iSight Proposed Purchase.

[bigjohnscots]

After many years using windows then different flavours of linux i very recently purchased a g4 mac mini running Tiger and i am very pleased that i did.I have upgraded the ram to 1gb and installed Leopard which has made the mac experience even better.


My system is 1.25ghz with the 1gb ram and i am now looking to get an isight.Can i assume that it will work smoothly with the mini due to being firewire and that it will work automatically when ichat is started (wife friendly).

Thanks in advance for advice given.

 

[Aegelward]

I'm pretty sure that in later updates of Tiger third party USB webcams became supported, or was that implemented in Leopard?

Anyway, you can get any reasonable webcam and you have a pretty even chance of it working, logitech should have the best chance of compatibility.

 

[ziggyonice]

All Macs that are running Tiger or Leopard can use third party USB webcams. Just make sure that if you're running Tiger to be using the most up-to-date version.

You can get the iSight if you want (it is a nice camera, after all), although you could probably find something cheaper someplace else.

 

[brop52]

I sold my old iSight on ebay a year ago for $25 more than it was new and that's a lot.

Please buy something else if you value your money.

 

[iBlue]

I think you could find something a lot better for a lot less money. They are very expensive for what they are.

I bought a used one recently and I'm really disappointed with it. Maybe (very likely) I got a dodgy one but it's not very nice, even the internal/built-in iSights seem A LOT better. It has appalling focus if it's not lit JUST RIGHT and gets confused if there are not very obvious contrasting colours, and even then it sometimes never stops trying to go between focus modes and screws up. It's got a couple dead pixels too. It's just a POS. I wouldn't recommend them if they're all like mine is.

 

[peskaa]

I think you could find something a lot better for a lot less money. They are very expensive for what they are.

I bought a used one recently and I'm really disappointed with it. Maybe (very likely) I got a dodgy one but it's not very nice, even the internal/built-in iSights seem A LOT better. It has appalling focus if it's not lit JUST RIGHT and gets confused if there are not very obvious contrasting colours, and even then it sometimes never stops trying to go between focus modes and screws up. It's got a couple dead pixels too. It's just a POS. I wouldn't recommend them if they're all like mine is.

My iSight (years old may I add) is pretty good - no dead pixels, good at focusing and generally reliable. The new built in ones probably are better, as they're far newer, but the old one is still nice. You seem to have gotten a bad one.

 

[bigjohnscots]

Thanks for the advice.

I will check out some usb webcams although the fact that the isight works out of the box is a factor.I suppose the isight is likely to hold its value so selling on if i find it unsuitable wont cost too much.

 

[brop52]

Thanks for the advice.

I will check out some usb webcams although the fact that the isight works out of the box is a factor.I suppose the isight is likely to hold its value so selling on if i find it unsuitable wont cost too much.

People that bought it in the past had computers that didn't have a webcam built in. Almost all of them have it these days plus the Cinema Display also has it. When I sold it, that wasn't the case.

 

[omgitscolin]

I have an original iSight and in almost six years it's never had problems. It opens iChat when you plug it in or turn it on, so in that sense it's very "wife friendly." Plus it's still the coolest looking webcam out there!