system
Published by SMCS AI Factory · Content reviewed:
Webcam test online — camera preview
Preview your camera in the browser — local only, no upload.
Start to preview your camera. Video is not uploaded.
Browser-only diagnostics. Grant permissions when the browser asks. Stop mic/camera when finished.
Camera stays on your device. Preview stops when you leave or stop the test.
What can fix this
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Other tools
Peripherals Test
Test keyboard, mouse, microphone, and webcam in the browser.
Microphone Test
Check your mic level in the browser — audio never leaves your device.
Keyboard Tester
Test every key online — live key and code display in your browser.
Mouse Tester
Test left, right, middle click and scroll wheel online.
A preview, and nothing behind it
The page requests video only — audio is explicitly excluded, so the browser asks for the camera and not the microphone — and draws the stream straight into a preview element on the page.
No frame is captured, saved or uploaded. Stopping the test stops every track, which is what makes the camera indicator light go out; closing the tab does the same.
Confirming a camera works before a call
Start the preview: Press start and allow camera access when the browser asks.
Check the light: The hardware indicator should come on as the stream opens.
Look at the image: Confirm the picture is live and not frozen or black.
Stop the stream: Press stop so the device is released and the light goes out.
The camera light is the only proof anyone trusts
Meeting software fails in a dozen places between the sensor and the other person's screen. Before joining a call it is worth separating "the camera works" from "the app is misconfigured".
A live preview here settles the first half in five seconds. If the image appears, the device, its driver and the browser permission are all fine, and whatever is wrong lives in the other application.
When the preview stays black
- Close every other application that might hold the camera — many systems allow only one at a time.
- Check the physical shutter or privacy slider; laptops have had them for years and they are easy to forget.
- A denied permission is remembered per site, so the prompt may never appear again until you reset it.
- Camera access requires a secure connection; over plain HTTP the request fails before it reaches the device.
- Some privacy-focused browsers and extensions block the request independently of the operating system.
- If the preview works here and not in your meeting app, the problem is that application's device selection.
What the preview does and does not prove
It proves the camera opens, delivers frames and reaches the browser. That covers the majority of "my webcam is broken" reports, which are permission and occupancy problems rather than dead sensors.
It does not measure resolution, frame rate, exposure or focus, and it does not choose a specific camera when several are present. The image you see is whatever the browser negotiated with the device.
Why audio is excluded from the request
Asking for both would produce a single permission prompt covering the camera and the microphone, and would leave the microphone open for a test that has no use for it.
Requesting the narrower permission is the correct default: a page should ask for what it needs and nothing more. The microphone test is a separate page for exactly the same reason.
The indicator light as evidence
On most hardware the camera light is wired to the device rather than to software, which makes it the most trustworthy signal available. If it comes on when you start and goes off when you stop, the whole chain behaved.
That is also why stopping matters. Leaving a stream open keeps the light on and the device busy for any other application that wants it.
When the built-in camera is the limit
If the preview is clean but the image is soft, noisy in normal room light, or locked to a low resolution, you have confirmed the camera works and reached its ceiling. That is the point where external hardware changes something — before it, nothing would.