Obsbot has delivered some of our favorite webcams in recent years, and that streak continues with its latest releases, the $349 Tiny 3 and the $199 Tiny 3 Lite. The two models share a lot in common: both can record 4K video at 30fps and 1080p at up to 120fps, feature a built-in gimbal for mechanical pan and tilt, deliver excellent audio, and offer a wide range of AI-powered auto-tracking options along with voice and gesture controls. The Tiny 3 Lite trims back a few features and recording modes, but its lower price is primarily due to a much smaller image sensor. Although both cameras offer the same resolution, footage from the Lite is noticeably softer and significantly noisier, particularly in low-light conditions. The Tiny 3 is our Editors' Choice for its superior image quality, but the Tiny 3 Lite is an excellent alternative for nearly half the price.

Design: Small, But Not Osbot's Smallest

At 1.6 by 1.6 by 2.3 inches (HWD), Tiny 3 Lite is indeed quite petite. It’s smaller than the Tiny 2 (1.9 by 1.7 by 2.4 inches), but its more expensive sibling, the Tiny 3, is even punier at just 1.5 by 1.5 by 1.9 inches. Considering the Tiny 2 was already pretty small, any further shrinkage is pretty impressive. Like the other two cameras, the Tiny 3 Lite consists of a base with a gimbal holding a camera module that can rotate and tilt. It's constructed of black plastic, whereas the Tiny 3 and its predecessor are made of dark gray metal for a more premium touch, but I’d be hard-pressed to notice that difference when all three are sitting on top of my monitor.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Speaking of sitting on top of your monitor, the base has an integrated clip with a lip and a wide, flat foot for securing to your screen. The hinge is stiff enough to keep the camera securely in place at your desired angle, but still easy to adjust. A screw mount on the bottom of the jaw lets you attach the camera to a tripod or another stand if you don’t want it on your monitor or laptop.

A light bar sits on the front edge of the gimbal's base plate, on the top of the camera base. It glows different colors depending on the mode, and rotates along with the camera to follow you around the room. A USB-C port on the back of the base is for connecting the camera to your computer.

Features: AI Subject Tracking, Voice Controls, and More

The Obsbot Center software for Windows and macOS provides access to the Tiny 3 Lite’s extensive settings and features. There are standard sliders for contrast, hue, saturation, and sharpness, granular exposure controls with ISO and shutter settings, a focus slider, white balance correction, and individual toggles for auto exposure, focus, and white balance if you want to leave certain functions to the camera.

(Credit: Obsbot)

Obsbot Center also lets you control the camera’s gimbal, either manually with a basic directional pad and zoom slider (and three customizable preset slots for quickly switching between your favorite angles), or with many, many AI-powered automatic tracking options. The camera can automatically lock on you and keep you in frame as a close-up on your face, upper body, lower body, full body, or full body minus your head. It can also keep multiple people in frame at once, track your hands or a specific object you select in a preview window (similar to many mirrorless cameras’ subject tracking), or even follow you by the sound of your voice using the camera’s three microphones. That’s almost everything the Tiny 3 can do, with two exceptions: The Tiny 3 Lite doesn’t have the vertically flipped desk mode for capturing anything you might be working on up close, or the whiteboard mode that automatically zooms in when you’re presenting.

The Tiny 3 Lite performs just as well as the Tiny 3 for tracking. It had no issue following me all around the room in testing, even reacquiring the lock when I walked around a corner and came back into frame. Its object tracking worked well, too; after drawing a box around my Flipper Zero in the preview window, the camera panned and tilted to keep it in frame.

(Credit: Obsbot)

Like the Tiny 3 and the Tiny 2 before it, the Tiny 3 Lite works with voice and gesture controls. Say “track me” to make the camera follow you, “unlock me” to make it stop tracking, “zoom in closer” or “zoom out further," "position one/two/three” to switch between your three preset angles, and “sleep, Tiny” to put it into sleep mode. The voice commands worked reliably in testing, recognizing and responding to my words consistently. 

Gestures are even simpler. Hold up an open hand to turn AI tracking on or off, hold up your thumb and index finger in an L to zoom in or out by a preset amount, or hold both hands up (forming a U) and push them in or out to dynamically zoom. The first two gestures were as reliable as the voice commands in my testing, but the dynamic zoom was very inconsistent. Despite this issue, both gestures and voice commands are very useful for performing simple functions without using the Obsbot Center app. You can enable or disable them in Obsbot Center, and when they’re turned on, they’ll stay available to you even when the software isn’t running.

