When I first decided to get into streaming, I knew that a webcam was a must. It allows for viewers to get a more personal experience with you as you entertain them with gameplay, and engage them in good conversation. At that time, I was able to pick up a 1080p webcam from a pretty ‘known’ company for just under $50 (priced at my local superstore). The webcam that I purchased at that time did all that I needed it to do for my streaming.  As time went on however, I decided that I wanted to look into getting a few more webcams. I would use these for recording my keyboard and mouse, as well as other angles of myself while I am playing. It helps get the viewers more involved into my play style, and thus, hopefully helps them feel more entertained. When I went to purchase more webcams, I was disappointed to see that the store longer carried the one that I already had. This led me online to see about finding the same one, or a similar one. The only available cams I could find online by that company, were at nearly double the price, and I was not interested in paying that much money. So I started looking at other brands, and this is when I found that Redragon had released their own. The GW800 1080p webcam.

I have numerous peripherals made by Redragon already, so seeing that they had made a webcam got me pretty excited. I know from all my experience with them, that their products are fantastic, but what made this find even better, was the price. It is right under what I had paid for my previous cam.

My first Redragon webcam arrived two weeks ago. I have been using it to record my keyboard and mouse, and it has worked perfectly.

When the box arrived, I was excited to see how the quality of the cam was going to be. I was not disappointed. As with all my previous Redragon purchases, the first thing I noticed was the weight of the device. It feels heavy and solid, not hollow or cheap. This was a relief. A lot of fair priced items you find on the web, can often arrive feeling very poorly made. The GW800 feels more solid and well made than my other cam. The next thing that I noticed on the cam, was the very long USB hook up cable. My previous cam had less than 2 ft of available USB cable for plugging it into my pc. This was frustrating because my pc is actually not very close to my monitor, which is where I wanted my webcam to sit. I had to run an additional USB device that I could plug that cam in to. With the GW800, I have around 6ft of cable that I had no trouble running down to the back of my pc.

Once I had the webcam plugged in, a red indicator light appeared on the camera and the computer automatically detected it. I just had to restart OBS, and add it as a capture device. No software installation needed.

The camera features an auto focusing lens that provides a really solid image of your face or whatever you want to focus it on. This results in an unfocused background, but this is normal on many cameras. With the GW800 however, you will notice sharper edges in the unfocused areas. This is by no means a negative impact on the camera, but it does take a moment to get used to it as other cameras tend to have softer edges when out of focus.

While comparing it to my original camera, it is very similar overall, but I was actually very impressed at the sharpness of the GW800 when compared to the original. You can see in the provided photo that it actually captures a much clearer and focused image.

Ultimately, your goal is to have a good quality image that allowed the viewer to see more than just a game. You want to provide them with some insight to who you are, which helps them get to know you, and thus, makes them want to come hang out in your chat while you stream. The Redragon GW800 helps you obtain that goal, and at a very affordable price.

I strongly recommend this camera, not just as a ‘first’ cam, or an ‘entry’ cam, but as an overall lifetime use product. This camera is outperforming my other cam, which was made by a very known company. And while the price difference between the two wasn’t much, the original cam is no longer available. Which means finding a good webcam for under $50 is getting harder to do.

I really do not think you will find a better cam in this price range than what Redragon has to offer.

Pros：

● Strong and Sturdy

● Auto focus lense really provides a clear image

● Very Affordable

Cons：

• Struggles a bit in low light settings, resulting in some white grains within your image. Easily fixed however with good lighting.

Written By Zach Harner