OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite Webcam Review

The OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite is a highly functional 4K webcam for content creators and professionals. Its small form factor design makes it incredibly easy to carry while travelling, and its range of preset modes allows you to easily adjust pan, tilt, zoom, and a range of other parameters to suit your needs. OBSBOT claims that the Tiny 2 Lite is built to streamline workflows and make content creation a seamless experience, so we’ve tested this webcam in a series of benchmarks to see how it performs.

The productivity and content creation webcam space is a highly competitive market. With manufacturers like Logitech, Razer, Elgato and Insta360 dominating this space for quite some time, the Tiny 2 Lite has its work cut out. However, the Tiny 2 webcam from OBSBOT has become a prevalent option in 2023 and 2024, so the fact that the Lite version is cheaper and has a similar set of features is promising.

In this review, we’ll examine the OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite in great depth, assessing its specs, design, features, and recording quality to compare it to other popular webcam options.

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Specification

Regarding the specs, the OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite is incredibly small. It can easily fit in the palm of a hand, which means stashing it inside a bag or placing it on a relatively small platform to record you during conference calls or for streaming is very easy. The Tiny 2 Lite weighs very little, so it won’t be a hindrance to carry around.

Compared to the standard OBSBOT Tiny 2, the Lite has a smaller CMOS and aperture (1/2″ CMOS and f/1.8 versus 1 1/2″ and f/1.9). This means the dynamic range is slightly weaker, so highlights and dark shadows will likely be more common. This isn’t affected as much when in an evenly lit room, but those setting up in the dark or with uneven lighting might see a more noticeable loss in detail.

This webcam has 48 effective megapixels, a loss of 2 compared to the standard Tiny 2. Megapixels affect the detail and quality of an image, so reducing them results in weaker quality. However, the loss of two megapixels here isn’t particularly noticeable.

On the recording front, the OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite supports up to 4K 30FPS and 1080p 60FPS. While the 4K recording impacts performance using the OBSBOT Center software, it’s nice to see a selection of resolution options. It offers versatility for those just going on conference calls versus streamers that need more detail at the cost of framerate.

The rest of the specs compared to the original Tiny 2 are similar. Both webcams offer autofocus and manual focus, but the way they do this is slightly different. The Tiny 2 Lite uses a tech known as phase detection, which can see abrupt changes and quickly refocus by using a small selection of pixels dedicated to noticing phase differences. Compared to the Tiny 2, which uses all-pixel autofocus, this operates similarly to phase detection, but all pixels can be used to detect phase differences, which provides enormous amounts of information for the lens to refocus quickly.

The OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite interfaces to a PC or laptop using USB Type-C, the same as the Tiny 2. It uses this interface to provide better video transmission without slow encoding and decoding restrictions.

OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite Design

Much like its sibling (the Tiny 2), the Tiny 2 Lite is a compact webcam with a small built-in stand and a rotating axis gimble. Its smooth black chassis gives it a highly premium look and feel. However, using metal means that the shell is a bit of a fingerprint magnet compared to a plastic version. Despite this, I’m a fan of the minimalist look; most high-end webcams tend to have a gamer aesthetic that doesn’t blend in well with an office, so it’s nice to see OBSBOT catering to professionals in this regard.

The Tiny 2 Lite sits on a small cube-like stand which houses a rotating axis gimbal. This allows the camera to spin and move easily when in use. It can also tilt the lens up and down, allowing prospective buyers to move around while the camera is tracking.

On the underside of the Tiny 2 Lite, you’ll find an integrated webcam mount and a tripod thread. The webcam mounting flips out from the front and can be adjusted to attach to various surfaces, including monitors.

The Tiny 2 Lite utilises a quarter-inch UN thread for those with tripods. OBSBOT provides a tripod which can be purchased as an additional accessory, but if you’ve got your own, it can be easily screwed in using the correct thread type.

Moving around to the back, this webcam interfaces to a PC using USB Type-C. It isn’t specified what generation of USB the camera uses, but we can assume it’ll be USB 3.0 or higher to transmit 4K video without latency problems.

The OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite comes with a USB Type-C to C cable, which can be found inside the small accessories box. Additionally, those that don’t have an available USB Type-C port can use the Type-C to A adapter.

Recording & Sound Quality

As discussed in the specs section, the Tiny 2 Lite offers a range of resolutions, with 4K30 and 1080p60 being the main ones. This is one of the few webcams on the market that offers 4K30 recording capabilities. At such an affordable price point, we wonder if there are any caveats to this webcam’s recording abilities, which is why we’ve tested the Tiny 2 Lite in a series of recordings to determine the quality.

1080p60 Recording (Windows Camera)

In this video, I fired up the Windows Camera app with no additional settings enabled and recorded at 1080p60. At this resolution, the detail looks incredibly clean. The background doesn’t look washed out, and movement is smooth across the board.

After enabling the tracking, the Tiny 2 Lite followed my movements seamlessly. There were no abrupt jumps, and it was easy to track movement, always maintaining focus.

As for audio quality, any background noises were either muted or incredibly quiet. The Tiny 2 Lite accurately picks up my voice, even when I move away from the camera, and there were no audio issues across the recording.

