Lori Grunin / CNET
The $ 200 (£ 200) Kiyo Pro is Razer’s second webcam recording, and the first to be worth recommending. The original Kiyo (still available for $ 135) is clumsy with just-good quality and a built-in ring light that looked like a good idea at the time; it’s not really bright enough to make a dip in the forms of dim lighting you need it for; it therefore occurs more than a gimmick. The Pro shuts down the light and the awkward mountain, exchanging it for a wider lens and a more flexible, elegant mountain design. It also features a full-frame 60-second Sony Commercial HD PDF (PDF) sensor (PDF), designed for surveillance cameras and other low-light use cases, to deliver enhanced image quality in sub-optimal lighting. This is almost everyone’s lighting.
As you may have noticed, Razer expands beyond playing more work-from-home friendly products, as she new line of wireless accessories and the Razer Book 13 lightweight laptop. The Kiyo Pro is intended to limit the needs of game streamers – Razer’s traditional target – as well as Zoombies. This puts it in direct competition with the market leader Logitech.
For streamers, the camera provides 1080p 60 fps uncompressed video. For conference attendees, the increased headroom required for frame rate opens the door to what Razer calls ‘HDR’, but simply expands the tonal range to better preserve the appearance of faces. (Really more dynamic range rather than high dynamic range.) The higher frame rate and headroom are allowed with USB-C, which has more bandwidth than the USB-A connections used by most webcams. And for the most part, the video quality looks better than the original Kiyo’s, especially when it comes to sharpness and auto-exposure.
To compensate for wide angle distortion in wide mode, Razer offers a linear mode option. This is essentially a wide angle, but corrects for the curvature on the sides of the frame (which should also cut around the edges). There is also a medium mode that provides the cutting work without the correction.
But I think my redesign is my favorite part of the Kiyo Pro. When you drop the ring light, the camera looks much cleaner, and the detachable USB-C cable is more comfortable than the typical attached cable. And that makes it easy to know that it’s completely off. (The camera indicates that it is on with a small light on the front.)
Lori Grunin / CNET
The mountain has also been completely renovated. It’s less awkward, but it offers even more ways to position the camera, even higher. It also offers seating on top of wider surfaces; in other words, it now fits on both the monitor and the top of the stand for game monitors and thicker supporting pro design monitors. No more forcing it to the side. The mountain also sinks into a much smaller size. And the camera comes off the mountain with a single thumbscrew.
Yet the camera is not as good as he thinks. Tackling difficult lighting conditions, such as harsh backlighting or side lighting, basically enhances the gain on your face and blows out the brighter lights completely. Yes, your face is out of shadow, but people on the other side are now staring at large white spots behind or at the side of your beautiful face.
And while the automatic white balance is optimal for skin tones, it’s a little too cool. (However, this is a cultural preference. Americans mostly like warmer skin tones.) Less subjectively, it throws the white balance off the rest of the video. My deep purple shirt, for example, looks royal blue, something I have not seen since the first digital cameras came out. It’s not something that will bother everyone, but it jumps out at me.
Lori Grunin / CNET
The problems are exacerbated by Windows 10’s terrible, horrible webcam settings interface, mostly how it provides exclusive access to the camera, combined with Razer’s somewhat ill-considered software. To get better quality than other cameras in very low light, you need to switch the Kiyo Pro to HDR mode, which you can only do in Razer’s Synapse software – this and the Wide / Medium / Linear modes are the only adjustments. which requires Synapse.
Windows prevents many applications from displaying video at the same time as changing the options in Synapse. For example, you need to exit your application, such as Zoom, change the settings in Synapse, and then restart. But it does not necessarily look the same in Zoom, so if you do not like it, you should stop, change it again and start again.
Even then, Windows often seem to think that something in the system is still using the camera, despite all the contrary nothing can use it. The only way to fix this is to unplug it and reconnect it. This is where the detachable USB-C cable comes in handy.
The built-in microphone works well: it’s good for web conferencing, and streamers should use a dedicated microphone anyway.
In many ways, the Kiyo Pro is a big step up from the Kiyo for both streaming and work, and it’s definitely an improvement over 99% of the built – in webcams you pin on a laptop; Simply bulging the typical 720p laptop webcam will significantly enhance your image.