Logitech Brio 4k vs Logitech C922 1080p Webcam

[Coffeelounge]

Hey everyone I just wanted to drop a quick little review/comparison on the Brio 4k webcam. I received my Brio today as I wanted to 'upgrade' from my C922 and right off the bat I want to say that was not the case.

The Logitech C922 is an older webcam that I got many years ago, I still have it and it is what I use every time I stream. It's only 1080p but paired with my Nvidia broadcast software and OBS it's perfect for my stream. I generally stream in a more ambient light setting and use the brightness from my monitor and lights in the room and I have got a ton of compliments on the quality of my stream and questions on what i'm using to record the video, and that is my recommendation to anyone for the best webcam is the C922.

I was excited to try the Brio out, I was going to use it as my main camera and I mounted my C922 really high up for a unique view that I could transition in and out of but unfortunately that wasn't going to be the case as I was not at all satisfied with the Brio as my go to webcam. Right off the rip the main thing I noticed was the damn background noise in the image, just horrible. I'm sure it may be different in the day time, but as for the lighting that I enjoy the C922 just preforms so much better and really reduces all that video noise/grain in the same setting way better than the Brio. It's not a matter of toggling the settings or updating firmware or trying different programs as I did all that, it just sucks IMO lol.

It costs more, preforms worse. If you haven't tried the older C922 by Logitech that is my recommendation. Not going to play around next time I try to upgrade the quality even more for my viewers, just gonna get a nice dslr set-up !

 

[SuperPookie]

I find that no matter my settings I look redder using my Logitech 922 than the Brio though it is better than the 920.

 

[Natural9]

Models that I am knight/moderator for that have the Brio love them. Maybe you do not have the memory or processor speed needed, or you do not have something set up correct. What resolution are you trying to broadcast at and on which site?

 

[Rytar]

with lighting always being an issue with cameras i can see why for the dislike of the brio vs 922 in your case.

Was mentioned you like light from monitor etc, which works for you and the 922, but most times brighter lighting is key to crisper nicer image quality.
I have 3 desktop webcams & each one in a way image wise is different lighting depending & why i invested in RGB/Dimmable pot lighting, never liked ring lights etc aimed at me but they did make for a nicer clear image

 

[Vixxen81]

I love my Brio. Just took a minute to figure out the right gain for my skin tone.

 

[cbhours]

was the damn background noise in the image, just horrible.

That's not a brio issue that I'm aware of

I find that no matter my settings I look redder using my Logitech 922 than the Brio though it is better than the 920.

https://streamshark.io/obs-guide/color-correction use the hue shift to shift it slightly.


Why don't people like the elgato facecam? I played with it for a little while a few months ago while setting up a new PC and it seemed really nice the only con I saw was that it didn't have a built in mic but I didn't have enough time to do extensive testing.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

That's not a brio issue that I'm aware of


https://streamshark.io/obs-guide/color-correction use the hue shift to shift it slightly.


Why don't people like the elgato facecam? I played with it for a little while a few months ago while setting up a new PC and it seemed really nice the only con I saw was that it didn't have a built in mic but I didn't have enough time to do extensive testing.

The Brio is very noisy when streaming in 60fps if you don't have a crap ton of light

 

[cbhours]

The Brio is very noisy when streaming in 60fps if you don't have a crap ton of light

Only if ur doing it properly and adjusting the exposure down manually right? To achieve the smooth 60fps. Or does the auto software do that automatically now when doing 60fps? I haven't tried the newer Logitech software so not sure.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

Only if ur doing it properly and adjusting the exposure down manually right? To achieve the smooth 60fps. Or does the auto software do that automatically now when doing 60fps? I haven't tried the newer Logitech software so not sure.

Not sure what you mean by adjusting the exposure down, but the noise is not the result of camera or software settings.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

I don't know what noise is though, so maybe I'm not understandingg the problem correctly.

It's just the grain that you see in an image, which is usually the result of being in a low light environment.

