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Suggestion on a webcam for a Mni?

aziatiklover

aziatiklover

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jul 12, 2011
2,704
269
8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
I'm about to get a base Mac Mini and I was just wondering which webcam should I get with it since Apple stop making the iSight and I'm not gonna buy the Cinema Display just to have an HD webcam built in into my monitor for that price lol. So which brand is compatible and works flawless with OS X Lion? Thanx
 
pretty much any webcam will work as apple uses the basic standard for webcam drivers. I got a logitech HD camera that was on sale and it works just fine, just the microphone shows up as unknown audio device on menus, but works just fine. Just note that some "special features" that the camera advertises will probably not work, like some special focus modes and lighting enhancments.
 
FYI:

I had been using the Touchcam N1 with a 2010 Mac Mini running Snow Leopard. After I upgraded to Lion, the microphone for the cam ceased to work with Skype. Video is fine.

I uninstalled and reinstalled Skype many times but the microphone never worked again. (The Touchcam works perfectly on a Windows machine.) I don't know any Facetime users so I haven't been able to test it with Facetime. You may want to confirm elsewhere that the Touchcam N1 can work properly with Lion.

Also, you probably need a fast upload speed to transmit HD video from the Touchcam. I think that the recommended speed is 1.5 Mbps.
 
sorry, I have never used it with Lion so can't really comment on this...I've got 2mbps upload so the after starting a skype call the camera will switch to HD after a few seconds 😎
 
I've had bad luck with USB cams, my logitech quickcam vision pro was very random whether it would work with iChat and FaceTime. sometimes yes, sometimes no. And it was $150!
They have a new one, the C910, but it's too expensive for me to dive in again.
So I bought an Apple iSight (the old external one) on eBay this week, should get here tomorrow. I'm hopeful a FireWire solution will work with all my apps, but we'll see. Hard to find good information in this area.
Kinda surprised Apple doesn't make an external camera anymore, since they sell a lot of Mac Minis, but I suppose they want you to buy their monitor, or an iMac.
 
OddyOh said:
I've had bad luck with USB cams, my logitech quickcam vision pro was very random whether it would work with iChat and FaceTime. sometimes yes, sometimes no. And it was $150!
They have a new one, the C910, but it's too expensive for me to dive in again.
So I bought an Apple iSight (the old external one) on eBay this week, should get here tomorrow. I'm hopeful a FireWire solution will work with all my apps, but we'll see. Hard to find good information in this area.
Kinda surprised Apple doesn't make an external camera anymore, since they sell a lot of Mac Minis, but I suppose they want you to buy their monitor, or an iMac.
Click to expand...

I have a C910 and it has worked well hooked to my 13" MBP when I have it "docked" with my Dell U2711, although I can't say I've used it more than a dozen times or so. The quality is really pretty good. My local Costco has it for $49 now. I've seen online special for it in the $60 range.
 
$60 is a great price for the c910, glad it's working for you...it's $120 at all my local stores, Dell.ca has it for $90. 😱

I did give my old Logitech to my mom, works fine on her new Mac Mini. No iSight today, maybe tomorrow. 😎
 
OddyOh said:
$60 is a great price for the c910, glad it's working for you...it's $120 at all my local stores, Dell.ca has it for $90. 😱

I did give my old Logitech to my mom, works fine on her new Mac Mini. No iSight today, maybe tomorrow. 😎
Click to expand...

So do you think the iSight will work? If yes I'm gonna try to pick one up!
 
iSight

Oh yeah, I forgot to come back and post. 😱

Got my iSight off eBay. It's a bit of a mixed bag actually. The video works fine, but the iSight's microphone doesn't seem to work. I can select it as an input device in various programs (Skype, iChat, etc), but I don't get any movement on the audio meters.

Doesn't really matter, I have a USB headset I prefer for calls anyway. But beware the mic may not work. Might be the iSight, might be Lion, might be my Hackintosh, who knows. At least the camera works.
 
OddyOh said:
Oh yeah, I forgot to come back and post. 😱

Got my iSight off eBay. It's a bit of a mixed bag actually. The video works fine, but the iSight's microphone doesn't seem to work. I can select it as an input device in various programs (Skype, iChat, etc), but I don't get any movement on the audio meters.

