In reviewv1.0.0

Cams

The world, live, on your keys.

Cams puts live webcams on your Stream Deck: Kīlauea's lava lake, Mount Rainier, Hong Kong's harbour, a buoy far out in the Pacific, the Sun. Each with its own clock, and Random always finds one where it is day. Tap a cam and it fills the whole deck. Your own cameras sit beside them.

For macOS and Windows. No account; it connects only to the cams you look at.

€1.99

Coming to Elgato Marketplace

The button turns into a link the moment Elgato publishes the listing.

Or try Cams Lite, free ↓

Finding a cam, as the plugin draws it

Explore by category

One Explore key opens the browser on your whole deck: nine categories, each over a cam where it is day right now. A category starts with Random, then every cam with its clock and a LIVE mark for video. Tap a cam to see it across the deck; any key brings you back. Done gives you your keys back.

Nine categories: space, volcanoes, mountains, coasts, cities, wild places, open ocean, roads, test card — Nine categoriesspace, volcanoes, mountains, coasts, cities, wild places, open ocean, roads, test card

A category: Random first; each cam with its own clock — A categoryRandom first; each cam with its own clock

Space: the Sun in four lights, the Earth from orbit, the aurora — Spacethe Sun in four lights, the Earth from orbit, the aurora

Tap a cam. It fills the deck.

The picture is laid behind the keys and the gaps between them, so a bridge cable runs on from one key to the next instead of jumping. The name and the source show for a moment, then only the picture. Video plays a few seconds behind live; stills refresh as often as their camera does.

Tsing Ma Bridge: Hong Kong, in the afternoon — Tsing Ma BridgeHong Kong, in the afternoon

Earth: from 36,000 km, ten minutes old — Earthfrom 36,000 km, ten minutes old

Bay Bridge: live video, after midnight — Bay Bridgelive video, after midnight

Set the gap once

Open the Test card and move the gap slider in the settings until its lines run straight from key to key. Fill crops the picture to your deck; Fit shows all of it.

Its own clock, its own day

Every cam shows the time where it is, with the sun or the moon. Random picks one where the sun is up and never the one you just saw. A cam that is tuning in looks like a television between channels; one that is down says so.

Day there: the sun by the clock — Day therethe sun by the clock

Live: video, breathing red — Livevideo, breathing red

Night there: the moon by the clock — Night therethe moon by the clock

Tuning in: static, like a TV — Tuning instatic, like a TV

Resting: the camera's own 'unavailable' — Restingthe camera's own 'unavailable'

Refused: says why, in two words — Refusedsays why, in two words

Three keys, each added on its own

Explore

Tap: the browser. Every cam across the deck, as often as you like.

Cam

One cam on the key, live. Tap: the whole deck. Hold: choose another. Random picks a new one each time the key appears.

Your camera

Your own stream, set up in its settings. Tap: the whole deck.

Your cameras, beside the world's

The Your camera key takes the ways cameras stream, with the logins they ask for. A Try it button in its settings shows the picture, the codec and the size before you rely on it.

Setting up your own camera

Snapshot: JPEG or PNG, fetched again every few seconds
MJPEG: the long stream most IP cameras offer
HLS: live or recorded, plain or AES-128
MPEG-DASH: live or recorded
RTSP: H.264 and H.265 over TCP, rtsps:// too
RTMP: H.264, and H.265 as Enhanced RTMP
Video file: MP4 or MOV, looped
Logins: user and password (Basic and Digest), bearer token, token in the address, cookie, headers

On a Mac, video is decoded by macOS itself, with nothing to install. On Windows, stills and MJPEG play as they are; video needs ffmpeg, which Cams finds by itself when it is installed.

Cams and Cams Lite

Cams Lite is free and stays free. The two install side by side.

	Cams Lite	Cams
Explore, every cam across the deck	Yes	Yes
Cam and Your camera keys	One	As many as you like
Every protocol and login	Yes	Yes
The Neo's Infobar, a profile for every Stream Deck	Yes	Yes

Sources, and who may show them

Cams only shows cams whose pictures anyone may show. Each credits its source on the deck and in the settings. No aggregators, nothing marked non-commercial.

National Park Service, USGS, NOAA, NASA: Public domain in the United States: national parks, Hawaiian volcanoes, ocean buoys, GOES Earth pictures, the Sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the aurora forecast.
Fintraffic Digitraffic · NZ Transport Agency: CC BY 4.0: Finland's road weather cams, New Zealand's highways.
Transport Department, Hong Kong · Land Transport Authority, Singapore: Open data under DATA.GOV.HK's terms and the Singapore Open Data Licence.
Caltrans: Live video from California's highways, published through its public data portal.

On the Stream Deck Neo, the Infobar names it

A cam. its place, its source and its clock — A camits place, its source and its clock

Live. the LIVE mark, and the time there — Livethe LIVE mark, and the time there

Your camera. how it streams — Your camerahow it streams

Requirements

Computer: macOS 13 or newer, or Windows 10 or newer.
Stream Deck: Any model, with the Stream Deck app 7.6 or newer. The Infobar action needs a Stream Deck Neo.
Video on Windows: ffmpeg, installed by you (winget, Chocolatey, Scoop). Stills and MJPEG need nothing.
Profile: The browser and the whole-deck view come as a profile for Mini, Neo, MK.2, Plus and XL.

Privacy

Cams connects to the cams you look at, and to the agencies' public lists when Random draws from them. It has no account, sends nothing about you anywhere, and keeps your settings and a small cache on your computer. Logins for your own cameras stay in the Stream Deck app's settings.