1080p60 Recording (OBSBOT Center Software)

The solid recording quality persists in the OBSBOT Center software. Everything feels and looks smooth, with the camera tracking me very easily, including zooming in and out. The audio is also great, and the background has no stuttering or loud noises.

It’s worth noting that I had no preview of the video in this recording, so I wasn’t sure if it was working initially. The OBSBOT Center doesn’t provide a guide of the software when it boots, which is a slight application limitation.

4K30 Recording (Windows Camera)

Dialling up the resolution to 4K noticeably increases the available detail the camera can provide at the cost of the framerate. Again, the video looks very clean and smooth despite the slower framerate. The audio remains clean, and the background noise is quiet. The camera itself doesn’t experience any loss in performance at 4K. It could still track my movements, zoom in and refocus without issues.

4K30 Recording (OBSBOT Center Software)

Recording performance in the OBSBOT Center application is still strong. Again, the detail has increased, and everything in the video looks much cleaner despite being slightly slower. Audio quality is also great, and the Tiny 2 Lite’s built-in microphone continues to impress.

Overall, the Tiny 2 Lite offers excellent-quality video and audio without enabling additional settings. The recordings we took in the OBSBOT Center and Windows Camera felt smooth and stutter-free, which is highly impressive.

We had to edit this recording and cut it short due to audio issues. In this video, I enabled some of the AI settings, which caused the audio to break. This is something we’ll be touching on later in this article.

Features We Like

One of the significant benefits of picking up the Tiny 2 Lite compared to other webcams is that it has a range of integrated AI settings that offer additional functionality, such as adding filters, blurring the background, or simple motion tracking. We’ve taken a range of recordings showing off the features we like and some of those we’re not a fan of.

Gesture Controls

Much like the original Tiny 2 camera, the Lite version features a range of gesture controls that can be used to quickly amend some of the settings on the fly without using your PC. I have to admit, I’m a big fan of the gesture controls. While their use case is somewhat niche, all the controls work efficiently. The Tiny 2 Lite can distinguish the difference between the dynamic zoom and turning tracking on and off almost instantly.

The Tiny 2 Lite has three controls you can play around with. These are zoom, dynamic zoom, and tracking lock/unlock. It indicates whether these are turned on or off with a small LED indicator at the top left of the camera.

Background Blur & Filters

Inside the OBSBOT Center software are a range of intuitive filters that can change the look of a person or people on camera and blur the background for privacy. All of these settings can be enabled or disabled quickly; the blur, for example, can be adjusted with a slider, and it indeed does obscure objects in the background.

The filters, while slightly more niche, track very well. In this recording, I turned on the lipstick filter, which tracks on my lips even when I’m talking, which is quite impressive. Features like these on third-party apps tend to be quite buggy or don’t track as well on a person’s face, but the AI integration here works very well.

Works with an IR Remote

Prospective buyers can purchase this camera with an additional remote to control certain camera features. While this is a rudimentary IR remote, it provides an extra level of functionality that can be utilised without being next to a PC. This is particularly useful in scenarios where the camera needs to be finely tuned or adjusted mid-recording.

The remote features a range of settings. It has four profiles set up within the OBSBOT Center application. You can finely control the zoom, adjust the camera’s swivel and tilt, or amend the tracking configuration.

Furthermore, the remote also doubles as a presentation clicker or laser, which is highly convenient for those who present information over Zoom or a conference call. It’s worth noting that the remote requires two AAA batteries (which aren’t included) and the 2.4GHz dongle to work wirelessly with the OBSBOT Center software.

Features We Don’t Like

Audio Issues With Filters Enabled

A problem with the original Tiny 2 webcam was that recording using the OBSBOT Center tended to cause audio sync issues. While this has been fixed with several new software iterations, the OBSBOT Center application struggles when multiple filters are enabled, so much so that the audio breaks.

After noticing this problem, we decided to re-record using the OBSBOT Center software and applied the same filters, which resulted in the same audio breakage. The workaround for this issue is not using the filters, as the recording can’t handle them. We don’t have an explanation for this other than the software is possibly struggling with compression. The camera isn’t a problem because all recordings are fine without the filters enabled.

Note: Both recordings with the filters are entirely unedited and were recorded at 4K30 with tracking enabled where possible. No additional settings were enabled to ensure a fair re-record.

We ran a final recording using the Windows Camera application with the filters switched on as a workaround. While the filters aren’t visible on the video, the recording has no visible issues across the entire runtime. This demonstrates that the problem looks to be software-related instead of hardware-related.

OBSBOT Center Software Needs Improvement

While I think the OBSBOT Center software has significantly improved since we reviewed the original Tiny 2, it still has a long way to go. For example, there is no explanation of how to use it. Most buttons have no text next to them, so deciphering which settings do what isn’t particularly intuitive.

The OBSBOT Center application cannot be resized to landscape. It is strangely restricted to vertical, meaning you have to scroll through all the settings like you’re using a mobile device. While this would be ideal as a mobile application, it doesn’t quite work in a desktop environment, making controlling the camera a less-than-fun experience.

Conclusion