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View Full Version : Cheap and cheerful WebCam needed


gking
2006-02-25, 17:52
I could do with a little buying advice. I'm looking for a cheap an cheerful WebCam I can use for my G4 iMac with Yahoo messenger to chat with my sister who's moving away.

I don't really want to fork out £100 for an iSight (planning to buy a new iMac soon) so I need something to tide me over. Thing is, for all the products I've looked at, none explicitly say they support Macs. Is that because they don't at all or because they don't officially support macs (i.e. can't be bothered to support us)?

So can I buy any WebCam and expect it to work with Yahoo Messenger or will only certain brands work and if so, which?

Thanks for your help!

Ebby
2006-02-25, 18:01
You can probably get a cheap one off Ebay and use this (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/9087) software. IIR, Quicktime can find the input from your webcam and software that works with QT will also have access. It is just a matter of finding the right software.

Could be wrong though. Back in OS 9, I didn't have any Mac drivers and a simple control strip utility worked with it.

chucker
2006-02-25, 18:04
What Ebby said. Macam is likely to do the trick.

I should add that the camera I've been using it with (for years) is a Philips ToUCam Fun. It sucks both hardware-wise (terrible build quality) and image-wise, but the sad reality is that the only really good options out there are the Logitech QuickCam Pro series and the Apple iSight. So unless you want to shell out £80 and beyond, just get a cheap one from Philips, Creative or Logitech that's on this list (http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/cameras/index.php).

As for Yahoo! Messenger on the Mac: note that there is no audio, only video, and the video quality isn't that terribly great either, but it works. You could combine it with simultaneously using Skype and then you'd have a full audio+video conversation. It's not great, but it works.

Skype 2, which is coming next quarter, will let you use video on the Mac as well.

torifile
2006-02-25, 18:37
I gotta tell you, there are no *easy* solutions to video IMing on the Mac, apart from the iSight and iChat. I searched pretty hard and I couldn't really find anything, especially one that would work cross-platform. I wish you better luck. As a matter of fact, right now, my wife is chatting with her sister on her PC using a Quickcam Pro because we couldn't find something that would work with her sister's PC software. Until Skype comes out, there's not much available outside of iChat.

gking
2006-02-26, 11:58
Thanks for your help guys! It doesn't look good for me does it. I'll give Macam a try with a camera from eBay - see if I have any luck. If not, I guess I'll just be messaging my sister 'til I get a new iMac and/or Skype2 comes along.

Thanks again.

Dorian Gray
2006-02-26, 14:14
The Swiss company Logitech make the best low-cost webcams, although the new Philips cameras aren't terrible either. Like all digital cameras, the difference between this year's models and those of two years ago is pretty dramatic at a given price point.

chucker, I'm interested in how you know Skype 2.0 is coming next quarter. My girlfriend wants to get a Mac notebook, but she would only do so if a simple (i.e. Skype-like) cross-platform video conferencing solution were available. This is because she uses the video feature of Skype 2.0 to chat with friends and family in Romania, nearly all of whom use Windows. My girlfriend and most of her friends are not interested in spending ages to hack together a solution involving beta software. So if Skype 2.0 is finally coming to the Mac, Apple would sell one more computer this year.

Also, if the iBook replacement has an iSight built in, is it pretty much a certainty that it will work with Skype 2.0?

chucker
2006-02-26, 14:19
chucker, I'm interested in how you know Skype 2.0 is coming next quarter. My girlfriend wants to get a Mac notebook, but she would only do so if a simple (i.e. Skype-like) cross-platform video conferencing solution were available. This is because she uses the video feature of Skype 2.0 to chat with friends and family in Romania, nearly all of whom use Windows. My girlfriend and most of her friends are not interested in spending ages to hack together a solution involving beta software. So if Skype 2.0 is finally coming to the Mac, Apple would sell one more computer this year.

Q2/06 is the current schedule. At the least, they should have a beta out.

Also, if the iBook replacement has an iSight built in, is it pretty much a certainty that it will work with Skype 2.0?

Quite so. It's unlikely that Skype will miss that opportunity.

bassplayinMacFiend
2006-02-27, 14:12
Thanks for your help guys! It doesn't look good for me does it. I'll give Macam a try with a camera from eBay - see if I have any luck. If not, I guess I'll just be messaging my sister 'til I get a new iMac and/or Skype2 comes along.

Thanks again.

If you have a digital camcorder you can use that as a camera through the firewire port.

gking
2006-03-03, 19:14
Just thought I'd let you know. I bought a Logitech QuckCam 4000 which is compatible with the Mac out of the box. It comes with drivers and a basic picture/video capture utility as well as basic controls for the camera's settings. The only disappointment is the performance in Yahoo! Messenger. Not only does it not support audio (as was mentioned above) but in broadcasting the video, it rarely manages anything more than 1 frame per second. Apparently this is an issue with Messenger itself and not the camera. It does, however, perform fully in Quicktime Pro.

Thanks again for the advice.