Webcam test

How it works

The browser will ask for permission to use the camera: allow it and you'll instantly see the preview, with the camera name, real resolution and frames per second. If you have several cameras you can switch from the menu.

Total privacy

The video is NOT recorded or sent anywhere: it stays in your browser and stops when you close the page. Also great for checking that no other app is holding the camera.

If it doesn't work

Permission denied? Click the camera icon in the address bar. Black image? The camera may be busy in another app or covered by its privacy shutter.

Why the webcam shows a dark picture

It is hardly ever a fault of the camera: it is the light behind you. With a window at your back, the camera exposes for the brightest part of the frame and your face becomes a silhouette. The fix is not raising brightness, which also lifts the background and flattens everything, but turning round: window in front, or a lamp, and the face becomes readable again.

The second reason is that webcam sensors are small and in low light they raise the gain, that is they amplify: the image gets brighter but fills with speckle and movement smears. Adding real light is the only correction that makes nothing else worse.

The frame rate you see is not the one on the box

A webcam rated at thirty frames per second can drop to fifteen or fewer in low light, and that is not a fault: to gather more light the sensor keeps each frame open longer, so it captures fewer per second. It is why in a dark room the video looks jerky even on a perfect connection.

The other bottleneck is the USB port: a high-definition camera on a shared hub or a long cable may not get enough bandwidth, and the software quietly lowers resolution or smoothness. Trying it plugged straight into the computer tells the two cases apart in a minute.

What resolution says, and what it does not

A 1080p camera is not automatically better than a 720p one: in video calls the software recompresses everything and often transmits at a lower resolution to fit the available bandwidth, so the advantage is lost on the way. What always shows, instead, is the quality of the lens and the sensor, and the light.

It is also worth checking the framing: many webcams have a very wide field of view, taking in half the room and shrinking the face. Moving closer, or raising the camera to eye level on a stack of books, changes the result more than any setting. A camera lower than the face is the least flattering angle there is.

A black picture, and its causes

If the preview stays black although permission was granted, there are three causes. The privacy shutter, which many cameras have and which is easy to leave closed. Another application holding the camera, because on Windows and on Mac use is exclusive: a video-call window left open in the background is enough. And the hardware switch present on many laptops, usually on a function key.

If instead the camera does not appear in the device list at all, the problem sits above the browser: it is the operating system that cannot see it, and it has to be chased there, between system permissions and the physical connection.

Nearby tools

To test the microphone there is Microphone test, to record your voice Voice recorder. To work on a clip there are Video trimmer, What video is it really and Frame from video.