iSight quality question

[AzMacNoob]

I have a MacPro and a friend gave me an old iSight she got for her first 12" MacBook about 3 years ago.

What is the quality difference in current MacPro or iMac's in comparison to the old iSight that you clipped to the monitor.

 

[mkrishnan]

The new one is supposed to have better picture quality generally and better low-light performance, but it is fixed (infinity) focus, whereas the old one had a motorized autofocus.

 

[russell.h]

I know the one built into a new MBP is much higher resolution (although you have to use 3rd party software to capture at the higher resolution, unless iMovie '08 can capture at full resolution - hopefully the new Photobooth with Leopard will fix this).

However there is more to quality than resolution, the external iSights have a much nicer lens, and I would think its good bet that its color reproduction is better than that of the built in ones.

 

[mkrishnan]

Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, I forgot about the resolution. It changed from VGA (640x480) to 1.3MP (1280x1024) at some point.

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C12763/

To my knowledge, not all internal iSights are 1.3MP; I'm not sure exactly when it started, although I believe it was discovered with the Santa Rosa MBP. It looks like at least some pre-SR Macs had it, but I'm not sure which ones do and don't, and if the Macbook has a 1.3MP one in it yet or not.

 

[AzMacNoob]

Nice info, thanks guys. I didn't know how far the iSight has come along in quality in the past 3 - 4 years, at least now I know that there has been a few changes in the quality.

 

[Kawasaki]

It maybe old, but it was FREE!

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

i always wondered why some people who have a builtin isight in their macbook/macbook pro buy an external isigh and connect it to the same laptop >_>...i wish i knew why really..i dont think that all of them have broken builtin isight..

 

[Malfoy]

i always wondered why some people who have a builtin isight in their macbook/macbook pro buy an external isigh and connect it to the same laptop >_>...i wish i knew why really..i dont think that all of them have broken builtin isight..

Because we all don't like the camera facing straight at us all the time?

 

[XheartcoreboyX]

Because we all don't like the camera facing straight at us all the time?

eh makes sense >_>