 

[MarieElise]

It's just the grain that you see in an image, which is usually the result of being in a low light environment.

View attachment 99729

Ah Ok. I deleted my post because I misunderstood what OP was saying.

But that is helpful to know. Thanks.

I had awful issues with noise when I had the Brio, but I also think I got one from a bad batch. Because a lot of the other models I talked to at the time, were not having the same problems. I should have just returned it, and asked for a new one. It helped me to hang a dark gray sheet behind me, over one of my white walls. I always figured it was something to do with light, and white walls? But I can still tell what was the Brio, vs what era my other footage was from, basically because of what you are telling me is named noise. Had a lot of it. Drove me nuts.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

Ah Ok. I deleted my post because I misunderstood what OP was saying.

But that is helpful to know. Thanks.

I had awful issues with noise when I had the Brio, but I also think I got one from a bad batch. Because a lot of the other models I talked to at the time, were not having the same problems. I should have just returned it, and asked for a new one. It helped me to hang a dark gray sheet behind me, over one of my white walls. I always figured it was something to do with light, and white walls? But I can still tell what was the Brio, vs what era my other footage was from, basically because of what you are telling me is named noise. Had a lot of it. Drove me nuts.

Did you mainly stream in 1080p 60fps or 4k 30fps?

 

[MarieElise]

Did you mainly stream in 1080p 60fps or 4k 30fps?

1080 60fps.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

1080 60fps.

It probably wasn't from a bad batch then. I, and many others have had the similar issues. One thing people don't realize when switching to a 60fps camera is you need twice the amount of light. Mine would be super noisy whenever I was camming at night, but perfectly clear when camming in the daytime using natural light as I didn't have good lighting at the time. The Brio also being wider than most webcams would be noisier when zooming in to a similar field of view to match it with something like the c920.

Also the Brio from what I've learned uses a different codec for 1080p60fps and 4k30fps which it doesn't actually have the power to properly support

 

[MarieElise]

It probably wasn't from a bad batch then. I, and many others have had the similar issues. One thing people don't realize when switching to a 60fps camera is you need twice the amount of light. Mine would be super noisy whenever I was camming at night, but perfectly clear when camming in the daytime using natural light as I didn't have good lighting at the time. The Brio also being wider than most webcams would be noisier when zooming into to a similar field of view to match it with something like the c920.

Also the Brio from what I've learned uses a different codec for 1080p60fps and 4k30fps which it doesn't actually have the power to properly support

Thank you, this is very helpful info.
I've thought about going back to the Brio many times, but this one issue put me off.
In other ways I liked it better than the c920, but the noise drives me insane, when I review and edit footage.
And I mainly filmed at night when I had that camera.
I have photosensitivity due to a medication I take, so brighter lights would hurt my eyes, but sounds like it would still be good as a Summer daytime use option for me.
Thanks Much appreciated.

 

[Coffeelounge]

Nice to see all the replies, wonderful! Yeah it's mainly just the noise in the image, whatever I have my settings at it seems to persist. More noise than my C922, which is a much older camera.
I'm not one to have a bunch of blinding lights set-up in my room to stream, I like natural and low ambient lighting, and the C922 seems to preform better for me in this situation.

Really looking forward to digging into a nice dslr or mirrorless camera sometime. I also miss my DJI drone just to have fun with and make cool videos, all kinds of cool tech out there!

 

[AmberCutie]

Nice to see all the replies, wonderful! Yeah it's mainly just the noise in the image, whatever I have my settings at it seems to persist. More noise than my C922, which is a much older camera.
I'm not one to have a bunch of blinding lights set-up in my room to stream, I like natural and low ambient lighting, and the C922 seems to preform better for me in this situation.

Really looking forward to digging into a nice dslr or mirrorless camera sometime. I also miss my DJI drone just to have fun with and make cool videos, all kinds of cool tech out there!

From the sounds of it, if you turn your settings to 1080 and 30fps you may have a better picture.

4k and 60fps are not necessary for cam model streaming anyway.

