iSight No More?
Josh's friends are all doing video chat on their macintosh computers. But he's got the older iMac and doesn't have a camera built into his screen.
So he asked us to get him a videocam for his iMac.
No problem, I thought. I'll get him one of those iSight cameras from Apple.
Not so quick. They don't seem to offer that product anymore.
So what should I get him instead that works seamlessly with iChat video?
Pick one up on Ebay, they really are the best option for iChat!
Posted by: Dan Lane | January 25, 2007 at 07:51 AM
Dan's right. An iSight is what you should get, at least until they come built into Cinema Displays. And there are plenty of them still available for sale in other retail channels:
http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=isight&btnG=Search+Froogle
Posted by: Brian Jones | January 25, 2007 at 08:04 AM
I paid a visit to my local Apple reseller the other week. They tell me that most cameras that can connect via firewire will work fine. They even suggested that if I have a digital video camera that connects via firewire that it will work fine.
I'm looking forward to hearing what you do, as I'm planning on a purchase myself shortly.
Posted by: Richard Giles | January 25, 2007 at 09:22 AM
Find a friend who has upgraded to a new macbook with built-in camera, and ask them for the old isight which is probably languishing in the nest of cables on their desk. I'd offer you mine, but I just gave it away to someone in a similar situation.
Posted by: oren michels | January 25, 2007 at 09:27 AM
I was looking for a second one on ebay a few weeks back (we use them in demoing mobile apps) http://foneshow.blogspot.com/2006/11/demo-ing-mobile.html
They are going for about $100 more in the secondary market than they did when they were new.
Posted by: Erik Schwartz | January 25, 2007 at 09:31 AM
speaking of ichat, has anyone seen this or heard anything.... warning... rumor only...
http://looprumors.com/article.php?iphone-mystery-application,3925947047
Posted by: Phil Pearlman | January 25, 2007 at 09:34 AM
I can confirm Richard's comments. I have an eMac at home with no built in camera. I used a Sony video camera circa 2001 with a Firewire port. It works fine. The only tricky part was adjusting the camera so that I could speak into the camera and view my counterpart at the same time.
Posted by: Erik | January 25, 2007 at 09:41 AM
Fred, if you're interested I have an iSight that I've barely ever used (I think I used it once when I got home and tested out the video conference with the guy at the apple store).
I don't think I still have the box but I do have all the pieces (the iSight and all the different bases to clip it onto different things). Email me if you want it.
Posted by: Bill Erickson | January 25, 2007 at 09:45 AM
"speaking of ichat, has anyone seen this or heard anything.... warning... rumor only...
http://looprumors.com/article.php?iphone-mystery-application,3925947047"
Hell will freeze over before Cingular allows ichat on the iPhone to cannibilize their SMS profits. SMS is by far the most profitable product the carriers have.
Posted by: Erik Schwartz | January 25, 2007 at 09:59 AM
excllent point erik. would never have thght of that... tx!
Posted by: Phil Pearlman | January 25, 2007 at 10:14 AM
you can use a usb web cam too. i have a logitech quickcam communicator stx. works fine once you install the 3rd party macam driver and the ichatusb driver.
http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/ichatusbcam/
however, the audio in cam gave me some problems so i picked up a seperate usb mic and its been great. i use skype mostly because its cross platform mac/pc/linux. ichat also works fine with this setup.
cam was like 50 bucks and mic was 29. not ideal, but with the isight off the market, it does the job well. vid quaility is good.
btw, running tiger on an intel mac mini.
Posted by: jeff | January 25, 2007 at 10:43 AM
Gone from the Apple Web Store, too. ZOUNDS!
Posted by: Brian | January 25, 2007 at 07:53 PM
I bought an iSight for an older G4. I was never, ever able to get it to work with iChat or AIM and eventually gave up.
Posted by: Rick | January 26, 2007 at 08:41 AM
I'm pretty sure it was discontinued in the USA for legal reasons. Europe still has them..
Posted by: Alex | January 26, 2007 at 10:12 PM
http://www.ecamm.com/mac/imagewebcam I bought one of these about a month ago and just recently another one for my girlfriend. They're the only webcam I could find that supported macs without having to find janky work around drivers, and while not as cheap as some of the PC webcams (these are ~$50) they work really well. I ended up running into the people that run the company at Macworld a few weeks ago. They're twin brothers named Ken and Glen - ha! Anyway, it gets two thumbs up for mac friendlyness, and for just working well.
Posted by: Aaron | January 27, 2007 at 09:22 AM
The iSight has not been available in Europe for a long time now. The reason is that it contains a hazardous material that is illegal in the European Community. Same counts for the older Airport cards for - for example - an iBook G3 snow white.
Posted by: Sckz | February 11, 2007 at 08:12 PM
Has anyone still got an isight webcam and would like to sell it to a poor Brit living in Florida???
Posted by: graham sherrington | July 12, 2007 at 02:14 AM
i am looking for an isight webcam... doesn anyone have any suggestions where to get one at a reasonanle price?
Posted by: Henco | August 21, 2007 at 01:29 AM