Hands-on review: OBSBOT Tiny 2
The Tiny 2 really is tiny. The light but solid base has a horizontally rotating plate on which a vertically hinged gimble arm houses the actual camera. This 2-axis gimble allows the camera +/- 150-degree horizontal movement and +/- 90-degree tilt for whole room tracking.
The camera comes complete with a magnetic monitor mount and a 1.5m USB Type-C cable with a USB Type-A adapter. The mount is adjustable and will fit snugly over a thin laptop screen or a large monitor display. The underside of the camera also has a standard ¼" threaded tripod mount. The cable could have done with being a bit longer, although OK for a laptop, if your desktop PC is on the floor, you may need to extend it or use a hub. The cable is also a bit too thick and needs bending to avoid it disrupting the camera's position. The camera, mount, and cable can all be packed away in the included 130mm x 110mm x 60mm zippered cloth clamshell case.
The review kit also included the Obsbot Tiny Smart Remote Controller. The controller comes with a USB dongle, conveniently housed in the battery compartment. The device uses two AAA batteries. The Tiny Smart Remote Controller gives you full gimbal control of the camera as well as zoom. You can switch to each of the three preset camera positions (as set up in the app), set to normal tracking, close-up tracking, and hand tracking. You can also switch to a desk view. All this is by one button press, allowing for easy camera and scene control.
The remote also has a laser pointer that can be used to get the camera to turn and focus on a whiteboard or other presentation displays in the room. This powerful feature makes the Tiny 2 perfect for webinars.
The Tiny 2 can use gestures to turn human tracking on and off well as control the camera's zoom, both dynamically and in steps. This is the same as with other Obsbot products. Whilst I found this essential for the Obsbot Me AI phone mount didn't find it as useful with the Tiny 2, having the app and the remote control.
When not in use, the Tiny 2 camera rests faced downward, ensuring privacy. The camera can be put into rest mode just by moving the camera downwards on the gimble with your hand. This is a lot easier than sliding or placing a physical cover across the lens.
The camera has a 1/1.5" CMOS with an effective pixel count of 50 Megapixels. The aperture is f/1.9 with up to x4 zoom. The field of view ranges from 72.9 degrees to 85.5 degrees with an equivalent focal length of 26mm and a minimum focus distance of 10cm.
As with most premium webcams, the Tiny 2 does not have a microphone. For professional-sounding audio, a dedicated microphone is always recommended, even recording from a sitting position at your desk.
The tracking is very good, better than its predecessor, but not infallible. Move too quickly out of the camera's field of view, and it'll get all confused. Same with hand tracking, the camera sometimes had a bit of trouble determining my left hand from my right. With a bit of practice, though, you can actually move fairly fast with the camera tracking nicely, as long as you remain in the FOV. The autofocus is also worth a mention as it is very effective and very handy if you want to show the camera something up close.
I was particularly impressed by the camera's image quality in low light. I could get the same quality image I get with my regular camera but without the need for additional lighting. I even got a pretty decent image in a darkened room only illuminated by my monitor!
The camera had no problems integrating with Steamlabs Studio and OBS Studio. Similarly, the camera worked well with Nvidia Broadcaster.
The Tiny 2 uses the Obsbot camera app to set up scenes and select tracking control options. The app doesn't need to be running with normal use but does need to run if you want to make adjustments on the fly or use the Obsbot Tiny Remote Control. The application gives users lots of options to play around with and is used to update the device firmware, as required. There are also a few filter options to "beautify" your image and/or blur your background.
The Obsbot Tiny 2 is a remarkable little camera. The tracking facilities are superb for such a small device. The image quality, especially in low light, means that you going to get good video no matter what the conditions. With the Tiny Remote Control, the device becomes a versatile professional pocket-sized webinar studio that you can take anywhere. Be it for video conferencing or video streaming/webinars, the Obsbot Tiny 2 is very much worth considering.