 

[maskedsissyslutforyou]

Nice to see all the replies, wonderful! Yeah it's mainly just the noise in the image, whatever I have my settings at it seems to persist. More noise than my C922, which is a much older camera.
I'm not one to have a bunch of blinding lights set-up in my room to stream, I like natural and low ambient lighting, and the C922 seems to preform better for me in this situation.

Really looking forward to digging into a nice dslr or mirrorless camera sometime. I also miss my DJI drone just to have fun with and make cool videos, all kinds of cool tech out there!

The issue is physical size/exposure time of the pixels. If you take 2 webcams with the same size sensor (most of the webcams) but one is 4k vs 1080 then the 4k one physically has pixels 4x smaller. And 4x smaller receives less light/photons and because of getting less light/photons needs more external light to get more photons. Likely when running 1080 on a 4k camera that unless you zoom in it is using all 4 underlying pixels so works ok since that uses a similar size to a real 1080 camera.

The physical pixel size is also what makes DSLR/Mirrorless large cameras better. The sensor is huge compared to a webcam so they work much better in lower light.

Basically if you make the pixel size small enough and the room dark enough, and the shutter speed higher (60) then you will be receiving a smaller number of photons on a given pixel and that limits the number of different shades of a given color, and once you turn up the brightness/gain it really just makes 32 photons to be full bright and 0 is dark so you only have 32 possible levels and it looks very noisy as a single photon change is a much more obvious.

Software can play games to make it look better but most of those games will either make up detail (AI) that is not real (but may look ok) or smooth/soften the image to hide the noise.

 

[Coffeelounge]

The issue is physical size/exposure time of the pixels. If you take 2 webcams with the same size sensor (most of the webcams) but one is 4k vs 1080 then the 4k one physically has pixels 4x smaller. And 4x smaller receives less light/photons and because of getting less light/photons needs more external light to get more photons. Likely when running 1080 on a 4k camera that unless you zoom in it is using all 4 underlying pixels so works ok since that uses a similar size to a real 1080 camera.

The physical pixel size is also what makes DSLR/Mirrorless large cameras better. The sensor is huge compared to a webcam so they work much better in lower light.

Basically if you make the pixel size small enough and the room dark enough, and the shutter speed higher (60) then you will be receiving a smaller number of photons on a given pixel and that limits the number of different shades of a given color, and once you turn up the brightness/gain it really just makes 32 photons to be full bright and 0 is dark so you only have 32 possible levels and it looks very noisy as a single photon change is a much more obvious.

Software can play games to make it look better but most of those games will either make up detail (AI) that is not real (but may look ok) or smooth/soften the image to hide the noise.

Very well said, makes sense! The C922 definitely looks like it has a bigger sensor than the Brio allowing more light in. I just don't understand why the Brio would seemingly appear to have a smaller sense, making it worse in low light situations than it's predecessor.

 

[Nigerian Prince]

The issue is physical size/exposure time of the pixels. If you take 2 webcams with the same size sensor (most of the webcams) but one is 4k vs 1080 then the 4k one physically has pixels 4x smaller. And 4x smaller receives less light/photons and because of getting less light/photons needs more external light to get more photons. Likely when running 1080 on a 4k camera that unless you zoom in it is using all 4 underlying pixels so works ok since that uses a similar size to a real 1080 camera.

The physical pixel size is also what makes DSLR/Mirrorless large cameras better. The sensor is huge compared to a webcam so they work much better in lower light.

Basically if you make the pixel size small enough and the room dark enough, and the shutter speed higher (60) then you will be receiving a smaller number of photons on a given pixel and that limits the number of different shades of a given color, and once you turn up the brightness/gain it really just makes 32 photons to be full bright and 0 is dark so you only have 32 possible levels and it looks very noisy as a single photon change is a much more obvious.

Software can play games to make it look better but most of those games will either make up detail (AI) that is not real (but may look ok) or smooth/soften the image to hide the noise.

