Ever wonder if you can use your Canon EOS R for live streaming?
Well, the answer is yes!
The Canon EOS R outputs a clean HDMI feed so you can use the HDMI output to live stream with your camera. HDMI capture devices turn your camera’s HDMI feed into a webcam for your computer to use.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to use a Canon EOS R for livestreaming.
Things You’ll Need to Livestream with an EOS R
- Canon EOS R (of course)
- HDMI capture device (I’ll be using an Elgato Camlink)
- HDMI mini to HDMI cable
- Tripod (Full size or Tabletop)
- Canon AC-E6N AC power kit (to plug EOS R into power)
- USB Microphone (recommended)
Step #1: Setup Your Camera for Live Streaming
Now in addition to the equipment above you’ll need to change a few settings on your camera. This includes disabling auto power-off, setting a clean HDMI output, and turning on face tracking.
1. Disable Auto Power Off
You don’t want your camera shutting off while streaming so it’s important to disable the auto power-off function.
Additionally make sure Eco mode is set to “Off” as pictured above.
2. Set Clean HDMI Output
On the Canon EOS R, you can make the camera output all of the camera overlays or a clean feed. You don’t want your overlays displayed since it’ll overlay your camera feed with focus point, settings, etc. So changing this option will allow your EOS R to only display the camera feed.
3. Enable Face Tracking Autofocus
Since you can’t fiddle with focus you’ll most likely want to turn on face tracking for autofocus.
4. Using Direct Power in Your EOS R
If you are planning on streaming longer than an hour it’s recommended you plug your camera into direct power rather than using the battery. Since the battery dying during a live stream can result in unexpected downtime.
If you plan to use the battery you can expect an hour or two of battery life while outputting HDMI from your EOS R.
It’s important to know that the Canon EOS R doesn’t charge via USB C while in use so you’ll need to use a power adapter to power the camera directly.
This is where the Canon AC-E6N AC power kit comes in. There are plenty of dummy battery kits for EOS R but this is Canon’s official accessory.
Step #2: Hook Up HDMI Capture Device
The most important device in this setup is an HDMI capture device. This will allow your computer to use your camera as a webcam.
New for 2020: if you do not want to get a capture device you can use Canon’s EOS Webcam utility to use your Canon EOS R as a webcam. You will achieve higher quality using a capture card but the EOS Webcam utility makes it easy since all you need to do is hook your EOS R up via USB-C cable. Now available on Mac and Windows.
Here are a few HDMI capture devices to use:
- Elgato Camlink (This is the one I’ll be using in the guide)
- Elgato Game Capture Card HD60
- BlueAVS Capture Card
- Mirabox
- Pengo 4K
- Blackmagic Design Web Presenter (users have reported issues using this with EOS R)
Different HDMI capture devices will vary by resolution, framerate, audio options, and overall stability.
Once you have your HDMI capture device simply use your HDMI wire and plug in your capture device.
Make sure to get the drivers for your capture device, for example, Elgato Camlink will appear choppy without installing Game Capture. You don’t need to use the program but installing it will make the Camlink work optimally.
If your camera is on and you have all of the correct settings you should see your EOS R listed as a webcam in all programs that use webcams on your computer. Note that it won’t actually say EOS R, most likely the brand of HDMI capture device such as “Camlink”.
After selecting the webcam in your favorite live streaming software like OBS or Ecamm Live you should see the direct feed from your EOS R. This will also work in your web browser to stream on sites like YouTube, Facebook Live, or Twitch as well. It will also work with any conferencing apps that let you select a webcam like Zoom calls, FaceTime (on Mac), or Google Hangouts.
If you need to change any settings on the camera simply hit a button on the camera and the screen will turn on. This will allow you to change camera settings all without viewers seeing the menu.
For audio, not all HDMI capture devices will transfer the camera’s audio to your computer. For this reason I recommend picking up a USB microphone like a Blue Yeti or Rode NT-USB Mini. Then you won’t have to worry about batteries or the HDMI device’s audio capabilities.
