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maverick808

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 30, 2004
1,145
156
Scotland
I got an Intel iMac and the quality of the iSight camera seems really low. Can someone else with an Intel iMac take a picture so I can compare please?
 
I agree. Compared to my old iSight that sat atop my iMac the new iSight built in seems to be lower quality. At first I thought it was just the connection but now I think it's the camera itself. Anyone else agree or disagree?
 
miloblithe said:
The new iSight is higher resolution, but clearly (just look at them) the original iSight has a better lense.
Exactly. The thing that I don't get is that it seemed that the demo Jobs did during the Keynote seemed to be as good an image as the previous iSights.
 
Not that the original iSight takes great shots without 3rd party software to improve the default settings, but the Intel iMac iSight takes even worse ones by default. This is in a well-lit room. I don't know what the specs are, but specs can be misleading. The quality is worse, IMHO. Very dim, out of focus.
InteliMaciSight.jpg
 
From an original iSight, connected to the Intel iMac. I guess they both suck, but the original - dark as the images are, still has better light-gathering than the new one. There is no 3rd party SW in effect - this is an iSight plugged into the iMac on PhotoBooth, with default settings.

However, the new one does seem to have better resolution, but it's hard to see an improvement due to the darkness and the poor focus.

OriginaliSight.jpg
 
jsw said:
From an original iSight, connected to the Intel iMac. I guess they both suck, but the original - dark as the images are, still has better light-gathering than the new one. There is no 3rd party SW in effect - this is an iSight plugged into the iMac on PhotoBooth, with default settings.

However, the new one does seem to have better resolution, but it's hard to see an improvement due to the darkness and the poor focus.

OriginaliSight.jpg

And all I can think is that looks like my lounge, only tidier with fewer children and nothing on fire.

In all seriousness, I'm not sure the iSight is intended to take pictures of rooms, more the face up close. Saying that, the images clearly show the effect of a reduced quality lens/aperture. Pure and simply, less light gets in.

Should they have integrated? iMac for sure, MacBook Pro... eh... not so sure.
 
jsw said:
From an original iSight, connected to the Intel iMac. I guess they both suck, but the original - dark as the images are, still has better light-gathering than the new one. There is no 3rd party SW in effect - this is an iSight plugged into the iMac on PhotoBooth, with default settings.

However, the new one does seem to have better resolution, but it's hard to see an improvement due to the darkness and the poor focus.

OriginaliSight.jpg
where the dog go?:D
 
If I remember correctly, I think I read somewhere that the lens in the iSight has an aperture of f/2, which is pretty wide- meaning it has a more narrow depth of field. So only a certain distance from the camera is in focus, and anything closer or further away is out of focus. I would imagine since it's meant to capture someone sitting directly in front of the computer, the range is fairly close to the camera.

Can other people post some example shots from their iSight? The one above does look pretty bad, considering how it comes across in the previews on Apple's site and what we saw at the Keynote.
 
Was toying with the idea of getting an external iSight but if they produce images like that....

What a complete rip off.
 
jared_kipe said:
I've seen much better color and exposure out of the built in isight.

Just looking at the images it looks hopelessly badly framed (i.e. any camera would be challenged).

The iSight is pointing directly at a window which will trick the automatic level control to throw down the brightness and reduce contrast. Although there is still a difference in the quality of the two images, on reflection this looks like

a) Not the kind of scene the iSight is designed for. i.e. a room, instead of a face a foot or two from the camera.

b) poorly composed with direct light coming into the room through a limited aperture (the window)

Time to re-arrange the lounge to suit your camera.
 
maverick808 said:
I got an Intel iMac and the quality of the iSight camera seems really low. Can someone else with an Intel iMac take a picture so I can compare please?

It has a lens that is the diameter of the eraser end of a pencil. What do you expect? I'd expect image quality on a par with a cell phone camera seems for the posted example I'm right.

But that's good enough for many uses

I've used my Sony mini DV video camera connected to the fire wire port. THis works well and has a bult in mic.
 
ChrisA said:
It has a lens that is the diameter of the eraser end of a pencil. What do you expect? I'd expect image quality on a par with a cell phone camera seems for the posted example I'm right.

But that's good enough for many uses

I've used my Sony mini DV video camera connected to the fire wire port. THis works well and has a bult in mic.
Size of the lens is smaller than a pin head.
 
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