Obsbot Tiny 4K PTK Webcam Follows Your Every Move and Looks Great

With gesture-controlled tracking and superb 4K image quality, the Obsbot Tiny is sure to elevate your remote meetings and desktop vlogging

Webcams have gone from novelty to necessity in the past couple of years. The limitations of built-in cameras and static webcams became obvious when exercise classes, lectures, and presentations had us up on our feet and away from the desk.

The answer is tracking webcams with AI (artificial intelligence) to follow you and zoom in when you need a close-up. The Obsbot Tiny AI PTZ 4K webcam keeps you at the center of the frame wherever you roam. The newest camera in the Obsbot line brings high-quality 4K video.

Obsbot Tiny 4K Features and Uses

The Obsbot Tiny4K camera swivels and tilts using a two-axis gimbal to follow you around the room. It can even rotate to track you behind your monitor when mounted atop your monitor. This gives it an advantage over webcams that only see a wide-angle view and track you digitally, like the Apple's Center Stage feature.

While it tracks your face, it helps follow your whole body to show your online Yoga or fitness instructor that you are doing the poses correctly. Or, the Tiny4K zooms in on details of a presentation you are giving with a simple gesture, making it perfect for teachers writing on a whiteboard. The tracking tilt head can follow as you stand or sit, always keeping you at the center of the screen.

Step Up from Obsbot Tiny

The first Pan Tilt Zoom (PTZ) AI tracking HD resolution Obsbot Tiny was well-received when it was released in November 2020. It is still available for $199 (originally $398 at release). Remo Tech followed the popularity of the original Tiny with a successful Indegogo campaign that funded the Obsbot Tiny 4K, launching in January 2022. The new model not only adds ultra-high definition (UHD), it has improved on many of the original model's features.

The Obsbot Tiny 4K has an adjustable auto-sleep mode that turns the camera downward to save power and give you privacy after 30 seconds, 2, or 10 minutes of inactivity. Portrait mode was added in a recent firmware update. This mode allows the camera to shoot in a vertical format similar to a smartphone eliminating distractions around the room.

Where the 1080P edition has a 2x digital zoom, the Tiny 4K can be set to up to 4x zoom. Face Auto Exposure assures that the light settings will keep your face well lit when you move about the room or in changing light conditions. The Tiny 4K also has HDR (which is turned off by default) to capture more color information from the scene. Both the original and the 4k models have scene auto-exposure and smart white balance.

Customizable preset positions are an added feature that helps the camera instantly find you in specific circumstances—from sitting in front of the monitor, to standing a the room ready for your online fitness class.

Sony 1/2.8 sensor

The Tiny 4K's excellent picture quality is due to its Sony 1/2.8 sensor. This 4K Exmor R CMOS sensor has exceptional light sensitivity and uses Sony's Column A/D Conversion to reduce noise by half. The pixel size is 80% smaller than you'd find on conventional sensors and uses a "stacked structure" with a low-noise circuit.

The combination of features results in Obsbot Tiny 4K's excellent picture quality in any lighting situation, including dark scenes.

What's In the Box

Along with the Obsbot Tiny 4K AI PTZ Tracking Webcam, you'll find a USB-C cable and a USB-C to USB-A adaptor. It also comes with a levered magnetic monitor mount and a sturdy zippered case to hold the camera and accessories to use with a laptop on the go.

For those with more professional needs, or if you are far from the camera, the Obsbot Tiny 4k combo includes a Remote Control, a USB-A to USB-C cable with a power switch, and a great microphone that picks up sound from all around.

Connecting and Setting Up the Obsbot Tiny4K is Simple

The Obsbot Tiny connects to both Macs and PCs. The USB-C cable can be used with newer Macs, and a USB-C to USB-A adaptor works with all USB ports. There is also a USB power cable if the camera doesn't get power from the other connection. (During testing, it didn't require the extra cable with either an iMac or Windows laptop.)

The Obsbot Tiny 4K is completely plug-and-play. Once you connect it to your desktop or laptop, it is immediately ready to use with live video apps including Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, Cisco Webex, Meet, TikTok, Twitch, LiveMe, WeChat, Google Meet, YouTube, and more.

Still, you'll want to download the Obsbot TinyCam settings/control software to set up preferences, manually control the camera, and update the camera's firmware.

Obsbot has short videos to walk you through set up, but the steps are:

1. Place the Obsbot Tiny 4K where you want it—top of a monitor, on a desk tripod, on the desk.
2. Connect using USB-C or USB-A to a computer.
3. Download the Obsbot TinyCam software
4. Click to update the camera to the latest firmware
5. Open the app with which you want to use the camera.
6. Choose the Obsbot Tiny 4K in the app's video and audio preferences.
7. If the camera doesn't immediately find you, tilt it toward your face.
8. Raise your hand with your palm facing the camera, so it follows you.