You should now be able to successfully use your Canon EOS as a webcam in any live streaming application.
If you have any issues or questions feel free to ask me in the comments below.
Is there any time limit? How long can you stream with this camera? Thank you for the writeup.
For as long as the battery will last (I think a few hours), or if you get the plug in cord I reference in the article you can continually power the camera forever.
Hi Andy
So in your experience you didn’t have any issues with the Canon EOS R overheating when streaming for extended periods of time (eg. 2 hours?)
Sheree, The EOS R will not overheat if using it in an HDMI capture card to my knowledge. The same goes for the EOS R5 unless you are using the 8K or high frame rate modes. That being said I have used my EOS R for a few hours before in a capture card without issue, the battery may die but a dummy battery fixes that (linked in the article above). I think it’ll go 2 hours with a battery though! hope that helps.
Thanks for this write up!
I’m experiencing a bug I can’t seem to find a solution online for. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
When using my EOS R with a Black Magic Web Presenter (with HDMI) and OBS, the signal is cropped to 720 regardless of the EOS R HDMI output settings). I know this because it won’t fill a 1080 canvas on OBS
On top of that, the video signal has a black box surrounding the video, reducing the effective resolution even more.
I see this cropped-black-box version on my Web Presenter preview screen.
No such issue with our Panasonic GH5.
I was beginning to believe this was an EOS R shortcoming, but your article gives me hope this can be corrected. 🙂
Any ideas?
I appreciate your time and thoughts!
Have you tried setting the video mode on the camera to 720? Perhaps it’s an issue when a 1080p feed is going into the 720 feed. Granted I have no issues using the 4k option going into my 1080p Camlink. Also, does the Web Presenter have aspect ratio options? Hard for me to fully test since I don’t have one.
I’m having a similar issue, aspect ratio is clearly off (squished), black bars across the top and bottom. Aspect ratio (4K/1080/720) doesn’t matter, lens doesn’t matter. Works fine with my Canon 6d Mark II, but it isn’t a clean HDMI feed.
Did you find a fix?
macOS Catalina
Canon EOS R (24-105 F4/28-70 F2)
BlackMagic UltraStudio Mini Recorder
Hey Richard, have you tried downloading the BlackMagic “Desktop Video” app for Mac? If not I have a feeling this might help (I had some odd issues with the Elgato before I added their app that added the drivers to my Mac). https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/family/capture-and-playback
Let me know if this helps and I will add it to the guide!
I do (latest version), doesn’t seem to help. I read another user somewhere else with my same setup has the same problem and it was solved with the Elgato Cam Link. My next steps:
Canon Support
Black Magic Support
Bought an Elgato Cam Link (unknown arrival date)
Interesting item of note, while not clean HDMI, my Canon 6D mark II works fine.
Thanks for getting back to me and thanks for the article.
Shoot, figured that would help! I wish I had one to debug it, let me know if you figure it out! Maybe a different HDMI wire might help also. Either way keep me posted as it seems to be a common issue.
Hey Andy, I was wondering if I could ask some advice from you.. I connected my EOS R with my Elgato HD60, and wanted to use it as my webcam – In particular for Zoom – however I cannot change the webcam on my MacBook to the EOS R input as there is no option to change.
After some research, I downloaded OBS Studio and OBS NDI Plugin, but for some reason it is displaying that ‘No capture devices are found’.. I’ve tried uninstalling OBS, and reinstalling it but still not working, I have followed the steps for the EOS R menu system and doesn’t seem to work.
NB when I open Game Capture I can see the image from the EOS R so it seems the device (Elgato HD60) is working and the feed (mini hdmi – hdmi).
Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thank you
Amit
Hey Amit, the button next to your camera button in Zoom (the little up arrow) should let you select the Camlink. You shouldn’t need any additional things running, just the Camlink plugged in will have it show up in the Zoom camera list.