This isn't really the case. Each individual pixel is receiving 4x less light, but there are also 4x the number of pixels so it's effectively the same. In practice when you compare the image of larger megapixel sensors made by the same manufacturer, the larger megapixel camera's tend to have better low light performance. The benefit for lower pixel count for video has mainly been about processing and cooling.

Very well said, makes sense! The C922 definitely looks like it has a bigger sensor than the Brio allowing more light in. I just don't understand why the Brio would seemingly appear to have a smaller sense, making it worse in low light situations than it's predecessor.

I believe both of them use 1/3 inch sensors, but sensor size isn't the entire picture as not all sensors are made equal. The Brio I believe has a more wide open lens that allows in more light, so one would assume it would have better performance.

 

[LydiaFrost]

From the sounds of it, if you turn your settings to 1080 and 30fps you may have a better picture.

4k and 60fps are not necessary for cam model streaming anyway.

This is what i do with the Brio to stream on Streamate and also record some content and it looks great.
I do mainly work during daylight hours though and an Umbrella studio light.

For content i also add a small ring light to add some more light depending on the angles i use.

I've used the logitech 2000 and the 920 before that for years and i think the Brio looks much better.

I can confirm the "background noise" being a thing in low light environment with that webcam though.

 

[gracieblue]

I need to dig my brio out! Does anyone know if there is an extension or app to adjust the brio if you are using a MacBook? Sorry to hijack this thread.

 

[bitesizedru]

I need to dig my brio out! Does anyone know if there is an extension or app to adjust the brio if you are using a MacBook? Sorry to hijack this thread.

Yes! If the Logitune app can work on my ancient Macbook it can probably work on any.

I've had both, the c922 was pretty nice and served me well, especially when I couldn't afford more lights and I was practically sitting in the dark. I think I like the Brio more though because the image looks a little clearer to me, I really like being able to adjust the FoV and while it can be noisy in darkness when I have a lot of lighting the image doesn't look super washed out or flat.

 

[gracieblue]

Yes! If the Logitune app can work on my ancient Macbook it can probably work on any.

I've had both, the c922 was pretty nice and served me well, especially when I couldn't afford more lights and I was practically sitting in the dark. I think I like the Brio more though because the image looks a little clearer to me, I really like being able to adjust the FoV and while it can be noisy in darkness when I have a lot of lighting the image doesn't look super washed out or flat.

Yes! If the Logitune app can work on my ancient Macbook it can probably work on any.

I've had both, the c922 was pretty nice and served me well, especially when I couldn't afford more lights and I was practically sitting in the dark. I think I like the Brio more though because the image looks a little clearer to me, I really like being able to adjust the FoV and while it can be noisy in darkness when I have a lot of lighting the image doesn't look super washed out or flat.

Thank you for the info! I’m going to try it!

 

[Olive]

I dunno what's wrong with my last 2 brio's but the autofocus on those things is abysmal. Even in extremely well lit situations. It led to so much frustration for me that I'm very likely not gonna be buying logitech cams anymore. Maybe my complexion is too similar to my walls, but eh. It's not like they're super cheap here either.

 

[MarieElise]

I dunno what's wrong with my last 2 brio's but the autofocus on those things is abysmal. Even in extremely well lit situations. It led to so much frustration for me that I'm very likely not gonna be buying logitech cams anymore. Maybe my complexion is too similar to my walls, but eh. It's not like they're super cheap here either.

I had problems with that too. I timed it and it would take 30 seconds to a whole minute to refocus, and I charge 9.99 a minute, so that wasn’t acceptable to me. I tried using logitune to put the auto focus off, but it kept glitching and putting itself back on again. Very stressful.

 

[Olive]

I had problems with that too. I timed it and it would take 30 seconds to a whole minute to refocus, and I charge 9.99 a minute, so that wasn’t acceptable to me. I tried using logitune to put the auto focus off, but it kept glitching and putting itself back on again. Very stressful.

I agree, was a huge headache and really messed with my mood too Theres already so many things to juggle during a cam sesh.. a camera losing focus on the regular shouldn't be an additional one!