The Obsbot TinyCam Settings and Control Panels

The TinyCam software has two windows—one for system settings and the other for control.

In the settings panel, you can change the preferences of the AI features, including how you want it to track. You can also turn on/off the Locked Target and Zoom Gesture Controls.

The camera has a 2X zoom lens, but you can extend it to a 4X digital zoom for when you are further away from the camera or desk. If you are sitting at your desk, you probably don't want to choose the 4X zoom as the camera won't be able to see the gesture to zoom out. And, you will probably be showing others your skin pores.

Setting the Gimbal Initial Position is handy if you regularly start by sitting at your desk. This will make it easier for the camera to find your face without you having to reposition it manually.

While the camera defaults to Auto Focus, Face Focus, and Face AE (auto exposure), you can turn them off if you want to set focus and exposure manually. This can be useful if you want the camera to focus on something other than your face. Otherwise, the AI exposes your face perfectly and continues to focus wherever you move around the room.

The controls panel allows you to move the camera using an onscreen navigation wheel or reset the gimbal to its original position. Suppose you typically move to the same areas in the room. In that case, you can set up three preset locations to turn the camera to that position. You can also zoom or unlock the tracking. Of course, you have to be in front of the computer to see and use these controls.

Spot-On Tracking and the Picture Is Amazing

When sitting at the desk, the picture quality, even in low light, has a skin-softening quality—yet with the detail and clarity of the 4K resolution. When the camera follows you quickly, it loses a bit of clarity while on the move but regains it once you stop in a spot for a few seconds. Check out our demo video for the best idea of how this camera looks:

Usually, it keeps consistent focus even when zooming. On a couple of occasions, when zooming before I stopped moving, it needed a moment to gain its composure then completed focussing.

The Sony sensor performed beautifully. Unlike a built-in camera that relies on high contrast to make the picture appear sharp in low light, the Tiny 4K's picture quality and dynamic range of darks and lights are outstanding. It adapted exposure and focus almost immediately. When backlit by a bright window, it took a brief moment to adapt to the exposure of my face. Note that gesture control and tracking had to be turned on when I was in front of the window or focused on the brightest area of the scene rather than my face.

The tracking keeps you in the center of the frame. In headroom mode, it favors framing. In motion mode, it tracks fast movements easily from a distance. Unsurprisingly, there were trails when moving fast while zoomed in or when moving while too close to the camera.

Showing your palm to the camera, like a still wave, toggles the tracking on and off. The camera will flash blue lights to indicate that it received the command. To zoom, make an "L" shaped hand gesture with index finger pointed up, thumb horizontal, and all other fingers curled in. This tells the camera to zoom in on your face. If there is an object in front of your face, it will zoom in on the object. Note that you will want to make this gesture long enough for the camera to recognize it. If you continue to hold the position, the camera will keep zooming in and out. Hold your hand in an L again to have the camera zoom out.

It also features HDR, but every time I turned it on, it changed the white balance to a slightly yellower tone that wasn't flattering. It also overexposed the highlights and whites, losing detail and texture. Other than when I was backlit by a window in a low-light room the camera exposed my face almost perfectly through all light changes around the room, and I didn't need to turn on the HDR feature.

Obsbot Tiny Compared to Other 4K Webcams

The Obsbot Tiny 4K is the first consumer-grade 4K tracking camera. The two-axis movement isn't currently available in webcams in this price range as it's more typically found in security cameras that run thousands of dollars. The only other PTZ camera that comes close to the Tiny 4K is the Logitech Rally, priced initially at $2099, but can be found for $460 to $760. The Rally's higher price buys an advantage over the Obsbot. Its RightSight2 with Speaker View allows the Rally to automatically follow and reframe the person who is speaking in a conference room.

The Obsbot, however, will only follow a single person. In testing, a second person gestured to be followed, but the camera didn't recognize them when it had previously locked on to track someone else.

Other 4K webcams on the market are static. The Logitech Brio Ultra HD Pro Business Webcam is highly rated. Still, you can only focus on a single person by changing the field of view from 90° to a narrower 65° to cut out the background.

The Lumina webcam is also a static 4K camera that uses AI for adaptive color correction. It will follow focus and zoom to reframe your face if you move in or out, but it doesn't move to follow you. It can also be adjusted to increase the blur on the background for less distraction (though Zoom and others offer that feature in their software).

It's Worth the Investment

The Obsbot Tiny 4K is the slam dunk choice for fitness or dance instructors, teachers, or others who need to move about during zoom or other video calls. The pan and tilt features are almost as good as having someone shoot the video for you. It works beautifully for live videos or to record videos for stories and reels on social media.

Rather than settling for a built-in computer camera, you owe it to yourself to look your best. The first thing that will strike you is how good you look when using the Obsbot Tiny 4K. Even when you are sitting at your desk, there is a skin-softening effect that will boost your confidence in appearing on videos for any work or fun calls.

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