I’m trying to get a clean output from my EOS R. I’m using firmware 1.6.0. Have six ‘shoot’ pages, not four, and none of the pages provide the HDMI display option. What firmware are you using? Is there some option I need to enable somewhere else in order to gain access to the HDMI display option?
This is the latest firmware, you are most likely in photo mode, go to shooting modes and switch it to one of the video modes, then you’ll have the option on page 4 like the screenshot.
Hi
I found that using a USB-C instead of an HDMI cable works very well. It requires less gears in total.
For software, I use OBS with the EOS Webcam plugin.
I use windows 10.
Thank you so much for this comprehensive tutorial.
Would you mind giving some advice: what lens is better for live streaming, to get this
blurred background and high quality?
appreciate your answer
Daniel
Hey Daniel, different cameras will produce different levels of background blur. That being said I think anything under 2.8 will be good, if you have a high budget and a full frame camera a lot of people get the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 https://geni.us/sigma-18-35
I’ve been struggling to use my Canon EOS R with Zoom using the Elgato CamLink. I have the exact same setup that you have here and it works great for about 10 mins, and then my video feed stops working in Zoom. I have to leave the meeting and re-join. This is not the case if I use a traditional webcam (i.e.: Logitech Brio, C922, etc). Any thoughts?
Do you have the CamLink app installed? I found that helps a few issues. Also is your camera set not to turn off?
Are you talking about the Game Capture HD? Yes, I do now. Do I run the video input through that app, or just having it installed is good enough?
As for power, yes… power saving mode is set to disabled. When the video blacks out, the camera is still on. All I do is leave the meeting and go back in, and it’s working fine again. I have a webinar with 6,000+ participants coming up this weekend and need to figure this out. It’s been a week of trial and error (lots of errors).
Having the app installed should be enough. Hmmm so it just blacks out? I have done hour+ long things with the CamLink without issue. I assume it’s the USB/CamLink aspect, could you try a different USB port or a different computer just to rule it out? Also does it switch inputs on you or just goes to black while still being on the CamLink?
Yeah, I thought it was strange too. It actually doesn’t completely black out. The input stays on CamLink but stops by video. Problem is, I can’t start the video again without leaving the Zoom session and restarting/rejoining. And even more strange… when that happens, I can’t even switch to another video input (my Brio for example). It just stops allowing me to stream video.
As a quick update, I have a test call going right now that I started after I installed the Game Capture HD software to test that out. I’m at 34 mins so far, so this is promising!! Could that really have been the fix?
Awesome! yeah I think the software makes it work better (I had stuttering issues before I installed it) let me know if it works out!
52 minutes and counting and still no issues! Amazing! The quality is just so much better through good glass. It’s worth the time putting into it to make it look great. I’m using a 35mm f/1.2 lens. The depth of field is amazing.
Thanks for your help!! Greatly appreciated!
PS. I tried doing all of this using the Canon Webcam Utility beta and the quality was horrible. Very, very choppy. Have you experienced the same thing with that?
I am having issues with my EOS R when streaming.
I have disabled the Auto-off setting but it keeps switching off after 30 mins regardless of that setting being disabled.
Any advice?
How are you streaming the camera? It may be that you’re using a custom video mode while streaming that doesn’t have the auto-off setting set in it.
Same issue! No matter what I do the camera shuts off at 10 min
Hi Andy
Thanks for the article. I have an EOS R and wish to use the same HDMI capture device you used in the video – will that transfer the video and audio (wireless lav hooked into camera) from the R, or do I need to provide a second mic?
Hi, Andy, how to connect to facebook for live streaming?
Are you using a computer to stream? You should be able to select the EOS R’s camera in your streaming software if you followed the guide.
For some reason with a canon Eos r and a pengo I can see it recognizing the feed, i.e. I have the option to choose it but the screen is black. Do you have any suggestions on how to fix it?
Hey D, do you have another HDMI input you can try in the Pengo? then you can rule out that as an issue.
This may be a dumb question but does this tutorial work for the R5? I would just test it but still waiting on a few items to get here. Thanks for the write up too.
