The EMEET SmartCam S800, Better Than Your Average Streaming Webcam

Since the pandemic, I have had an ever-growing demand for online courses and workshops via various streaming services such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Although I can use my relatively small mirrorless cameras for streaming, they are still too big to mount on my screens. So, a good-quality streaming webcam is the answer.

A big consideration for me is researching before I buy. Whenever possible, I use a local shop to buy gear. But I don’t live in a big city—the nearest one that stocks webcams is the best part of an hour’s drive from me—so online shopping is the answer. However, there are hundreds of different webcams out there, and there is too much choice. I am always dubious about Amazon reviews for gear.

Quite coincidentally and fortuitously, one of my contacts got in touch and asked if I would like to review a webcam. She sent me two to try, and I’ve been putting the first through its paces to see if it would be something I would use and recommend.

I normally only use and review gear that I know will be good. Emeet isn’t a brand I knew but is based in Shenzhen, China, and there is a lot of great technology coming from there. Furthermore, it is a company that has won several legitimate design and industry awards. The marketing agent who contacted me also promotes other products that have proved to be of great quality. So, I thought I would take the risk of trying this brand.

What Is the EMEET SmartCam S800?

The EMEET SmartCam S800 is intended as a streaming camera. That suggests something more than a standard webcam. One expects better quality image and sound, plus more versatility in how video is presented. So, I wanted to know if it met that requirement.

First Impressions

The first thing I was impressed by was the relatively small amount of plastic packaging. There was a cellophane wrapper and two small foam inserts to protect the camera when it’s stored in the box, but that was it.

Unwrapping it, I found the camera was smart-looking and felt robust but not too heavy. It is barrel-shaped and mounted on a bracket that will either fit on top of a screen or be screwed onto a tripod.

Pleasingly, the bracket opens into a Z-shape, and it hooks onto the screen. The camera partially rotates on that, making it easy to align. It isn’t held in place with a sprung clamp, which I never liked because of the damage that can potentially cause to the screen but is held in place by the firmly hinged bottom section of the bracket.

At the front is a ring that activates the privacy screen. On the camera's rear are a heat sink and the USB-C socket into which the high-quality, pleasingly long 59" (1.5-meter) cable fits.

The camera has a Sony ½” 8 MP sensor that will record 4K video at 30 fps, or 1080p Full HD at 60 fps. It supports HDR, has face detection autofocus that it claims will refocus in 0.3 seconds, and has dual noise-canceling microphones.

Important Information

The cable plugs into a USB-3 port on the computer. This is important to note as the output current of USB 3.0 on a computer is 900 mA. Meanwhile, the output current of USB 2.0 is only 500 mA. The S800 draws up to 700 mA when streaming 4K video. If you are plugging into a USB 2.0 port, you should find the streaming is restricted to 1080p, which draws a lower current.

In Use Straight Out of the Box

The camera worked straight out of the box. I plugged it into a USB-3 socket, opened the computer’s camera app, and there I was looking back at myself from my screen. I then ran it on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Messenger, Discord, Skype, and OBS, plus a couple of other services, and it worked perfectly.

The privacy blackout cover works completely, but like most webcams, it does not mute the microphone. There is a white LED to show the camera is running.

Using the Camera and App

I do recommend installing the Emeet app, as the software is useful and makes the camera more versatile. Without it, the S800 is little more than a standard webcam.

Firstly, the app allows you to upload a range of adjustments to the camera, and these will change the way your image looks next time you use it with whichever streaming app you use. It has many of the common adjustment settings: Brightness, Exposure Value (EV), Contrast, Saturation, Tone, and White Balance, which are all adjusted by sliders.

There is a 50 Hz and 60 Hz anti-flicker setting, as well as a Customization dropdown box that gives a handful of filters that change how the image looks. I call them filters and not presets because they gray out the image adjustment settings, so you cannot tweak them. That would have been useful because I achieved more pleasing results using the adjustment sliders.

You can also add four different framing grids: Rule of Thirds, Golden Ratio, Crosshairs, and Square, and you can also flip the image horizontally or vertically.

The app enables auto and manual focus. Digital zooming goes from 73° at its widest angle of view down to 40°. Zoomed right in, the image is very slightly pixelated when viewed full-sized on a 21” Full HD 1080p screen.

The app also enables different metering modes: center-weighted, global (whole frame), spot, and face metering. These worked well. One little glitch in the app is that hovering over the center-weighted icon, the pop-up box tells you what it is in German. I have been assured this will be fixed in a future update.

The HDR mode switch makes some difference to the image, bringing in some of the blown-out details of the window behind me.

The camera focused quickly on me using face detection, and similarly, the center-weighted focusing was fast to react. Switching to manual focus, I discovered the minimum focusing distance was about 4" (≈10 cm), so it would be good for people streaming close-ups of intricate work.

At a comfortable operating distance of about 24" (≈60 cm), I wished the depth of field was shallower, but with a 4.71 mm lens and a ½” sensor, the size often found in action and drone cameras, the image was clear and noise-free. I did not expect a super-shallow depth of field as I can achieve with my Micro Four Thirds cameras when I use them as a webcam, but there was enough blur to add separation from the background.

Finally, the two inbuilt microphones gave clear, loud sound with the noise reduction turned on. Strangely, turning the noise reduction off resulted in a much quieter recording. Using this for streaming in a room with poor acoustics, like in the accompanying video, I would use a separate microphone. However, for a Zoom meeting, the mics are more than adequate.

Minor Shortcomings of the App

When I first installed the app, there were a couple of minor connection glitches. However, there was a firmware update available from the app, and I installed that. Ever since, everything ran smoothly. If you buy this or any other hardware, come to that, always install firmware updates.

It would have been useful to have the common function of resetting the individual sliders by double-clicking on them, but that’s not an option. Also, coming at it from a photographer’s perspective, having shadows and highlights plus a midtone contrast setting available would greatly improve the functionality of the app. Nevertheless, good results were possible with the camera, and perhaps I was expecting too much for a camera that costs a little over $100.

What I Liked

• Good quality, low-noise image compared to other webcams.
• Well-made and smart-looking.
• Bracket hinges are firm and allow for good attachment to the top of the screen.
• Good image privacy features.
• Sits well on top of the screen.
• Can be tripod-mounted.
• Useful functionality in the app.
• Affordable.
• Versatile.
• Despite the warning label, the heatsink at the back only got slightly warm to the touch even after an hour’s constant use.
• Minimal single-use plastic.

What Could Be Improved Next Time

• The app could do with more development to remove minor glitches and add functionality.
• A microphone mute button on the body would be a useful addition.

In Conclusion

As a webcam, it is an excellent product. However, as a streaming cam, I feel it has been released to the market a little too early because of the small snags with the software. EMEET addressed the snags quickly when I raised them. Furthermore, they were minor inconveniences, but it’s a reviewer’s job to find fault. They were not a dealbreaker for me, and I haven't yet found any perfect software on the market. Indeed, there are cameras released that have far bigger hardware issues.

Would I buy this? Yes, for my purposes, it does a good job. It’s affordable, and although the software is not yet perfect, it is better than many other cameras at this price point. For online presentations and one-to-one workshops, it will do the job nicely. Meanwhile, those who stream video of themselves when gaming will find this a good option too. As with all streaming cameras, I would use an external mic, but the integrated ones are better than those found on other webcams.

You can buy the EMEET Smartcam S800 from Amazon. A range of other EMEET webcams are available from B&H.