Wide Angle Lenses for MacBook Isight?

[andintroducing]

Hi,

I'm looking to hold a video conference locally for a teacher on the other side of the country, but when I test it out, the iSight only views a narrow strip of what's in front of it.

Are there any lenses I can put over the camera that will allow this teacher to see more people in the room and allow the people in the room to sit in an arc (or at least a wider arc) instead of one on top of the other just to be seen?

Glad for any help.

 

[BiikeMike]

If you are at a school, does the school have any other web cam resources? The cam in the MacBooks are pretty basic, and I think putting any type of lens over it would degrade the quality pretty horribly, if it even worked at all.

I would look into trying to get another camera, or maybe sitting further away from the computer?

 

[andintroducing]

Thanks, Mike,

Sure the school has some other resources, but not sure if they're Mac based. I know that both myself and the speaker have iChat up and running regularly. Since it's a weekly group inviting this speaker to talk with us, I'm not sure we'd be able secure a more wired room regularly or how that would work.

Good idea, though, a separate web cam.

For now I'm trying to stick with what I know. Surely some sort of lens, even if just hung in front of the camera, would have some sort positive effect on the angle, no?

I have arranged people further back from the Mac, but it's still a pretty narrow band that's viewable.

This will surely come up a lot more often now too, as iChat gains PowerPoint and slide show abilities. It's essentially begging to become a video conference solution and perhaps not for just one person at a time in the same room.

Can't see others not thinking of this and/or people in the school or non-profit sector not wanting to make use of it once they've learned it for themselves at home.

Just random thoughts. But really, no products out there anywhere?

Huh. Would have thought people'd have been all over that, even if an external web cam might do it better. It's just so temping to use it as an all in one.

Hoping someone may have heard of something. Does anyone know if the *external* iSight's wide angle lens work well?

Curious. Thanks.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

I don't think there's anything out there specifically designed for what you need. To be honest, I think the best and simplest route would be to get hold of some lenses and see what effect they have, sticking them on with Blu-tac!!

 

[andintroducing]

Spanky,

I like the way you think. Now I just have to figure out where to find some small lenses.

BTW what's blue-tac exactly? Get it at like Office Depot or some such? Also safe for the the computer?

Thx.

 

[BiikeMike]

Sure Spanky, go the obvious route!


I would see if you can find a small magnifying glass, BUT! It's important that it has TWO lenses in it, not one.

What i mean by this, is that most magnifying glasses, or any other type of thing like that you will find, is one piece of glass that looks like this (). You need one piece of glass that looks like this |). Flat on one side, convex on the other.

Good luck, and post back with your findings