Picture Quality: Sensor Size Matters

The Tiny 3 Lite uses a 48MP, Type 1/2 (also called 1/2-inch) CMOS sensor, just like the Tiny 2 Lite. It’s smaller than the Tiny 3’s Type 1/1.28 and the Tiny 2’s Type 1/1.5 sensor, but bigger than the Type 1/2.8 CMOS in the 1080p Tiny SE ($99), which earned Editors' Choice award for budget webcams. Understand that sensor sizes are expressed as fractions; a smaller bottom number means the sensor is physically larger. It can capture 4K video at 30 frames per second and 1080p video at 120 frames per second, matching the Tiny 3's video capabilities and exceeding the Tiny 2’s 1080p60 frame rate. Its f/1.8 lens has a 79.1-degree diagonal field of view, slightly narrower than the Tiny 3’s 82.4 degrees. The camera’s two-axis gimbal can pan left and right 130 degrees in each direction and tilt vertically 32 to -60 degrees. Its maximum controllable speed is 120 degrees per second.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Even with the same 4K30 and 1080p120 recording modes as the Tiny 3 and only two fewer megapixels, the Tiny 3 Lite’s video quality takes a noticeable step back. That’s because its sensor has less than half the surface area of the Tiny 3’s, which equals smaller individual pixels that can’t capture as much light. This isn’t a big problem in a well-lit environment, but it makes a huge difference when the lighting isn’t ideal. In my apartment with decent ambient light, the Tiny 3 Lite offers a clear picture of me (seen in the image above). Some details, like my hair and the ridged collar on my Pikachu sweater, are visible, though my beard hairs appear softer and less distinct than on the Tiny 3, and almost none of the threads on my sweater are visible. Zoomed out, the picture is still great, but the softness limits how much you can crop or zoom in.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

The difference between the Tiny 3 and the Tiny 3 Lite is even more apparent in poor lighting, particularly in the background. In a dark room illuminated only by my laptop screen (pictured above), noise becomes much more significant across the frame. Consistent surfaces like the wall behind me show a static-like grain that simply isn’t present in the Tiny 3’s evenly dark background test shots. When zoomed out, my face and t-shirt are still pretty clear, but my hair softens significantly, and my facial features become fuzzier. Keep in mind, this is still a very good auto-exposure and fairly typical noise compared with most webcams. It’s just when the Tiny 3 Lite is compared with the Tiny 3 or the similarly expensive Razer Kiyo Ultra ($299.99) with its even bigger Type 1/1.2 sensor and wider, sharper lens, that it falls short.

High frame rate video has two modes: normal and slow motion. Normal captures 1080p120 footage in real time, which results in much smoother movement when viewed on a display with at least a 120Hz refresh rate. Slow motion saves the 1080p120 video at 30fps, resulting in 1080p30 files at 25% speed. Unlike non-high frame rate modes, these two settings record video and audio as separate files for editing. They both worked well in testing, but even with its gimbal, the webcam has limitations for high-speed action; it’s meant to stay in place, and you can’t easily move it around. If you really want to dive into slow motion or extra-smooth footage, consider an action cam instead.

Both 4K30 and 1080p120 recording require relatively powerful computers. Obsbot recommends at least an M1-powered Mac or a 10th-generation Intel Core i5-powered PC with 8GB of RAM, but that seems very generous and only realistic if you have no other software running. My AMD Ryzen 9 5200HS-powered laptop (equivalent to an 11th-generation Intel Core i7) with 16GB RAM chugged when making test captures with only Firefox and Discord open.

Sound: Fantastic Mics for a Webcam

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Audio is excellent on the Tiny 3 Lite. Both it and the Tiny 3 feature an omnidirectional microphone and two directional mics, with very effective audio processing to produce clear sound. My voice was full and detailed in test recordings, with no noticeable outside noise and very little room echo. This is among the best audio for webcams, though the nature of acoustics still means you should get a mic located closer to your mouth, like a USB mic on an adjustable arm mount or a good headset, if you’re serious about any kind of content creation.