Do you want to record videos with a webcam? How can you record a video on your computer if you don’t want to use your phone or a camera to record?
We will show you 3 quick ways how to record video with a webcam on Windows and Mac computers. You can use your computer’s built-in camera application or third-party video recording software like FineCam and OBS Studio.
Table of Contents
How to Allow Recording App access to Your Webcam and Mic
Before you start to record videos with a webcam, the most important thing to note is that you should enable permission to use the camera and microphone. Otherwise, webcam recorders will not detect the camera device.
Next, I will show you how to grant webcam software access to the camera on Windows or Mac.
1. For Windows: Start > Settings > Privacy>App permissions > Camera
Turn on the toggle next to the webcam app’s name to it to access your camera. And select Microphone to allow permission to access your mic.
Alt= allow access camera on Windows
2. For Mac: Apple menu > System Preferences…> Security & Privacy > Privacy > Camera
Click Padlock in the lower-left corner and turn on the toggle to grant the camera permissions for webcam software.
And remember to configure settings to allow the apps access to your mic in the Microphone menu.
How to Record Videos with Webcam using a Built-in Camera App
How to record my webcam? The most straightforward way to record webcam videos is to use the webcam application built into your computer. Connect to any webcam and it will be ready to use.
Let us tell you how to use the Camera app on Windows and Photo Booth on Mac.
Camera App for Windows
Let me show you how to record video with a webcam on a Windows PC:
1. Press Window + S or tap the Cortana search box on the taskbar and type the word camera. Then, click on the Camera app to launch the app.
Alt= launch the camera app
2. You can see what your webcam is capturing. By default, it is in photo mode. Click the video icon in the middle right to take a video.
3. You can click the buttons to pause or stop video recording, whenever you like.
The default save location for your videos is D:\My Documents\Pictures\Camera Roll.
Alt= finish recording
Photo Booth for Mac
Now, let’s find out how to record videos with a webcam using Apple’s pre-installed camera app.
1. Find Photo Booth from the Applications folder in Finder. Or open up it from Spotlight.
2. You can see the preview video captured by your webcam in Photo Booth.
3. At the bottom left of the app, click the View Video button to switch to video mode.
4. When you’re ready, click the red Record Video button to start recording.
5. When you’re done, press the red Stop button to stop recording.
How to Record Videos with Webcam Using FineCam
FineCam is excellent third-party webcam software that works seamlessly on Windows and Mac. It is small, convenient, and easy to use, which can use your phone as a webcam. And you can even record videos with a webcam directly in FineCam.
Next, I will show you how to use FineCam to record videos with a webcam.
1. Launch FineCam on the computer.
Download and install the free version of FineCam on your computer. Open it.
2. Choose the camera source.
Click the + box under the scene, and click the three dots to select a camera. You could select the laptop’s built-in camera, USB webcam, or your iPhone as the webcam.
Alt= Select Webcam
3. Start recording.
Find the Record button at the right upper corner of your image to record webcam videos.
Alt= record a video
4. View stored videos.
Your captured videos will be stored on the FineCam media library.
Find the three horizontal icons in the top right corner of the FineCam application to open My Library.
How to Record Videos with Webcam using OBS Studio
OBS Studio is one of the best screen capturers and webcam recorders for live video streaming, video content creation, and other video-related tasks.
Not to mention, OBS is free and open-source software that supports Windows, MAC, Linux, and mobile systems.
Here’s how to record video with a webcam from OBS:
1. Visit www.obsproject.com to download and install OBS Studio.
2. Launch OBS. Go to Sources, and click the + icon on the bottom left.
3. Select Video Capture Devices to create a video source.
4. The properties window will open. You could see the preview of your webcam and drag the captured window to resize it. Please select the webcam you want to use for recording from the Device drop-down list. You can also make some video/audio settings here.
5. The final step is to go to the Control section and click on Start Recording. You will see a red dot appearing at the bottom right corner. It shows you how long this video has been recorded.
6. Click Stop Recording after finishing recording. To set the video save location, go to the top menu bar > File > Settings > Output > Recording > Recording Path and choose the file you like.
Conclusion
You will often encounter situations where you need to use a webcam for recording. And sometimes it gets tricky.
However, now you know how to record video with a webcam on Windows or Mac. So, whenever you are faced with this tricky situation, use any of the above methods to get your recording started. Hope this article will be helpful to you.
