Six ways to preview your Mac camera, and what each one will not tell you

If a mirror is genuinely all you need before a call, open Photo Booth, look at yourself, and stop reading. It is already on your Mac and costs nothing extra. What a plain mirror will not tell you is whether it lets go of the camera once you are done, which camera answered when more than one is plugged in, whether it still works while something else already has the camera, and whether your microphone is doing anything at all. Those four questions separate the six methods below, Photo Booth included.

I build Preen. Nothing here is a benchmark: this post contains no measurements, and where a number appears it comes from the app's own code, a vendor's published page, or Apple's documentation, and it says which. Product behavior describes Preen's current shipped build. Facts about other apps were checked on 23 July 2026.

The four questions I judged each one on

Six ways to see your own camera turn into a comparison the moment you ask what each one leaves out:

1. Does it let go of the camera when you are done, or does something have to be quit first?
2. Does it show you which physical camera answered, when more than one is connected?
3. Does it still work if another app already has the camera open?
4. Does it tell you anything about your microphone?

One. Photo Booth

Apple's Photo Booth User Guide, published for macOS Tahoe 26, documents exactly three things you can do here: take a photo, record a video, apply an effect, and nothing else (Apple Support, Photo Booth User Guide, accessed 23 July 2026). No sign-in, no extra permission beyond the camera prompt you already granted, no menu to dig through.

What it will not tell you

Apple's guide does not document a way to pick which camera Photo Booth uses, so whichever one macOS hands it is the one you get if more than one is connected, and the same documentation never mentions a microphone level either. You get a picture: not a choice of camera, and not a mic check without actually recording something.

The camera stays claimed until you quit it

Apple's Mac User Guide says the camera turns on automatically when you open an app such as FaceTime or Photo Booth (Apple Support, macOS Tahoe 26 user guide, accessed 23 July 2026), and describes a green light that glows the whole time, turning off only when you close or quit every app or feature that can use it (Apple Support, accessed 23 July 2026). Every one of them, not just the one in front. Everything that touches a camera sits on the same Apple framework, AVCaptureSession, which only lets one client hold it open at a time. Check your framing in Photo Booth, then switch straight to a call without quitting it, and whatever opens next is asking for a camera Photo Booth still holds. Quit it properly. Do not just close the window.

Two. QuickTime Player, New Movie Recording

Apple documents camera recording in QuickTime Player under File > New Movie Recording (Apple Support, QuickTime Player User Guide, accessed 23 July 2026). It is the first of the six that clearly answers the second question: click the small arrow beside the round record button and you get a list of every connected camera and microphone, by name, to choose from.

That arrow does double duty: a level meter moves in the toolbar as soon as you have picked a microphone, before you have recorded a frame, more than Photo Booth or a plain mirror gives you. Release behavior matches Photo Booth's for the same reason, since it is still an AVCaptureSession, open until you quit the app, not until you close the window.

Three. FaceTime

FaceTime shows you your own camera the moment you open it, before you have called anyone, and its Video menu lists every connected camera by name so switching is one click. Apple's own instructions for the menu bar video effects begin the same way: go to an app that captures video, such as FaceTime, then click the Video icon in the menu bar (Apple Support, accessed 23 July 2026).

What FaceTime will not do is show a microphone level before you are in a call. The meter lives in the participant tile once a call connects, not on the dialing screen, so if checking your mic is the job, FaceTime makes you commit to a call first.

Four. A browser based webcam test page

A browser test page asks macOS for camera and microphone access the same way any native app does, except the permission is granted to the browser, not the website. Grant Safari access once and every site you open inherits it, which also means the system cannot tell one site's request from another's once you have said yes. The picker on these pages is usually a dropdown built from the same device list any native app sees, and closing the tab generally stops the stream, though backgrounding it does not, since nothing has told the page to stop. Whether the page also tests your microphone is up to that page, and there is no way to verify what it does with the stream beyond reading whatever privacy text it published.

Five. The free menu bar apps

Rafael Conde's Hand Mirror is listed as a free download on the US Mac App Store, with optional in-app purchases (Mac App Store listing, checked 23 July 2026). The one-click preview is free outright; Hand Mirror Plus, a one-time unlock at $6.99, adds Snaps, Mic Check, Reactions, Smart Window, Window Masks, Custom Default Position, Custom Icons and Notch Trigger (Mac App Store listing, checked 23 July 2026). It requires macOS 14.4 or later, version 4.0.5 dated 13 July 2026; Mic Check checks connection and levels, not muting (developer's product page, checked 23 July 2026). Setapp also carries it, from $14.99 a month (Setapp listing, checked 23 July 2026).