Doesn't really matter, I have a USB headset I prefer for calls anyway. But beware the mic may not work. Might be the iSight, might be Lion, might be my Hackintosh, who knows. At least the camera works.
Click to expand...

Koo thanx for the infos! Hopefully the mic will work on a Mac Mini cuz I'm not feeling buying a mic separately! lol Otherwise I'm gonna look for a webcam with mic built in and working properly with Lion!
 
Have to ask, why would anyone wanting a webcam choose to search for an old external iSight? It may have been good in its day but it's just archaic now, given that it's limited to 640x480 resolution.

I use a Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac on my mini.
 
AVR2 said:
Have to ask, why would anyone wanting a webcam choose to search for an old external iSight? It may have been good in its day but it's just archaic now, given that it's limited to 640x480 resolution.

I use a Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac on my mini.
Click to expand...

Well I figure it would work straight out of the box since it's an Apple product?! But I'm gonna go into beast mode looking at all options out there before I buy a webcam for facetime. Until then I'm just gonna hold on on the mini.
 
aziatiklover said:
Well I figure it would work straight out of the box since it's an Apple product?!
Click to expand...
Any webcam certified for use with Windows Vista or 7 (it'll say so on the packaging) will work straight out of the box on a Mac. That's because Vista/7 certification requires that the webcam supports the UVC driver standard (OSX has supported UVC since 10.4.3).

Seriously, there's no need to buy an obsolete low-res iSight when pretty much all the HD-capable webcams on the market now will plug straight into a Mac and just work.
 
i bought a used isight on ebay for my 2010 mini server. it works great! Its a shame apple stopped making it. would have been nice to see what it would have been like if it was upgraded to HD. I think the best webcam is one that connects via firewire
 
I was under the impression that there's only one or two USB web cams that will work on the Mac...that's why Logitech can charge whatever they want.

Even Apple's online store only carries two...my friend has tried (and returned) the Blue web cam, it sucked horribly. The other is the C910. If you look at the reviews, it's all people complaining how it's not fully Mac compatible (works as a basic SD camera, but none of the extra features work outside of Windows). May as well get a used iSight at that point.

I also prefer the firewire connection. And the Logitech's are too expensive for what I need, I make about two video calls a month, not worth $120 to me at this point.

Oh and I forgot about FaceTime, just tried it out...yeah the mic on the iSight doesn't show up in there, but my headset mic does, so I'm all set. I prefer my headset for sound anyway, less room noise and echo, etc...more like a phone call.
 
Any webcam will work but logitech are the best, the only thing you have to think about is that the extra features that come with the logitech webcames are windows only unless its a specific mac webcam.
 
OddyOh said:
I was under the impression that there's only one or two USB web cams that will work on the Mac
Click to expand...
Nope. *Any* webcam that's indicated on the packaging as being certified for Windows Vista or Windows 7 will plug and play on the Mac because it will be UVC-compliant.

You'd be right in thinking that pre-Vista, many webcams required their own proprietary drivers and most manufacturers didn't provide any for the Mac. But ever since Microsoft required UVC support as a prerequisite of Vista/7 certification, it's been happy days.

You may not be able to use special functions or gimmicks like face tracking, because those still require special software that is often provided for Windows only. But you can still plug the webcam into your Mac and use it as a straightforward non-gimmicky webcam.
 
outlook problem

lostless said:
pretty much any webcam will work as apple uses the basic standard for webcam drivers. I got a logitech HD camera that was on sale and it works just fine, just the microphone shows up as unknown audio device on menus, but works just fine. Just note that some "special features" that the camera advertises will probably not work, like some special focus modes and lighting enhancments.
Click to expand...

I have a logitech webcam that works fine on the mac mini, but now the notifications (mail sent, received, etc) on Outlook 2011 for Mac seem to be turned off and I can't get them back on even when switching the audio input in preferences back to "line in." Any thoughts?
THANKS
 
I got a used iSight off craigslist for 20 bucks and both video and mic works fine on my 2011 mini running mountain lion. It does need an adapter to convert the firewire 400 to 800 or a cable that is 400 to 800.

577073_10151023344432176_1272976198_n.jpg


I always loved the design of the iSight so I decided to get one when i got my first mac mini.

As far as video quality the 640x480 resolution isn't bad at all because most video chat applications over compress the video anyway even facetime. Only reason to not get one if you appreciate the looks is if you NEED to shoot HD videos for youtube or the likes.
 
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