Camera, lenses and image
The picture is decided on the phone, before encoding. The plugin decodes what it's sent and changes nothing.
Choosing lens, resolution, frame rate and codec#
Four pickers in the Setup screen's Camera section, each filtered to what the selected lens can do. A combination that isn't listed isn't supported by the hardware.
| Setting | Notes |
|---|---|
| Lens | Main, Ultra Wide, Telephoto or Front. Switchable mid-stream. |
| Resolution | Up to 3840×2160. Higher isn't automatically better — 1080p60 beats 4K30 for most talking-head work. |
| Frame rate | 30 or 60. Match your OBS canvas. Options → High frame rate (experimental) adds 120 and 240 where the camera has them. |
| Codec | HEVC looks the same as H.264 at roughly 40% less data. Use it unless your OBS build can't decode it. |
| Quality | Balanced streams at a bitrate that is safe on ordinary Wi-Fi. Maximum keeps probing upward while the connection stays clean — up to about six times that over USB, four over Wi-Fi — and settles just under whatever the link carries. It also switches the encoder to quality-first settings and streams from the full sensor readout. More data and more heat; USB is the place for it. |
If the source says "Connected, but this OBS build can't decode the stream", that build has no HEVC decoder. Switch the app to H.264; nothing else changes.
Changing settings mid-stream#
Lens, resolution, frame rate and codec can all change while the stream is live, from the browser panel or the source properties. A lens change is instant; a format change pauses briefly while the camera restarts.
Live camera controls#
The same controls appear on the app's Live screen, in the browser panel, and (in part) in the source properties — same order everywhere, and touching one updates the others.
On the phone, the Live screen shows the picture, the status pill, Pause, Stop, and the lens buttons — .5, 1×, 2, as in the Camera app. Pinch to zoom, tap to focus, and drag up or down on the picture to brighten or darken the shot. The chevron opens the adjust tray: one dial and a chip for each thing it can drive. A yellow A on a chip means that setting is on auto; drag the dial and it goes manual, tap the active chip again and it goes back. The browser panel lays the same controls out as rows.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Zoom | 1× to the lens maximum. Pinch the Live screen, tap a lens button, or use the Zoom chip or the panel's slider. |
| Exposure | On auto, a bias dial (drag the picture on the phone). Drag Shutter to take exposure manual — the Exposure chip becomes ISO — or pick Manual in the panel. Manual is hidden on cameras that lack it. |
| Focus | Auto, or locked with a near-to-far dial. On auto the camera follows faces (Options → Focus on faces). Tap the preview to focus and expose there until the scene changes; hold it to lock focus and exposure at that spot. |
| White balance | Auto, or locked with a 2500–8000 K dial. |
| Flashlight | On or off. A hard fill at close range, and not much else. In the tray's bottom row on the phone. |
| Lens | The device's real lenses: the lens buttons on the phone, a menu in the panel. |
| Flip | Front to back and back again. In the tray's bottom row on the phone. |
Lock focus and white balance once the shot is set. Autofocus and auto white balance hunt when someone walks past or a light changes, and the hunt is visible on stream. This is the single biggest quality win on the page.
Color: HDR and Apple Log#
Color sits in the app's Format sheet and offers only what this phone can capture. Both options are HEVC-only and take effect when the camera next starts; the sheet marks them "HEVC only", and picking H.264 there returns Color to Standard.
HDR (HLG)#
10-bit HLG capture. OBS tone-maps it for an SDR canvas; an HDR canvas gets the real thing. Off by default.
Apple Log#
On Pro iPhones (iOS 17+), a flat 10-bit image for grading: add an Apply LUT filter to the source and load an Apple Log LUT. The plugin applies nothing of its own.
Log looks washed out until it's graded. If you aren't adding a LUT, use Standard.
Virtual green screen#
Everything but you is painted solid green before the video leaves the phone; turning it on sets Color to Standard. The source then adds a tuned chroma-key filter in OBS — once only, so deleting or re-tuning it sticks.
- Depth assist sharpens the cutout with real depth: the front camera on Face ID phones, the rear Main lens on Pro (LiDAR) phones. Other lenses use shape detection alone, which keeps every person in frame. It also turns off Center Stage and the other system effects.
- Subject distance appears while depth assist runs: anything beyond the cutoff becomes background, which is how you drop someone walking past behind you. Drag for 0.5–5.0 m, or tap the readout for All.
Remembered settings#
Each camera's exposure, white balance, zoom and focus are kept from one stream to the next, per lens, so a shot dialled in once stays dialled in. Lock white balance on the Main lens today and it comes back locked tomorrow; switch to the Ultra Wide mid-stream and it comes up the way you last left it. There is nothing to name or save: the tray shows what came back, and tapping a chip releases it.
Options → Remember camera settings turns it off, which also forgets what was stored.
Control Center video effects#
Portrait, Studio Light and the rest are iOS features, toggled in Control Center while an app uses the camera. iOS offers them only on certain cameras and formats — typically the front camera, nothing above 1920×1440 — and on many iPhones the rear cameras get none.
- Options → Camera diagnostics lists what your device offers, per camera and format.
- LensLink picks an effect-capable format whenever your settings allow one.
- A toggle that appears but greys out means the frame rate is too high: drop it, and turn on Options → Allow system video effects so iOS can vary it.
Apple's Camera-app filters and Photographic Styles aren't available to any third-party app. For looks, use OBS filters (right-click the source → Filters).
Holding the phone#
The interface follows the phone's rotation (unless rotation lock is on) and the live view stays upright in any orientation. What OBS receives is always sensor-native landscape, so rotating the phone never resizes the source in your scene.