Least expensive M43 camera that can act as a webcam under Linux?
What's the least expensive M43 camera that can be used as a webcam? A camera would qualify if it:
* provides an indefinite, continuous live HD/4K signal out
* provides indefinite battery life via an A/C adapter / dummy battery
* works with Linux
It's fine if it requires a 3rd party HDMI capture card like this one:
The Olympus E-M1 seems to be the least expensive in the Olympus line-up at a used price of $250 - $300. The Panasonic GH2 seems to be the least expensive in the Panasonic line up at a used price of $250 - $300.
However, perhaps there's 3rd party firmware that would allow say, the Olympus E-P3 to stream HDMI to an external capture device?
Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Panasonic Cameras with Clean HDMI Output (reportedly):
Lumix GH2 (only when recording)
Lumix GH3
G7
FZ300
FZ330
HC-V770
Lumix BGH1
Lumix DMC-GH4
DMC-GX80
Lumix G100
Lumix G85
Lumix G9
Lumix G95
Lumix GH5
Lumix GX8
Lumix GX9
Lumix S1
Lumix S1H
Lumix S1R
Lumix S5
V180
V800
VX1
VXF1
W585
WXF1
X1500/X2000
FZ1000
No clean HDMI out:
GX7
GF1
I haven't looked into this extensively, but doing some quick searches myself it looks like you're on the right track. I can't think of anything that would be cheaper than what you mentioned. Besides the Panasonic/Olympus bodies there's oddities like the Z Cam E1/2, but those are much more expensive and I'm not sure about offering HDMI out.
Thanks for the response!
Does it absolutely need to be M4/3? I'm thinking there might be some other systems that could work. Like the Sony a6000 might, and used it's $200-$250. I don't think the NEX series before it has clean HDMI out but if they did that's even cheaper.
Actually more searching just now revealed Sony a5000 works with a hack, and a5100 has clean hdmi out natively supposedly. Those are less than $200 APS-C bodies. E lenses are pretty cheap or you could adapt manual glass.
Not sure about the Linux compatibility, but not sure why that would matter if you're using a capture card? Wouldn't just the capture card/software need to be compatible? I've never actually done this so I'm sure I'm missing something there.
Curious what you end up getting and how the setup works.
Snappy is mostly right, cameras like the NEX 5n don't have clean HDMI, but some NEX cameras do in fact have clean HDMI output. The NEX VG10, VG20, VG30, FS100, EA50 and VG900 do according to Atomos's camera compatibility guide. It won't be super high bitrate on the cheap ones, but honestly I do like the quality of those cameras and the camcorder/cinemacamera controls are kinda nice IMO. Still not MFT, sometimes you find a VG10 super cheap, other times people try and way overcharge for them too.
According to Atomos also https://www.atomos.com/compatible-cameras/om-d-e-m10-markii it looks like the EM-10 mk II can do it, which is sometimes cheaper than the EM-1. That is usually who I check to see not only which cameras do clean HDMI out but, at what bit depth they do as you can see most Olympus cameras actually get 4:2:2 external but only 4:2:0 internal
