Plug in a camera or a capture card and look at it. You pick the resolution and frame rate, the audio comes out of your speakers, and you can record.
macOS 26 or later Native Swift Network access none Category Utilities
Why it exists
QuickTime's New Movie Recording is a recording window that happens to show a preview, and it hides the format controls completely. Everything else that will show you a capture card is a streaming suite, an editor, or a conferencing app that wants your camera for something else.
VideoMonk is the viewer instead. Choose a source, set its resolution and frame rate, choose an audio input, set the level, and watch. It works with anything macOS recognises as a camera: the built-in FaceTime camera, USB and UVC capture cards, HDMI-to-USB adapters, Continuity Camera, and Desk View.
No accounts, no ads, no in-app purchases, and no network access. Stills and recordings are written to your own folders and stay there.
What it does
Not a menu of what a camera ought to support — the list the hardware hands over. Devices that expose the same resolution under several codecs show all of them, because they are not the same thing. Pick one and it is locked in, with the active combination spelled out underneath.
Route the audio that arrives with the picture — or any other input — to the system output. Volume slider, mute, and a stereo level meter with peak hold.
Save a frame as lossless PNG or JPEG, or record video and the selected audio
input into a single .mov. Monitoring keeps running while you
record, and the source and format are locked for the take.
The window can size itself so the picture renders at source resolution: a 640 × 480 source opens a 640 × 480 window. Anything too big for the screen steps down by half.
Pull the cable and the list updates. Plug the same device back in and the picture returns on its own — no relaunch, no reselecting.
Fit the picture into the window or fill it, go full screen, and set a black border between the picture and the window edge as wide as you want it.
The bar fades three seconds after the pointer stops and returns when you move it; clicking the picture toggles it. Resolution and frame rate are remembered per device, along with the audio input, volume, and view mode.
In use
The source in these shots is a capture card fed by a machine running Linux — which is, in practice, exactly the sort of thing you point this at.
Keyboard
| Save still | ⌘S |
|---|---|
| Start / stop recording | ⇧⌘R |
| Refresh sources | ⌘R |
| Show source details | ⌘I |
| Mute | ⌘M |
| Show / hide controls | ⌥⌘C |
VideoMonk
~/Pictures/VideoMonk Stills, as PNG or JPEG~/Movies/VideoMonk Recordings, video plus the selected audio input, as .movRequirements
VideoMonk is a native Swift app and uses the Liquid Glass interface introduced in macOS 26, so it will not run on older systems. On first launch macOS asks for camera and microphone access: the camera is required for a picture, the microphone only if you want to monitor audio.