Razer Kiyo Pro USB Webcam TEARDOWN & TEST

[jonovid]

interesting to see how the same auto-focus and auto-exposure problems keep popping up in todays camera designs.
IMO
lens focus , exposure and white balance are the three key control's a pro must have in a camera.
I challenge someone to hack a 2k or 4k web camera and add full manual control of focus and exposure.
not only this but focus lock and exposure lock too  . we have so much automatic BS its a fail.
the ideal is automatic with a lock switch for one of two focus settings and a lock switch for exposure too.

[thm_w]

But he needs autofocus to show parts up to the camera.

I don't know if: flipping a switch, showing part to camera, flipping switch back, is a realistic option.

[NiHaoMike]

The autofocus issue is made worse by the way it zooms in/out slightly when it does so. Perhaps a future firmware upgrade could give the option to autoadjust the zoom to compensate, at the cost of losing a little zoom range?

[RoGeorge]

I don't consider Razer at all since many, many years ago, when they start requiring website registration to download the driver for their mouse. 

Bought one of their Razer Diamondback mouse, long time ago.  It was very expensive, about $150 or so.  The lateral buttons were placed in stupid places that could not be reached.  I don't recall any other mouse with such a bad ergonomy for the lateral buttons.  And it was running rather hot, so it was heating the palm during long gaming.

Also the teflon pads underneath wear out rather fast.  Later the rubbery cover layer on the buttons wear out, and the RAZER text written on top partially wear out (it was painted with some greenish paint that didn't last well). 

Back then, Razer was overhyped in reviews and ads, but time proved my mouse to be not great at all.  I won't buy Razer again.

[thm_w]

No need to register for drivers: https://drivers.razersupport.com//index.php?_m=downloads&_a=view&parentcategoryid=76&pcid=0&nav=0
Or use snappy driver instead. https://sdi-tool.org/

[RoGeorge]

When I bought that mouse, Razer Diamondback RZD-1600, drivers could be downloaded without registration, then 1-2 years later, it was not possible any more to download their driver without registration and email.  That get me really mad at them and frustrated.
It was about 10 years ago, or so, but I still remember that filling. 

Glad to hear they give up to that practice, and now they don't force people to register.  For me it's too late.  Been burned once, and I'm not using Windows any more.  Also, I wouldn't trust drivers downloaded from a 3rd party, but that's a different topic.

I've looked today out of curiosity, and my model, Diamondback RZD-1600 is not listed anymore.  Probably they have unified drivers and current driver will work for all models.  Or probably not, because it sais "Applicable Models RZ01-01420".  So not thrilled about unlisting older models either.  For the paid price I would have expected that to be different.  I still believe Razer was (and probably still is) an overhyped/overpriced brand, sorry Razer.

LATER EDIT:
There is an OpenRazer driver for Linux, and and OpenGenie configuration GUI tool for Linux, which is great. 

Unfortunately my model is not listed as supported (with USB ID 1532:0002), and I get no Razer device detected, though the mouse is working with the generic Linux drivers.  The model I have is one of their first Diamondback models, from 10+ years ago, so this is just a note not a complain.