External Webcam Help

[Applepi]

I tried searching and found no answers, so I am turning to you guys. I just purchased an external webcam in hopes of using it for ichat like I used to be able to on my Macbook, however my Powerbook is not detecting an external camera.
I installed the driver that came with the webcam and it runs in its own program however this program is basically useless to me. Is there any way I can get the webcam to work as an iSight and use it with iChat, Photobooth, etc.? Thank You.

 

[ahmed.hassan]

Can you post the make and model number of the webcam here so that we can confirm it's compatible with Mac OS X, and then proceed with guidance from there?

 

[sbluetruck]

if you KNOW that the camera works, and it's USB, THIS should be your solution for using it with iChat.

Try Macam and it will probably have a driver you need.

Hope that helps

 

[Applepi]

Its the Rocketfish notebook web camera, says its Mac OSX comp.
I tried that macam app and even that says it cannot recognize an external camera. I don't want to pay even more money to get this working, so unless someone knows of anything else, I might just give up and return this..its too much of a headache to try and figure out. Thanks a lot to those who had suggestions though, hopefully somone has something that will work.

 

[Wavell]

I must admit, trying to get a USB cam to work with OS X shouldn't have to be like this - it's pretty frustrating for an OS that "just works" - I was hoping apple would have included a swathe of drivers with leopard, especially in light of discontinuing the iSight - all rather disappointing really

 

[Applepi]

Glad to see I'm not the only one that feels that way, I decided I'm just going to take it back. I wish iSights weren't so expensive.

 

[iSaint]

The Rocketfish works with Photobooth on my Powerbook and iBook. I haven't tried to talk to anyone that has a camera on iChat, so not sure if it will work there.

Exit out of the Rocketfish program before you try another program.

 

[speakerwizard]

I must admit, trying to get a USB cam to work with OS X shouldn't have to be like this - it's pretty frustrating for an OS that "just works" - I was hoping apple would have included a swathe of drivers with leopard, especially in light of discontinuing the iSight - all rather disappointing really

i thought since 10.4.10 you could use any 'video class' usb cam and the most popular seems to be the xbox live cam. we also have native support for ANY firewire cam as well.

 

[iCube]

I tried searching and found no answers, so I am turning to you guys. I just purchased an external webcam in hopes of using it for ichat like I used to be able to on my Macbook ...Is there any way I can get the webcam to work as an iSight and use it with iChat, Photobooth, etc.? Thank You.

Many new "off the shelf" Logitech USB webcams now work with OS X 10.4.11. You must have a minimum 600MHz G3.
My QuickCam Ultra Vision and QuickCam Pro 5000 work great with iChat! I bought them both at Best Buy. No extra drivers needed, they are in OS X. Here's the list!!
http://blog.smalldog.com/article/628/apple-os-x-1049-update-adds-usb-webcam-support

 

[Wavell]

i thought since 10.4.10 you could use any 'video class' usb cam and the most popular seems to be the xbox live cam. we also have native support for ANY firewire cam as well.

not in my case, unfortunately - I'm still using Macam with Leopard as the OS refuses to recognise any USB web cam I care to try

 

[macdave121]

i just got a microsoft xbox live vision cam from ebay. it works and the image quality isnt bad either. on the plus there fairly cheap to buy.

and yes it is beginning to bug me that peripheral support on Mac OS X is so bad. like at the moment im trying to get a cheap laser printer and the HP compatible for Mac cost twice the price as the windows version. almost the same printer too.

try this page to:

www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com/?ID=123mm

hopefully in the future UVC will become more common.