The Live Streamer PW315 pushes the limits of a mid-range webcam, utilizing features from our most advanced model, the PW513, including smooth and detailed 1080p60 image, an ultra-wide 95° lens, digital pan-tilt-zoom (ePTZ), and AI Framing.
Download CamEngine: HERE
Lighting
As this camera is designed for both creators and casual users, we have increased its ability to perform under low-light by default. However, by adding a moderate amount of lighting and adjusting settings, a creator can still obtain an incredibly clear, detailed picture from this webcam.
For a typical user, we still recommend having stronger front-lighting than back-lighting for best results, but even with no lights, default settings should still generate a clear picture.
Settings
With the release of the PW315, we have continued to update and improve our CamEngine software, which is currently at version 3.4. The most notable new feature is settings presets. This will allow you to use presets for all the settings on CamEngine and easily save adjustments for different lighting scenarios. No more needing to adjust settings if you decide to keep your curtains open one stream and closed in another!
CamEngine 3.4 offers a wide range of settings to customize and improve your picture between basic and advanced video settings as well as filters. Adjust these according to your space, lighting, and preferences, but below are some recommended settings to start with for the PW315:
Basic Settings
Brightness: Your brightness setting will depend on your gamma and exposure. When adjusting your image, FIRST adjust your lighting, SECOND adjust your exposure, THIRD adjust your brightness, and LAST adjust your gamma.
Contrast: For best results, keep the contrast low. On a creator setup, I keep it as low as 1-5.
Hue: Adjust based on your space. We leave this at 0, but adjust as needed along with white balance to make your colors as true to life as possible.
Saturation: Adjust for colors to be as close to real-world as possible. This setting will depend on your exposure, brightness, and contrast, but for the 315, the 60-85 range tends to have the right balance.
Sharpness: Adjust based on preferences. The 315 is naturally a fairly sharp cam, so we keep this as low as 1 or 2 at most times. If edges on your image appear jagged, try re-adjusting the sharpness to fix.
Advanced Settings
Gamma: Adjust to increase the gamma of the image. Recommended to adjust this AFTER you adjust your lighting, then exposure, then brightness
White Balance: By default, this automatically adjusts. If you would like totally consistent colors in your picture, un-check “auto” and find the color temperature that works best for your space. We recommend un-checking auto and using manual white balance for best quality in a creator setup.
Backlight Compensator: By default this is set to zero, but if your front lighting is weaker than backlighting, you may want to adjust it. This is extremely useful for people without any front lighting.
Exposure: For typical users, we generally recommend leaving this on “auto” by default, as exposure adjustments are helpful if you move around or show objects to the camera or have inconsistent lighting (IE lighting from a window).
If you want to use manual exposure, set your exposure level. For the 315, settings above -5 will result in decreased performance. The main functionality for this is if you have bright studio lights and want total image control.
Filters (Note: These can cause CamEngine to use significantly more system resources):
These remain unchanged from the PW513.
Skin Tone: Adjusting this helps balance and clarify skin tones with the rest of your settings and colors. It isn’t totally necessary if your front lighting is sufficient, but it can be helpful for extra color balancing.
Smoothing: This is comparable to smoothing features found in some camera applications. It applies a soft blur to remove some small details in a scale from 0-100. This can additionally reduce graininess.
Effects
This section allows you to use fun, face-tracking overlays. Ranging from “cute” to “cool” and more, these are a fun added bonus to CamEngine!
ePTZ
AI Framing: This tracks subjects either by face and movement or by speech (which is registered by mouth movement). Useful if you want a dynamic frame as you move around or want the camera to hone in on whoever is speaking in a group shot (IE – a podcast).
ePTZ Virtual Cameras: Set preset frames to easily switch between! Zoom clearly up to 2x as well—click on one of the numbered boxes, use the “Zoom” at the top of CamEngine, and drag the image in your preview to find your frame. You can additionally click the gear at the top of the window to enable using hotkeys to switch between these presets on the fly.
NOTE: Your CamEngine preset includes ePTZ presets, so if you set new setting profile presets, you must also re-make your ePTZ presets again. We recommend duplicating an existing setting profile then adjusting basic/advanced settings from there to keep consistent ePTZ presets.
Setup Guide
Follow these steps for adjusting your PW315 to ideal settings. These steps mainly apply to creators or other users with more advanced lighting setups. Note that the following are screenshots of a downscaled preview, so these are not full resolution.
Even if you don’t use CamEngine as your camera source in RECentral, OBS, or Zoom, adjustments in the Basic/Advanced categories will carry over, such as if you use the camera as a source directly or through something like RTX video.
Also note that the exact numbers for settings you see on my screen will likely not reflect your ideal settings. Additionally, as you adjust settings in the order we provide, you may need to jump back to settings you’ve already adjusted for an ideal image.
- Open CamEngine.
- This is no lights, default settings, looking at moderately bright page:
- Adjust your lighting as desired. Evaluate your starting image. If over-exposed, fear not!
- This is my image on fully default settings with 2 key lights (one at 30%, one at 10%, your ideal lighting will vary)
- Decide if you will keep using auto exposure or if you would rather switch to manual exposure. I am switching to manual at -5.
- From this step onward, your exact settings will vary depending on whether you use manual or auto as well as your lighting. Next, adjust your brightness. In my case, I only need a small adjustment. Note that increasing brightness decreases overall image contrast, so I recommend increasing contrast a tiny amount (1-2) here.
- Last on lighting/brightness, adjust Gamma as necessary. I didn’t need any adjustment here, but this will vary by setup.
- Next, we’ll adjust color. We’ll start with White Balance in advanced settings. You can keep auto, but I recommend manual for best results, as lighting scenarios can differ. Use white balance to compensate for the temperature of your lighting. Increase for warmer, and decrease for cooler. I made my image slightly cooler to compensate for my background lights (they’re red/lavender).
- Next, adjust your saturation in advanced settings. In some setups, the default level of 64 may be a bit washed out, so a small increase can be helpful.
- NOTE: Increasing saturation can cause adjust the temperature of your image. Consider re-adjusting white balance when increasing saturation. I am decreasing my white balance temperature, which makes my skin less red while retaining the fuller colors provided by increased saturation.
- Last on color, adjust Hue in basic settings. By adjusting saturation and white balance, you may have unintentionally added a tint of color to your image. Hue can totally change the color of your cam, but small adjustments are perfect for these corrections. I did a small increase in hue to reduce the slight violet tint:
- Adjust other settings by preference, and make sure to make a new preset if you want to change it for a different scenario (IE: with your curtains open during the day, with auto exposure, or something else)
So, let’s compare:
Default (No Lights):
Default (With Lights):
Minimal adjustments:
Full adjustments:
In short…
You can get a great image with this camera using minimal adjustments. Your exact settings and steps will vary based on preferences (IE: if you prefer keeping auto exposure) and your setup. I am not a lighting expert by any means. You may find even better settings adjustments than I do! However, quick adjustments to lighting and CamEngine settings go a long way to dramatically increase your webcam’s quality.
Consider adding the powerful, customizable, and, most importantly, affordable PW315 to your stream! And remember…
We are all creators.
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