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Apple iSight webcam

AppleFanBoii

AppleFanBoii

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 4, 2010
114
8
Hey everyone, is the original iSight webcam, the external one, from around 06, a good webcam to buy? For shooting general video from a monitor, or should I just stick with my MacBook Pro camera and edit etc?

Thanks :)
 
The orignal iSight's resolution is only VGA. But it does have a nice microphone and focus abilities. It's low light recording is also fairly good. Despite these pros, it is lower resolution that your Macbook's built in one. In my opinion, they're still good little web cams. Just don't expect to super fancy picture from them.
 
I've seen a few on eBay, and they aren't pricey, and I feel like, Its easier for me to record my face from my monitor, when I record the screen for videos, (because my monitor, is on the left)
 
If I'm not mistaken, the iSight was Firewire 400 only, so with any newer Mac you'd need a FW400 to FW800 adapter. Also with newer Macs and 10.8 the iSight has to be the only thing on the FW port or it won't work.
 
I'm sure you could duplicate or exceed the quality of the original iSight with any number of current USB cameras. I use one on my 2012 Mac Mini with a FW800-FW400 adapter, since I have no other FireWire devices and already had the camera I figured "Why not". It's a bit of a conversation piece if nothing else.

If you have the open FW port and can get the iSight and an adapter inexpensively, sure - it's a good camera. I wouldn't pay a premium for it though.
 
mayuka said:
Can you explain why? :confused:
Click to expand...

No idea, but it's been tested (by me) and verified by others here at MR in other posts. It's too bad, because I'd really like to be able to use it, but I also have an external FW drive I use for TM backups and I prefer having the drive connected (and having regular backups) over the iSight. So, I bought a Logitech USB webcam and use it instead.
 
Just for my understanding. You are daisy chaining your TM drive over the iSight (or tried it)?

I have my Cinema Display connected via an FW400->800 adaptor to my Mac mini. The Cinema display has 2 ports. While the iSight is connected to one, will the other one also work or not?
 
Yes....I tried daisy-chaining the iSight (with FW 400/800 adapter) to my external FW800 drive. It was so long ago I can't remember but I think the system info would show the camera on the FW bus, but nothing could access it...or the apps thought they were accessing it, but the picture was black.

As soon as I connected the iSight (via adapter) directly to the Mac, it worked fine. But then I couldn't use my external drive.
 
fhall1 said:
As soon as I connected the iSight (via adapter) directly to the Mac, it worked fine. But then I couldn't use my external drive.
Click to expand...

It could be that it draws too much power. I've read that it gets quite hot too. Maybe I should choose something else. Thanks for clearing this up.
 
fhall1 said:
As soon as I connected the iSight (via adapter) directly to the Mac, it worked fine. But then I couldn't use my external drive.
Click to expand...

Thats interesting, I don't have any problems doing that. I currently have a bus powered firewire 800 enclosure (OWC On The Go Pro) with a 7200rpm drive in it and my iSight camera daisy chained off of it via a fw800 to fw400 adapter.

Though my more normal setup is to have my iSight camera attached to my old 20" Apple Cinema Display, with some other firewire device attached to the other port.
 
Dark Dragoon said:
Thats interesting, I don't have any problems doing that. I currently have a bus powered firewire 800 enclosure (OWC On The Go Pro) with a 7200rpm drive in it and my iSight camera daisy chained off of it via a fw800 to fw400 adapter.

Though my more normal setup is to have my iSight camera attached to my old 20" Apple Cinema Display, with some other firewire device attached to the other port.
Click to expand...

What model Mac and which version of OS X? Won't work with my 2012 Mini on any version 0f 10.8 so far. I use an older FW800 Newertech Voyager Q (has USB2 instead of USB3 port).
 
fhall1 said:
What model Mac and which version of OS X? Won't work with my 2012 Mini on any version 0f 10.8 so far. I use an older FW800 Newertech Voyager Q (has USB2 instead of USB3 port).
Click to expand...

Mac Pro 1,1 2006 (10.7.5) - Also used it with 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6
iMac early 2008 (10.8.5)
iMac early 2009 (10.7.5)
Macbook Pro mid-2010 (10.8.5)

The Mac Pro is the machine I mainly use this setup with.
I only did a quick test with the two iMacs, but they seem to work fine with it.
I use this setup occasionally with the MBP.

As well as the OWC On The Go Pro enclosure and two 20" Apple Cinema Displays I used to daisy chain with a LaCie external firewire optical drive and a LaCie external hard drive however both of those were externally powered.

It might be that my OWC On The Go Pro enclosure draws less current so there is enough to run the iSight.
 
Maybe it helps to attach an external power adaptor to the drive? It should take significantly less power from the fw bus then... Just a guess. Knowing if the iSight would work on my 20" Cinema Display with the second fw port used by a hard drive would be nice.
 
mayuka said:
Maybe it helps to attach an external power adaptor to the drive? It should take significantly less power from the fw bus then... Just a guess.
Click to expand...
Yeah I would expect that to help if the enclosure has the option of attaching an external power source.

mayuka said:
Knowing if the iSight would work on my 20" Cinema Display with the second fw port used by a hard drive would be nice.
Click to expand...
Check my first post in this thread. ;)

The answer is yes, at-least it works fine this way with either of my 20" Cinema Displays and another device on the other port.

One nice thing is that the aluminium cinema displays are designed to work with the iSight, in particular the iSight comes with a magnet mount that holds it in place on top of the display.
 
Thanks. I'll just wait for a decent offer. I don't want to pay the fanboy-prices on ebay. :)
 
mayuka said:
Maybe it helps to attach an external power adaptor to the drive? It should take significantly less power from the fw bus then... Just a guess. Knowing if the iSight would work on my 20" Cinema Display with the second fw port used by a hard drive would be nice.
Click to expand...

The Newertech Voyager Q has it's own AC power supply plugged into the wall - that's not the problem.
 
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