Skip to main content

Panasonic’s hacky mirrorless camera webcam solution is now available on Macs

Panasonic’s hacky mirrorless camera webcam solution is now available on Macs

/

But the real webcam software won’t come until the fall

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Panasonic is updating its Lumix Tether application for Mac to make it easier to use some models of its mirrorless Lumix cameras as a webcam — but it’ll take a bit more effort than some other solutions, at least for now, via DPReview.

Like the Windows version, the current solution for macOS is pretty hacked together. Panasonic is simply taking its existing Lumix Tether software (used for tethered shooting from a computer) and offering an update that removes the GUI elements from the live preview on the software by adding a new “Live View” with a clean video feed. That live view window can then be passed to a streaming app, like Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), and only then passed through to your videoconferencing or streaming service. If that sounds confusing, check out Panasonic’s video to get a better idea of how to set things up.

That makes it much more finicky to set up compared to CanonFujifilm, or Olympus; those webcam solutions allow for directly passing a camera’s output to videoconferencing software like Zoom or Skype.

The Mac version of the Lumix Tether application is also compatible with the same list of Lumix cameras as the Windows one: the DC-S1H, DC-S1R, DC-S1, DC-GH5S, DC-GH5, and DC-G9 models.

Panasonic knows that using the Tether application isn’t great. It’s a stopgap measure while the company works on a proper “Lumix Webcam Software” application, which will offer the same full-fledged webcam support that its competitors are offering. Unfortunately, it’ll still be some time until the real webcam software is out, with Panasonic promising a release at the end of September for the Windows version and the end of October for Macs.