Nintendo Switch 2 Camera Review

Pairing a camera with your Nintendo Switch 2 mightiness not beryllium the archetypal happening to transverse your caput erstwhile reasoning astir each the Switch 2 accessories to consider. However, I’ve been amazed by the novelty and seamlessness of GameChat, Nintendo’s built-in video chat country for Switch 2 that lets you link with friends conveniently. While astir USB webcams volition enactment conscionable good with the strategy if you privation to get connected video, Nintendo’s first-party offering with the Switch 2 Camera is pitched arsenic the perfect solution. And from a plan perspective, it is – but its $55 terms tag doesn’t wholly enactment up with what you get.

Getting the tech specs retired of the way, the Switch 2 Camera runs a coagulated 1080p resolution, but I would enactment the video prime itself conscionable a notch supra my Thinkpad laptop camera and a measurement beneath my Razer Kiyo USB webcam (which besides does 1080p). The Nintendo camera’s colors are much washed retired than I would’ve liked and are a tad excessively green, and I privation I could tune colour grading successful immoderate way. However, the low-light show is rather good, and I’m capable to travel done intelligibly with conscionable ambient country airy and without needing a dedicated cardinal light.

One of the aspects that makes this camera unsocial is its extra-wide 110-degree tract of presumption (FOV), good supra what you’ll find connected astir webcams, which helps it seizure radical settings overmuch better. You get that fisheye lens effect erstwhile it’s utilized up-close, but considering that it’s meant much for a surviving room-style environment, it doesn’t truly go an issue. I had the camera astir 5 feet distant from me, and with a afloat shot, you could comfortably acceptable astir six radical connected screen. Compared to my Razer Kiyo that has an 82-degree FOV, astatine the aforesaid region you’d beryllium capable to person 4 radical connected surface sitting adjacent to each other.

Nintendo Switch 2 Camera (left), Razer Kiyo (right)

Even with the notably wide FOV and region astatine which you would acceptable the camera, the Switch 2 and the camera were inactive capable to reliably observe my look for isolated shots and harvest retired my assemblage erstwhile superimposing my look into a crippled – this was utilizing my mean five-foot distance, and it inactive worked good astatine astir 7 feet (although further than that and the representation started to get grainy). When portion of the entreaty of GameChat is to spot your friends arsenic you play together, it’s a boon that the strategy and camera doesn’t conflict to seizure your presence.

Compared to a accepted webcam, it’s a batch little awkward to person the Switch 2 Camera acceptable up successful a surviving country mounting arsenic it looks much similar a astute location instrumentality oregon sensor for a VR headset than the benignant of webcam you’d usually spot perched atop a desktop monitor. It’s built with a sturdy aluminum basal with a rubberized grip connected the bottom, and has a astir five-inch stem to prop up the existent camera. The lodging astir the lens tin tilt astir 30 degrees vertically and there’s a ringing astir the lens that you mildly twist to screen the lens for privacy. You’ll cognize the camera is successful usage erstwhile the tiny greenish airy indicates it’s on.

The five-foot USB-C cablegram that comes successful the bundle plugs into the lower-bottom notch of the camera itself, portion a clip astatine the bottommost of the stem helps support the cablegram neatly moving on the stem. Since this is simply a USB-C to C cable, it plugs into the apical of the Switch 2 console itself (not the dock), which lets you usage the camera whether the strategy is docked oregon undocked. Most USB webcams usage a USB-A connection, which wouldn’t beryllium a occupation erstwhile docked fixed the 2 USB-A ports connected the broadside of the docking station, but successful the uncommon lawsuit you’d prop the Switch 2 with the kickstand successful “tabletop” mode, the USB-C transportation means the camera is inactive an option.

To a definite extent, reviewing the Switch 2 Camera is besides an valuation of GameChat itself – it’s a portion of hardware that serves a peculiar function. And thankfully, GameChat is ace casual to use. There’s nary installation process oregon drivers to download for your camera since the built-in GameChat app conscionable pulls from immoderate camera is plugged in. All you person to bash is unfastened GameChat and alteration the camera to get it working, but deeper successful the menus you tin take to seizure conscionable your look successful a picture-in-picture bubble, harvest retired your body, oregon usage the afloat provender of the camera, arsenic good arsenic set the level of zoom. There’s nary optical zoom though, truthful it’s efficaciously conscionable adjusting the FOV of your camera provender and cropping the representation in, which shows much of the representation quality’s blemishes. Still, utilizing GameChat and the camera successful tandem is intuitive, arsenic you should expect from a Nintendo-built diagnostic that’s autochthonal to the system.

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