Hey Mike, I have an R5 also and the steps should be exactly the same! I hope you enjoy!
Great thank you so much for the quick reply. This is exactly what I was looking for!
Another question too. Will the HDMI connection pick up the audio from the mic. I have a shotgun mic that I plan to use but not sure that will come through with the capture device
Hey Mike, I don’t fully re-call (I can test if you need me to) but I am pretty sure it will work as expected. So you can hook your shotgun mic to the R5 and use the HDMI output to the Elgato Camlink and you’ll have the audio from the R5’s shotgun mic (synced since it’s the same device as well).
Hope that helps!
Yes that is perfect. All my stuff should be here Monday so I will test it all out. We are doing a live stream to vmix and they wanted the quality to be better than the normal webcam. Audio is important too. I do appreciate your help. Once I test it out I will post just in case anyone else has the same question. Thanks again!
Thanks Mike! Wishing you luck! I hope you got a dummy battery if it’s over a couple hours. (Granted you can swap batteries really quickly during as well)
Hi Andy, so I tested everything out and you were right. The audio from the shotgun does come through and works perfect.
Awesome Mike! glad it all worked out!
Thanks for the cool tips. I can’t get 4K from the camera to the PC though. I have a R6 and Alegro 4K capture card. No matter what settings I choose it only shows 1080p as the source signal HDR works I get but no 4K. Does anyone have any ideas?
Are you using a good enough HDMI wire? sounds like you need an HDMI 2.0 wire to use 4K on the output. Also is the video setting set to 4K on the camera?
Yes I have a HDMI cable 2.0 in the camera you can only choose between Automatic or 1080p. When I connect the camera to a TV I get 4K but only when I press the record button otherwise the live image is also on the TV only 1080p. But the Alegro 4K capture card always shows only 1080p, even when I press record.
Managed to do it myself. You have to connect the capture card via HDMI to a monitor, set the HDMI color space to extended and the EDID mode to monitor then you suddenly have a 4K resolution.
Has there been any resolution with the Canon R and Blackmagic web presenter? I just bought an RP and cannot get the web presenter to see the camera. I have hooked my camera up to a few TV’s and have not had issues elsewhere.
How do you use this setup and also shoot HDR Movie. The settings go away for clean HDMI output when I select “HDR Movie.” Is there a setting somewhere else that might be canceling out the clean HDMI selection within the window?
Hey JT, I just tested HDR Movie while using the Elgato Camlink and it worked fine. Just a reminder you do have to be in 1080p 29.97fps IPB to use HDR movie mode. Perhaps your capture card or HDMI wire doesn’t support HDR. I know funky thing can happen with HDMI, that being said when I enable HDR Movie mode on my EOS R I can still modify the clean HDMI settings.
Hi I have my canon eos r connected via micro hdmi to hdmi into an Atem mini to stream on twitch via osb. The picture looks perfectly exposed on my camera screen but the picture on my live stream is very dark. Do you know why this might be? Really struggling to figure it out. I have enough lighting for it to be perfectly exposed so I’m not sure why the picture is appearing so dark in my live.
Hey Libby, I would double check how it looks in another program, maybe OBS is somehow compressing or modifying the image. My guess is it’s not the camera if it’s exposed properly. Another solution is to just overexpose to compensate for it. I have nothing a lot of live stream platforms compress the image a lot so it might look a bit different vs in-camera.
Thank you! Set the canon to c log and it has improved a little but will try a few things! Thanks 🙏🏼
Is this a work-a-round for the 30min time limit for video?
Hey Christine, if you’re using your camera as a webcam there isn’t a need to record on the device so the 30 min limit won’t matter. That being said you can record over 30 minutes using an external record like an Atmos Ninja or look into Canon’s cinema cameras for unlimited record time.
Hey, when I plug in the Hdmi into the camera it goes black and so does the screen in the streaming software I’m using (OBS)
I would confirm that the HDMI is outputting by using a monitor to double check. Also take a look a the settings under “Set Clean HDMI Output” in my guide above.