Hollyland continues to expand its arsenal of video production products, today entering a new market with the introduction of the VenusLiv live camera . The price is $999.
The camera has a fixed lens with a maximum aperture of F / 1.2-2.0 with 3x optical zoom and 2x digital zoom, a minimum focusing distance of 50 cm, the camera is equipped with phase and contrast autofocus, angles of view of 80 ° horizontally and 46 ° vertically. A 72 mm thread is available for the use of filters.
What is convenient here is the screen – the camera is equipped with a 5-inch LCD screen with a touch function, the screen is swivel and bright with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. To work with audio, not only a 3.5 mm analog microphone input is provided, but also USB-C 2.0 interface, which allows you to connect the Hollyland Lark C1 or Lark MAX radio receiver directly to the camera via USB.
The VenusLiv camera is compatible with RTMP technology, which allows you to live stream directly from the camera, without a computer, you just need the Internet. If you want to stream via OBS, the camera has a USB-C 3.0 interface that supports the UVC protocol, so the camera can be connected to a computer as a webcam.
Input and output interfaces
The dimensions of VenusLiv are 178 x 99.7 x 94.8 mm, the camera weighs 900 g. On board is a Qualcomm processor, a CMOS type matrix from Sony, which is not specified, the HollyOS operating system from Hollyland. The VenusLiv camera is equipped with a hybrid autofocus system – phase and contrast autofocus. The autofocus point can be selected with a touch.
VenusLiv is powered by Sony NP-F batteries, the 970 series battery will allow you to work from 4 to 6 hours, there is no battery included. To work near a 220V outlet, there is a power adapter, which, oddly enough, is included in the kit. The camera body has two 1/4″-20 mounting points, bottom and side, so you can mount the camera horizontally or vertically.
Hollyland VenusLiv Camera
The rear panel features an HDMI 1.4 output port, a 1Gb/s RJ45 Ethernet port, a USB-A port, a 3.5mm microphone audio input, an SD card slot, and a USB-C 3.1 port for UVC connection to a computer.
Hollyland says VenusLiv is capable of streaming video 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without overheating thanks to a special heat dissipation system. VenusLiv has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you can use Ethernet capabilities through the RJ45 port.
To build a picture, pre-prepared presets are offered – standard shooting, outdoors, macro, chroma key, high key and low key. There is a special color correction mode, which, according to the company, automatically adjusts the colors and makes the picture saturated, including he can work with skintone.
What remains unexplained
- What is the purpose of the camera’s SD card slot? Can the VenusLiv camera be used as a normal camcorder, recording material on SD, away from the computer, without any live streaming capabilities at all?
- The resolution of the broadcast and the codec are not named anywhere. Not on the website, not in the presentation on YouTube.
What about the prices?
The Hollyland VenusLiv camera sells for $999.
Who might like this camera?
- Smartphone streamers who upgrade to VenusLiv will get a larger aperture lens, an RJ45 port, and a USB port with OBS capability. Screens in modern smartphones are also larger, and the smartphone itself is 4 times lighter, the rest of the functions are essentially the same.
- Those who streamed with mirrorless cameras will have the opportunity to stream without a computer at all, and this is perhaps the only significant advantage of VenusLiv over mirrorless cameras, for example, over the same Sony ZV-E1. Well, a large 5-inch screen is undoubtedly more convenient, and the NP-F 970 battery is more capacious.
- Those who are just planning to start live streaming are potential buyers. For example, teachers of online courses, webinars and other online conferences can evaluate the camera.
