How To Use Your Digital Camera As Your Webcam for Skype,Yahoo,Google Talk etc

Here is a small guide on how you can use your digital camera as a webcam for various purposes like in skype,yahoo ,google talk etc . Almost all digital cameras come with a cd where you have softwares which help in remote capturing the digital camera' video onto your computer . BUt this will only show your video on a window , it wouldnt work as a webcam , although some new cameras do have that feature . So the basic idea is to take the video from the window and convert it into a video source so that it can be used as a webcam . So here's how you do it :

In this tutorial , i would be using a canon digital camera as a webcam. So here's what you need for this tutorial :

1)Canon CD - Basically need the Camera Window Software
2)Camtasia Recorder - Needed for capturing video on window and outputting as a video source
3)SplitCam - Basically program allows you multiple programs to use the same video source at one time

Step 1 : Insert the Canon CD and install the Camera Window Software. Now launch it from the Start Menu

Step 2 : Now Choose Remote Shooting and click on Start Remote Shooting

Step 3 : Now You should see a window which shows you the camera's view


Step 4 : Now launch Camtasia Recorder and under Capture->Output , make sure you select LIVE



Step 5 : Now click on the Record Button and move the Green Box window onto the Remote Shooting Video


Step 6 : Now you need to install SplitCam.After you install it , run the program . Now go to File->Video Source and select Camtasia Video Capture Driver

Step 7 : Thats it , now launch yahoo messenger and it should work. It should also work well with skype



Now i understand this procedure is a bit messy as you need the canon software, camtasia recorder and splitcam to run , but it is totally worth it as you get a really good video output compared to traditional webcams . Ofcourse you do get high end webcam which provide better clarity but they are heavily priced!!