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isight camera removal procedure

Mercury7

Mercury7

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
I googled it alot and can't seem to find a procedure for removing the isight from the macbook pro, my local service center wants 120.00 to remove it so I was just trying to see if I could do it myself. Has anyone seen a procedure some where?
 
thanks....cameras not allowed where I work....I studied ifixit but they only deal with lcd removal.....it got me thinking it is not to hard to pry the back off.....just does not address removing the camera
 
hmmmmm, yeah I would just look at the lcd guide and "see how deep the rabbit hole goes". if you know what I mean lol, you can probably figure it out once you open it up
 
I work in a nuke plant....security checks all laptops and phones for cameras.....not only that....if it has a hole where the camera is suppose to be they won't let it in either....so I have to remove the camera and cover the bezel.....I am planning on using the material that moshi palmguard uses on their macbookpro products. I guess you can tell I am really dedicated to apple lol 🙂
 
Mercury7 said:
I work in a nuke plant....security checks all laptops and phones for cameras.....not only that....if it has a hole where the camera is suppose to be they won't let it in either....so I have to remove the camera and cover the bezel.....I am planning on using the material that moshi palmguard uses on their macbookpro products. I guess you can tell I am really dedicated to apple lol 🙂
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I can sympathize here. I worked for Lockheed Martin and at one time they didn't allow camera's at any time of any type. If you were caught it was instance FIRED!

They just recently started allowing them on phones (since it's so common place) but not in the more secure areas (ie., F-22, JSF)

As far as removing it, I'd just follow the LCD screen removal and nab the camera out, or opt for purchasing a powerbook without the iSight or go WinBlows.
 
I considered getting the powerbook instead but at this point the performance is alot slower on all kinds of apps....especially converting video files etc.
anyway...the best solution for me at this point is to just get the camera out of it....just covering it will not fly.....it still kinda shocks me that apple has decided to leave this segment of the market out completely. however now that the iphone is going after the blackberry market there may be more pressure on them to release some non camera products.
 
Mercury7 said:
however now that the iphone is going after the blackberry market there may be more pressure on them to release some non camera products.
Click to expand...

The ratio of people in places where camera phones is an exception is still negligible compared to the masses. I don't see that happening.

Same with laptops. Since the Army and other Armed forces are using Mac's there might be a way to disable via hardware keys etc but that would be a local policy by the company allowing it. Getting the one you work for to ammend their rule might be to much trouble. Lockheed amended it's policy simply due to, camera phones were just to common place, but going to secure areas they were not allowed period. We had people with MBP's and they just couldn't bring them in. Still the ratio is still low, and if a company was going the Apple road, they would adopt/amend a policy to allow their IT group to disable the camera.
 
Yeah, the no camera rule is silly. I contracted for Lockheed Martin for a while and had to deal with that--I was there when they amended the rule as well. If you can't trust the people you hire, then you shouldn't have hired them. If anyone *really* wants to take some pictures of things they're not supposed to, this rule wouldn't stop them from doing that. With that said... </rant>

I found this link that shows how to disassemble the macbook screen. You can see the camera at the top there that looks like it could be removed fairly easily? Looks like the pictures are of a rev1 MBP(core duo).

http://www.screentekinc.com/lcd-removal-instructions_en,macbookpro,diagram2.shtml

You'll have to open up the top casing as well to unplug the camera cable. I bet removing the camera won't be too difficult..it's just assembling everything else needed to get to it! :-D Good luck!
 
Back in the day I had a Motorola phone with the damn button on the side that pulled up the $&% voice assistant. I could not stand it. So I pulled the rubber dust cover off and carefully pulled out the button with a pair of needle nose pliars. I replaced the rubber dust cover and presto, no more voice assist popping up every time I pulled out my phone.

It stands to reason that a small punch and light hammer could break out the lens. Then get some grey epoxy to cover the hole. Follow that with some silver-grey model paint.

Also remove the drivers.
 
It used to be that Apple would be able to remove the camera on one of their offerings, as well as replace it when it was going to be transferred or sold. With the difference in engineering, it appears that may not be doable.

I wish Apple would be more enterprise friendly. One company that buys 1000 Macs for the desktop machine is a lot easier to deal with than 1000 individuals.
 
Yes I hear you milts22.

On my next visit to the USA, I will stop in hobby lobby for a silver paint pen, and be done with it for about $4.

For now I have the lens colored over with a sharpie and the driver disabled.

I still like the fine point punch idea, but I rather not risk scratching the bezel, or damaging the board.

Edit: I found a paint pen locally here in Singapore. I covered the camera. Problem solved. I posted a picture in another thread.
 
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Next month I am traveling to China for work. The factory is afraid we may photograph the slaves. I took my oldest smartphone and did a simple "cameraectomy". I will fill in the hole with glue.

Furthermore the removed camera meets ISO 27001.
 
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