DevicedialWebcam mirror
Webcam mirror
Your own picture appears here once you allow the camera. Nothing is recorded, nothing is uploaded โ this is a mirror, not a webcam test.
Your browser is not letting this page use the camera
The permission prompt was dismissed or blocked, so there is nothing to measure yet.
Nothing is recorded and nothing leaves this tab โ the reading is taken from the live stream and thrown away the moment you stop the test.
Mirror picture
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A mirror flips left and right, so a printed word held up to it reads backwards. Turn the flip off before you check anything with writing on it.
- Frame rateโ
- Aspectโ
- Cameraโ
- Recordingnever
One gear check a month
MonthlyOne thing a month worth measuring before it fails properly โ a mic that reset itself, a stick that drifts, a switch sending two clicks. Two sentences and the test.
Try also
Can I use my webcam as a mirror?
The webcam mirror fills the screen with a mirrored camera image and records nothing at all. A camera preview is normally shown flipped because an unmirrored self-view is disorienting: you move left and the reflection moves right. That flip is exactly what makes a mirror useful, so the page keeps it and removes everything else โ no capture, no upload, no controls sitting over your face.
It is a mirror with two differences worth knowing. The screen lights your face from the front, which is why a mirror image on a bright display is kinder than a bathroom mirror under a ceiling lamp. And it is not geometrically honest: a webcam lens is wide and used close, so whatever is nearest to it โ usually the nose โ is drawn larger than it really is. Sitting back a little removes most of that, at the price of a smaller reflection.
A mirror shows you the room’s light as much as your face, and a camera reacts to that light in ways glass does not. Where the light comes from changes both what you see and what the camera does to keep up.
| Where the light is | What you see in the mirror | What the camera does about it |
|---|---|---|
| A window in front of you | Even light, accurate colour, sharp detail | Short exposure, full frame rate |
| A ceiling lamp only | Shadows under the eyes, nose and chin | Slightly longer exposure; the colour warms up |
| A window or lamp behind you | Your face as a silhouette | Meters for the bright area, so the face goes dark |
| The screen as the only light | A cool, blue-tinted face with visible grain | Exposure passes 1/30 s, so the rate falls towards 15 fps |
| Daylight and a warm lamp together | Uneven colour across the face | White balance settles on one source and gets the other wrong |
If the picture is worse than you expect for reasons the light does not explain, the numbers underneath it are on the camera test, which reports the resolution and frame rate the camera actually agreed to. For the audio half of the same device, start at the mic test.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the image mirrored here but not in a video call?
Both are true at once. Video apps mirror the small preview of yourself, because a self-view that moves the wrong way is unusable, and none of them mirror the stream they send โ the other side always sees you the right way round. Hold a page of text up to the camera to see the difference: mirrored, it reads backwards; unmirrored, it reads normally and that is what everyone else gets.
Why is the picture grainy in a dim room?
Two things happen at once when light runs short. The camera raises sensor gain, which lifts noise along with the picture, and it lengthens each exposure to gather more light. Once the exposure passes about 1/30 s the camera can no longer deliver 30 frames a second, so the rate falls towards 15 and movement starts to smear. Adding one lamp in front of you fixes both.
Is anything recorded or uploaded?
No. Frames travel from the camera into a video element and nowhere else โ nothing is recorded, no frame is copied or stored, and no request leaves the page while the mirror is open. Stopping the mirror or closing the tab releases the camera and the indicator light goes out. If that light stays on afterwards, something else on the machine is holding the camera.
The camera will not start
Usually another application already has it. A camera can typically be opened by one program at a time, so close video call software, anything with a virtual camera, and any browser tab you forgot was running a preview. After that, check per-app camera permission in Windows Settings > Privacy & security > Camera, and the site permission behind the icon at the left of the address bar.
Does this work on a phone?
Yes, and the front camera opens by default because that is the one you are in. It is mirrored for the same reason a laptop preview is. The rear camera is not mirrored when you switch to it, which looks odd for about a second and is correct: you are not in the frame, so a flip would only reverse the text on everything you point it at.
Does going full screen improve the picture?
No, and knowing why saves some frustration. The stream negotiates its resolution when the camera opens and keeps it, so going full screen scales that same image up to fill the display โ a 1280x720 stream on a 1440p screen is being enlarged, not resampled from anything sharper. What full screen does help with is distance, because a bigger image is legible from further back.
How the test works
Sources:
What a screen mirror is good at
Light, mostly. A display is a large, even, front-facing light source aimed at your face, which is the one thing a bathroom mirror under a ceiling lamp cannot offer.
Angles that glass cannot reach. A laptop lid tilts to positions a hand mirror needs a second hand for, and a phone propped against something covers the rest.
Not for judging colour. Automatic white balance decides what counts as white and keeps revising that decision as the light changes, so a camera image is the wrong place to check whether two colours match.