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Webcam for Mac/Hackintosh


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Hi,

 

I am looking for a webcam that will work with my Mac Pro and Hactintosh. I see most of logitech webcam are supported through the macam driver.

 

Now my question is, is it worth it to spend the money on the higher end camera with all the features that I pressume is handled through software which is probably for Windows only. For example RightLight™ 2 Technology - will that even work under OSX Tiger 10.4.9 or I am just getting the basic video feed with this driver, which in that case I can buy the cheapest camera.

 

I am looking at the following but not sure if I would waste my money - also heard that this camera will actually work without the macam driver. Anybody have this that can share experience.

 

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products...=13132#Features

 

I wannt to use this for iChat and Skype.

 

Thanks

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iSight - Sure if I can find one at a decent price but most people are crazy with the price on Ebay - $300+ and I need two so that get really expensive, one for me and one for the grandparents.

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Ok, no responses so far - any other kind from Logictech, Creative, etc... Want to go buy it this weekend so I hope I get some responses before then.

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I have an isight, got a great deal on ebay. If you do go with isight make sure you don't try it with a via vt6306 1394 chipset, go for TI chipset on your firewire card if you can find one.

 

I was comparing video quality the other day at a large computer store that had a bunch running on laptops - the microsoft webcam quality looked fantastic, anyone try this on osx yet?

 

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/digitalc...ls.aspx?pid=002

 

* High Definition 2.0 Megapixel Video* (1600 × 1190 pixels)

* High Definition 7.6 Megapixel Still Photos (3200 × 2380 pixels, interpolated)

* Built-in Microphone

* Wide-angle Lens (71 degrees)

* Notebook Mobility (Designed for laptop lids)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Sorry, I'm late to the party on this one.

 

First, this week after reading that 10.4.9 had more improvements for UVC cameras, I went to the Logitech website to see what cameras they had that supported UVC. (btw, UVC is a new standard that is included in Vista and OSX for camera support).

 

I found the following:

 

Logitech UVC Compliant Webcams under Mac OS X 10.4.9

 

Camera Name P/N

QuickCam Ultra Vision SE 860-00023

QuickCam Ultra Vision 861238

QuickCam Orbit/Sphere MP 861305

QuickCam Fusion 861304

QuickCam Pro 5000 861306

QuickCam for Notebooks Pro 861303

QuickCam Deluxe for Notebooks 860-000009

 

I bought the Logitech Ultra Vision (861238), and connected it to my Powerbook G4 (PPC) and can confirm that it works correctly with all the apps, such as iChatAV, Photobooth, etc. It's a very nice camera, quality is excellent, and our neighbourhood store was selling them at 1/2 price. It's a little big as cameras go, so maybe the Fusion might have been a better choice.

 

Some of these cameras above have been in production for a while, and newer models of the above have been released as UVC cameras. I know the Fusion earlier model is not UVC, only the later model is, so check the part number carefully.

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I think that most cameras are pretty much plug and play on mac os; that's one area that apple has done a lot of work to ensure compatibility, because while an idiot home user isn't likely to pick up just any NIC and plug it into their mac, with any camera they just might. I plugged in my old Sony Handycam by USB, and it functioned just like an isight; on WXP, I had to find special drivers buried deep on sony's website. A logitech, I don't remember the model, also worked the same. Granted this was on a REAL mac, (I have yet to get my hackintosh working) but if your USB works, anything plugged into it should work just like on a mac.

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I think that most cameras are pretty much plug and play on mac os; that's one area that apple has done a lot of work to ensure compatibility, because while an idiot home user isn't likely to pick up just any NIC and plug it into their mac, with any camera they just might. I plugged in my old Sony Handycam by USB, and it functioned just like an isight; on WXP, I had to find special drivers buried deep on sony's website. A logitech, I don't remember the model, also worked the same. Granted this was on a REAL mac, (I have yet to get my hackintosh working) but if your USB works, anything plugged into it should work just like on a mac.

While this may be true for some, I have 4 other logitach and creative webcams that do not work with osx in a plug and play manner, some of them work if you use external drivers such as macam, but i've had a hit and miss experience with that.

 

Apple only added generic usb camera support in 10.4.9, and only added support for UVC compatible cameras. Not all cameras support the UVC specs. And this support is in 10.4.9 without having to dig deap into websites to see if the manufacturer supported osx.

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  • 6 months later...

Windows Vista native support for UVC universal video class USB webcams will probably be a HUGE benefit to Apple Mac users - the marketplace is shifting and the days of hunting down cams that just work and futzing with drivers will be a thing of the past soon. Apple's support of UVC under Tiger & Leopard for it's built-in iSight models is a godsend. In the meantime I compiled a short list of what works at: www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com -- Gonna spend some time with BootCamp VMware and Parallels seing how an Intel Mac handles dual environments and how my USB cams behave this weekend. Webcams have been on the Mac since CU-SeeMe days and Connectix QuickCams in 1995 over DIAL-UP no less - and yet oddly somehow after all these years 2008 seems will finally be the year that video-conferencing really does hit the mainstream.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

Just so you know ( even though this post is a little bit late ) , Ive got a logitech Quickcam pro 4000 that is running under Kalyway 10.5.2 and its working with the built in drivers natively :o Hope this helps some !!!!

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  • 2 months later...
Windows Vista native support for UVC universal video class USB webcams will probably be a HUGE benefit to Apple Mac users - the marketplace is shifting and the days of hunting down cams that just work and futzing with drivers will be a thing of the past soon. Apple's support of UVC under Tiger & Leopard for it's built-in iSight models is a godsend. In the meantime I compiled a short list of what works at: www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com -- Gonna spend some time with BootCamp VMware and Parallels seing how an Intel Mac handles dual environments and how my USB cams behave this weekend. Webcams have been on the Mac since CU-SeeMe days and Connectix QuickCams in 1995 over DIAL-UP no less - and yet oddly somehow after all these years 2008 seems will finally be the year that video-conferencing really does hit the mainstream.

 

One of the cams the Creative labs "Live! Cam Optia AF" you find in this link does´nt work so good at all I can tell you cause I have one myself.

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