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Making best webcam even better

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I have been planing to release Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam aluminium unibody rework kit for a while and as soon as I got time, designed and ordered a prototype. After receiving manufactured parts found few minor overlooked issues, but all has been fixed now. Can’t believe how small and slim it is compared to Logitech C920. And now it is ready for small production run.

About

Brio has USB-C connector soldered straight into PCB, so rework procedure is much simpler than C920. Almost no soldering is required, except for nasty bright white LED which is located near sensor and shines directly into it.

After dissecting fresh Brio you will end up with some left over parts: shell, lens, screws, microphone dampeners, thermal gaskets and few other bits. Silicone thermal gaskets will be reused though, so don’t throw them out.

Brio also has few auxiliary sensors: microphones, IR LED and IR sensor. Microphones will be used with new aluminium kit, so keep them. Infrared emitter and camera will not be used.

Infrared functionality was intended to be used in facial recognition applications and does not affect main camera functionality. And yes, I double and triple checked that camera has no glitches without these IR parts.

Enclosure has standard 1/4″ tripod and multiple other mount features. Also there is plenty of space to add optical filter between sensor and CS-mount or C-mount lens, so besides standard use it can be used in various scientific and computer vision applications.

Sample pictures

For your pleasure here is sample picture taken with 2.8-12mm lens. Look at these vibrant colors and crisp sharp picture!

I believe you can do this with DSLR, but can your webcam do this?

Brief specifications

  • 8.8 Megapixels
  • 4096 x 2160 pixels at 30 fps
  • 1920 x 1080 pixels at 30 or 60 fps
  • 1280 x 720 pixels at 30, 60, or 90 fps
  • USB 3.0
  • New dimensions: 102(W) x 29.5(H) x 22.9(D) mm
  • Multiple mount options
  • CS-mount lens
  • Optional filters

Comments ( 19 )

  1. » Logitech Brio 4K webcam rework instructions
    […] And with replaceable lenses you can achieve amazing results. Even universal zoom lens will provide stunning results! And the best thing is these kits are already available on […]
  2. JunHorng
    The original Brio has three selections of FOVs. Does that mean there are three lens included in the original Brio?
    • saulius
      Hi, JunHorng. I guess it is horizontal, vertical and diagonal FOV.
      • junhorng
        Hi Saulius, Form the document ( https://www.logitech.com/assets/64939/40/briopictograms.pdf ), the Brio 4k has three 65, 78 ,90 degrees of FOV. I just think it should have three sets of lens to provide these sets of FOV. Have you found them when you disassembled it?
        • saulius
          Oh, that's marketing BS, with 4K sensor you can have better crop and have digital zoom.
  3. junhorng@gmail.com
    Do you mean the 65-FOV image is cropped and interpolated from 90-FOV image?
    • saulius
      Exactly
  4. dlramfan
    Very interested in using the Brio housing. May I ask a few questions? 1) What is the size of the sensor on Brio? 2) Based on the housing design, will the sensor be 12.5mm from the lenses? 3) If the finished product is fixed mounted (set and forget) and considering the electrical modifications required, will Brio have any startup issues when powered up for each session? 4) If I order 3-4 of them, what is the current delivery schedule to US using modestly priced shipping? Cheers, David Lyle
    • saulius
      Hi David, 1. Brio sensor size is about 1/4" 2. Exactly. Distance to sensor is 12.5mm 3. Only two electrical modifications required are: de-soldering lens tabs, removing LED. Brio functions and behaves like original one except from IR secondary camera. 4. UPS usually delivers in a few work days. -- Saulius
  5. axeljaeger
    Can you comment which lenses to buy for a beginner? I am interested in the kit and have two use cases in mind: 1) Still use the camera as a webcam. 2) Oculus Mixed Reality, where you capture a person playing with an Oculus Rift and then compositing the person into the 3D-Scene. This needs capturing a person in a square of approx 3m x 3m.
    • saulius
      Hi Axeljaeger, I suggest starting with 2.8-12mm CS mount lens
  6. Todd
    First, this is an awesome kit and the design and construction is excellent. I just received my kit and ordered a new brio 4k pro for it. However, after assembly all I get is blank output from the brio and occasionally a "Something went wrong" error popup with the error code "0xA00F4271 (0x8007001F)". I moved it to another PC and it went through the motions of installing the driver and produced the same thing. The device is detected fine via USB so it's not completely dead. I tried reconnecting the IR module again, but it didn't change anything. BTW, I did desolder and remove the lens assembly, of course, but I chose not to try to remove the surface mount LED. Instead I put electrical tape over it. I pulled the tape off, but I haven't seen this LED light up again. I did test the brio before all this rework and it was working fine. Do you suppose the Brio design has changed?
    • saulius
      Hi Todd, while I feel sorry about failing Brio camera a lot of things can go wrong. It is pretty robust design and difficult to damage camera board but who knows what happened. Had only one camera (actually it was C920) which failed after a few minutes of operation after rework. These cameras have custom processor, so repairing is not an option :( and if you followed general electrostatic safety there is not much to fix.
  7. Todd
    I have a follow-up. After inspecting my brio that was no longer functional, I discovered a cracked component under the yellow tape on the backside (from the sensor). I don't have it sitting in front of my now, but I believe it was a 6 pin device. I have no idea how this component cracked, but considering all components are likely necessary for operation (haha) I decided to attempt to convert another brio into the same case. This time all is well! So I have a bit of a mystery as to how I managed to break the first one. I don't see any way the rework case design could have done this.
    • saulius
      Hi Todd, can you please send me good quality picture of this component? It should be voltage converter.
  8. Hans
    We have been using this for over a year now and it still works perfectly. The camera is 24x7 on. No issues. I have 4 of these converted camera's now and they all work great. Only thing to consider is an IR-filter. Because when you use it with normal lighting the image quickly becomes purple. But on our lab tables there's lots of light so no issue.
    • saulius
      Thank you for feedback Hans!
  9. Edgars
    Regarding senor Brio 4K size. I measured sensor from your frontal photo : blueish portion is around 4.4mm x 3.3mm which would translate to approx. 1/3.2" - 1/3.4" diagonal (4:3) sensor. Do you mind creating another post with some Brio sensor measurements and how you do them. How did you measure when getting 1/4"? Thanks! Cheers!
    • saulius
      Hi Edgars, actually you are correct. I think 1/4" sensor size was taken from unreliable sources. Latest info with says it has IMX091PQ (1/3.06") See wiki https://wiki.kurokesu.com/books/brio-rework-kit/page/final-notes

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