What else you need to use it
Worked out from Sony’s own specifications and box contents for this model.
Check first
- A clean picture setting. Set HDMI Info. Display to Off and only the picture goes out over HDMI.
- A tripod or mount. Place it where it frames you, with its cables and power reaching it. Camera and microphone mounts
Optional
- An HDMI capture card. Its USB mode sends 1280 × 720 at 30 or 25 fps, MJPEG, with stereo sound; its HDMI output is the other route into OBS, through a capture card. Capture cards
- An HDMI cable with a micro HDMI plug at the camera end. The camera’s socket is micro HDMI, and the maker sells the cable separately; the other end matches your capture card.
- Power for a whole stream. Sony says: micro USB from an AC adaptor rated 1.5 A or more, with a charged battery inside. Over USB the computer powers it; this is for the HDMI route.
When this model makes sense
- Plug it in over USB as a webcam when its USB mode is enough, and save the capture card.
- Zoom and frame the shot from across the room, where a webcam’s fixed wide lens can’t.
- Run it from mains power and turn off its on-screen information, then rehearse for the full length of your stream.
The Webcam versus camera guide weighs it against the other ways to fill the same role.
Connections and specs
- Full name
- Sony ZV-1
- Still sold
- Yes, a current model
- Type
- Cameras
- Connection
- Connector shape
- Micro HDMI (Type D); Micro USB (Multi/Micro USB, USB 2.0); 3.5 mm microphone
- Video outputs
- HDMI: 2160p/1080p, 1080p or 1080i; USB Streaming: 1280 × 720 at 30 or 25 fps
- Power input
- Micro USB from an AC adaptor rated 1.5 A or more, with a charged battery inside
- HDMI output
- Yes
- Clean HDMI picture
- Set HDMI Info. Display to Off and only the picture goes out over HDMI
- USB webcam mode
- 1280 × 720 at 30 or 25 fps, MJPEG, with stereo sound; from firmware 2.00; the computer powers it; it cannot record while streaming
- Sensor
- 1.0-type (13.2 × 8.8 mm) CMOS, about 20.1 megapixels
- Lens
- ZEISS Vario-Sonnar T*, 24–70 mm (35 mm equivalent), f/1.8–2.8
- Built-in microphone
- Stereo; 3.5 mm socket for an external microphone
- Size and mounting
- Dimensions
- 105.5 × 60.0 × 43.5 mm
- Weight
- 294 g with battery and card
- In the box
- Not in the box
- HDMI cable (micro HDMI)
Check these conditions first
Not yet confirmed from Sony’s documents: included parts. We leave it out rather than guess.
For a camera, test the whole chain for as long as you stream: its HDMI or USB output into OBS, with the on-screen information turned off and the camera running from mains power. A camera made for recording can still switch itself off, overheat or stop its output partway through, and only a full-length rehearsal shows it.
What is included, and what may be missing
The maker doesn’t publish a full list of what comes in the box. Check the box contents for your region before you count on a cable, stand, power supply or adapter being included.
Place it in the complete setup
Every connection
- Camera HDMI outHDMI cable → capture card HDMI in; capture card USB out → A USB port on your computer
- Microphone USB outUSB cable → A USB port on your computer
- Microphone / interface headphone out3.5 mm or 6.3 mm headphone connection → Headphones (what you hear)
- Computer Ethernet portEthernet cable → router; your upload → Platform (check the stream preview)
- Wall socketThe maker’s power supply, or USB power → Computer and devices that need their own power
The diagram shows a camera’s HDMI output going through a capture card into the computer. The camera capture checker asks what decides whether the ZV-1 stays live for a whole stream: a clean output, its power and any automatic power-off. The pre-stream checklist covers the rehearsal once it is wired.