Everything else here charges once, up front. Camera Preview, from Sindre Sorhus, runs $6.00 on the US Mac App Store and requires macOS 26.0 or later, a newer floor than everything else on this list: version 1.8.1 remembers window size and position, floats over full screen apps in menu bar mode, turns the camera off when its window is closed or minimized, and documents no mic feature or mirror toggle (Mac App Store listing and vendor FAQ, checked 23 July 2026). Maria Hollweck's Cam Dot costs US$2.99 on the US Mac App Store, version 1.0, requires macOS 13.0 or later, and offers a mirror mode and camera switching, with activity limited to when its popover is open; the same store also sells Cam Dot inside the developer's ten app Good Bar Complete bundle, priced at US$9.99 for all ten apps (Mac App Store listing, checked 23 July 2026). At US$2.99 on the US Mac App Store, Kevin Tang's Rearview Mirror, version 1.1.5, adds a floating window, a Shift-Command-R hotkey, and a mic level indicator described as monitoring only, with no free trial (Mac App Store listing, checked 23 July 2026). Mirror Magnet, from App ahead GmbH, is $9.99 on the US Mac App Store and pairs a customizable shortcut with Shortcuts support (version 1.15, checked 23 July 2026). FaceScreen, from Softal Limited, is US$5.99 and documents an overlay that floats over all windows including many full screen apps, with zoom and mirroring controls, and no separate free trial though purchases can be refunded (Softal documentation and FAQ, checked 23 July 2026).

None of the five paid apps publish anything about working while another app already has the camera, and only Cam Dot and Camera Preview say anything about releasing it when done: Cam Dot's own listing limits activity to when its popover is open, and Camera Preview's vendor page says the camera turns off when its window is closed or minimized. That is the honest limit of what is published, not proof the rest do not. If you want free and nothing else, use Hand Mirror. Six menu bar camera apps at once felt like a lot to me too, and I built a seventh.

Six. Preen

Preen sits on the same AVCaptureSession rule as everything above it, but I wired the release differently. The engine runs exactly as long as either the menu bar preview or the floating window is visible, and stops the moment both are closed. There is nothing to quit afterward, because there is nothing still open.

Camera selection works by asking AVFoundation for exactly four kinds of device: built-in, external, Continuity Camera and Desk View, grouped and sorted the same way every time so the list does not reorder itself mid-call. Unplug whichever camera is active and Preen falls back to the system default instead of a dead frame, and says so.

This is where I run out of a better answer than Photo Booth's. Preen does not lock the camera for itself and cannot take one back from an app that already has it open, so if something else has your camera, Preen shows the same nothing Photo Booth would.

The mute does not touch your meeting app's own mute button. It resolves whatever your Mac currently treats as the default input device, and either flips that device's hardware mute or, on hardware without one, zeroes the input volume and remembers the old value to restore it. Preen says so plainly the first time you use it, because your meeting app's own indicator can keep showing you as unmuted regardless, a gap covered in full in the app's own camera and microphone breakdown. Point your call at a different microphone than the current default and the mute does nothing to that one; it never asked which mic your meeting app is using, and it only ever reaches the one macOS calls default.

The Preen page has more on how the picker groups cameras.

Recap

One table, six rows, one column per question.

Questions people ask

How do I check my camera and microphone before an interview?

Open whichever of the six you already trust and look before you look at the meeting invite. QuickTime Player's arrow menu is the only built-in option that shows a microphone level before you have recorded a frame; Photo Booth and FaceTime do not.

Why does my camera show a black screen after I close Photo Booth?

Closing the window and quitting the app are not the same action on a Mac, and Apple's documentation says the camera stays on until every app that can use it is closed or quit. If Photo Booth is still running, the next app asking for that camera gets one it does not have.

Is there a way to see my camera without launching a full app?

Yes. Hand Mirror, Cam Dot, Rearview Mirror, Mirror Magnet, FaceScreen and Preen are menu bar utilities rather than full windowed apps, so none need a Dock icon or a launch screen.

How do I know which camera is currently selected?

QuickTime Player and FaceTime both name the active camera in a menu; Photo Booth does not document a way to check. Preen groups every connected camera by kind, which matters most the moment you plug in an external webcam or turn on Continuity Camera and quietly get the wrong one by default.

Are browser webcam test sites safe?

Safety depends on what happens to the video after the browser hands it to the page, not on the permission prompt itself, which is the same TCC dialog any app triggers. Read what the page claims to do with the stream, and prefer a native option you already trust if it actually matters.

Does macOS have a built-in camera app?

Three, technically. Apple lists FaceTime, Photo Booth and QuickTime Player among the Built-in Apps on its current MacBook Air tech specs page (Apple, MacBook Air tech specs, accessed 23 July 2026). Apple also ships Magnifier, which connects to an attached camera for zooming and works with Continuity Camera and USB cameras rather than the built-in one (Apple, accessed 23 July 2026), built for the world, not your face before a call.

If the free ones cover it, use the free ones. If you want camera switching, a snapshot, a mic mute and a floating window you can leave open for the whole call, Preen does that from one menu bar click.

For more on why the picker matters, read the piece on getting the wrong camera by default, and Preen keeps that same list one click away in the menu bar, with more comparisons like this on the Preen blog.

Photo Booth, QuickTime Player, FaceTime and Magnifier belong to Apple. Hand Mirror belongs to Rafael Conde, Camera Preview to Sindre Sorhus, Cam Dot to Maria Hollweck and Good Bar, Rearview Mirror to Kevin Tang, Mirror Magnet to App ahead GmbH, and FaceScreen to Softal Limited. None endorse Preen.

Changelog

23 July 2026. First published.