I have had Logitech C920s and C922s for Macs and PCs in my company for several years, and they all have lousy color, no matter how well lighted and what color adjustments I make. I either look like a grainy beet or Orange Man with those cameras, and I have professional studio lighting that can vary the brightness and light warmth (white point). Colors of background objects display even worse. The last straw was when Logitech "upgraded" their driver software, which made it worse. I either look like my face is made of putty, or I have chicken pox.
I happened to do a webinar with a friend who has an AverMedia webcam, and he looked flawless on a PC; perfect color and good resolution with overhead fluorescent lights, so I bought the AverMedia PW315. I was concerned from the lack of reviews on MacOS that the camera might not work well, but it works great on my 2019 MacBook Pro 15" 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 running Big Sur. I do a lot of webinars and web meetings, so skin tone and correct color are important for my use. I'm not a gamer, so I couldn't care less about that.
The documentation for Macs is sparse, so it was unclear if this webcam needs software to manage the camera settings, and it does need the CamEngine app on MacOS or Windows, which you can download from AverMedia's web site. The documentation says the camera doesn’t need a driver installed, which technically is true for MacOS, but Windows does already have a driver for it, so on PCs technically it does have a driver, although you don’t have to install one. With either OS, you need the CamEngine software to make adjustments. I would ignore the review that says this cam is useless on Macs, that’s nonsense, it works fine on my 3 MacBook Pros and 2 Mac Pros.
That app has a lot of settings to adjust color, focus, white point, brightness and contrast, and improve skin tone and focus. The only drawback to this 60fps camera is it has about a 2-second lag time, so I can raise my hand and put it back down before the camera displays it. A minor annoyance for me; not sure how it would work for gaming.
If you're not well lit, the image can appear grainy, but that's true with any web cam. Conversely, if you’re over lit, you’ll look washed out. So it’s advisable to get lights in front of you that you can adjust the brightness on. It helps a lot with any web cam to have good, balanced lighting. If I turn on my small studio lights and have a window next to me with no blinds, that side gets a bit over exposed. I suspect the people complaining about poor color or saturation don’t have decent lighting and are relying on home light fixtures and window lighting only.
While the camera has fixed focus, no auto focus, it doesn't need it since the lens depth of field is excellent. I am in focus sitting 2 feet away from the camera, and the background about 10 feet behind me is also in focus. Again, proper lighting makes all the difference.
The built-in camera mount works well hanging over a monitor, but I prefer to use an Olisicht Mini Projector Wall Ceiling Mount 215mm on Amazon to mount it to the 1/4" x 20 screw mount, placed on a monitor stand to bring the camera to eye level.
The lens cover slides right to left over the lens and works fine. Camera build quality is as good as my Logitech C920s and 922s.
I love this web cam and will be replacing all Logitech cams in my company with these.
| Brand Name | AVerMedia |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 13.8 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 6.7 x 4.7 x 2.7 inches |
| Country of Origin | China |
| Item model number | PW513 |
| Color Name | black |
| Specification Met | Energy Star |
| Special Features | Low Light |
| Item display height | 3 inches |
