompany the video iPhone 14. Studio Light, which only works on iPhone 12 models (or later) on which incoming iOS 16, is the video version of the same feature you can use for photos in today’s iPhone portrait mode. It promises to brighten your face, which should come in handy especially when you’re near a window and half your face is in shadow – although that wasn’t the case with the WWDC 2022 demo.
Even better, at least in theory, is Desk View. This somehow uses the bottom part of your iPhone’s ultra-wide lens view (if you have an iPhone 11 or later) to create an overhead view of your desk that’s streamed simultaneously with a frontal video feed of your face. It looks like an extremely impressive piece of computer-aided video processing for anyone doing live demos on a regular basis, although we suspect it will need a generous helping of light to perform well.
However, for all this software ingenuity, I’d much rather see it all built into a next-gen version of Apple’s iSight webcam, released in 2003. This unnecessarily beautiful webcam comes from the same gene pool as the Power Mac G5, and connects via FireWire. It even had noise-cancelling microphones and a small stand that magnetically attached to your Mac or monitor.
What iSight didn’t have was some of the computational intelligence we saw in the Continuity Camera demo, but that doesn’t mean Apple couldn’t build a new one with an A15 Bionic processor and a choice of two lenses.
Better iSight
Despite its promise, it feels like the pass-through camera could be as clunky as its name suggests. To use it wirelessly, you’ll need to turn on both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on your Mac and iPhone (or iPad, if you want a really huge webcam). Both devices must also be signed in to the same Apple ID using two-factor authentication.
Once you’ve got all that set up, chances are it might actually work as smoothly as shown in Apple’s WWDC 2022 demo. But what if you get a call? This could be routed through your Mac thanks to Wi-Fi calling, but there are other issues such as: B. Battery discharge and overheating that your iPhone has to overcome.
I’d much rather have a new iSight Pro camera with all the same software quality as Studio Light and Desk View connected to my Mac via USB-C and leave my iPhone free. Anytime I’ve tried using my iPhone as an accessory, such as a bike computer or dash cam, I tend to go back to using dedicated devices instead due to the compromised experience. And I suspect it will be the same here.
I’m sure some people will enjoy upgrading their webcam experience without having to shell out for one of the The best webcams for MacBooks. But as our guide to those webcams shows, there’s still huge demand for high-end webcams post-pandemic — and a new Apple iSight camera would be a much better fit than clipping an iPhone to your Mac.
