i used canon eos 6d as webcam for 3 hours.

hello, people.

i was able to use my canon 6d camera as a webcam.

what i did is basically, connected the camera via mini usb, then:

modprobe v4l2loopback exclusive_caps=1 max_buffers=2

and then

gphoto2 --stdout --capture-movie | ffmpeg -i - -vcodec rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -s 1280x720 -threads 2 -f v4l2 /dev/video4

this switched camera to video mode, i guess, or at least something happened, the mirror went up, it creates /dev/video4 which i was able to use from OBS and Jitsi meet.

now, the question is: is it bad for the camera?
i understand it is not officially supported by the canon software.
there is an official software that turns eos 6d mk ii in to web cam for windows and macos. i don’t know if something in hw prevents usage of 6d the first version.

also, if i just shoot video, it has a time limit, i guess 30 minutes, and it shuts down. probably to prevent overheating.

but when i connected it via usb, and used gphoto2+ffmpeg, i could use it as webcam for long time.

and i wouldn’t say it got particularly hot. though i don’t know, it is not easily measurable.

so the question is, do you think i can damage the camera by doing this?

one guess: may be i am getting live view with that. but live view is always disabled on my camera. may be gphoto activates it.

as i understand if i connect via hdmi, i get the numbers in the picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m02pdlb-Rxs

that is why this camera is not used as webcam usually.

other guess, i have read people can connect it to the computer via USB and use EOS Utility under windows/macos to make remote shooting.

then probably i get live view with this.

is it dangerous to keep the camera in live view for long time?
what can i damage: sensor? other circuits?

thank you.

My impression is that most Canon cameras aren’t meant for video let alone streaming. Having live view on is worse because you have the screen on and the hardware working extra hard to give you the preview.

You could check the camera temp readouts using Magic Lantern during or after your streaming session.

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