Apple iSight VGA Webcam

Well, there are now just about as many web cams as there are mouse pads! Some as just cheap pieces of junk that sit there and have an inexpensive chip camera mounted in a cheap plastic housing that requires a lot of light, and it noisy, grainy and looks like it was dragged through the mud! Well, if you are video dating and have a face like Richard Belzer, this may be what you want, but for anyone else you want a camera that will give you a sharp clear picture with good clear audio.

There are quite a few cameras to choose from today. Some even have motion sensors that follow you around. Logitech has a camera that will track your movements, and if you move left or right, the camera will do the same. Great idea if your computer can use the software to allow the tracking. I have a MAC running OS X 10.4.3, TIGER, and it will not work on my computer; freezes it up. So what next? Well, I had to find a camera that had a great picture, clear audio and fully MAC friendly. Obviously being an Apple product, the ISight fit that bill.

Being a television professional, I did not purchase the ISight because it was an Apple product. I wanted to see what it really looked like. I brought it to my TV station and hooked it up to what we use to calibrate and set up all our video cameras and tape machines, a waveform monitor. I was surprised o see that the camera did not generate a great deal of video noise. No, it was not as good as a $250,000 studio camera, but then who is paying that kind of money for a web cam? The picture has great chroma, looked pretty sharp, and the auto focus worked well within a limited range, say the area around a desk where a computer would be.The built in mic had decent clarity and for its purpose was more than adequate.

I must admit that as other folks have mentioned, the one cable FireWire hook up was a breeze, although I did have some trouble connecting with a friend at my TV station. We found that he had audio but could not get two way video no matter what we did. Finally, we got the brilliant idea of both disconnecting and hooking up again, and bingo, that did it! For some reason we found the web hook up and the linking are sometimes very finicky when it comes to the ISight and the corresponding IChat software, so a word to the wise, if it doesn't work the first time, don't rack your brain, disconnect and try to hook up again!

I am going on the assumption here that if you are reading this piece, you already know what an ISight camera is, and what is is used for. What you want to know is if the unit is worth the money, and if you should buy it? In my opinion, the answer is yes, you should buy it. No, it is not a cheap $39.95 video camera, but in some ways, it is true, you get what you pay for. This camera has decent ground lenses with a high quality video chip and a good internal mic. The video quality it puts out is some of the best I have seen as a TV professional for a home web cam. You can put out just as good video if you want to hook up your home video camera as a web cam, but then you have to worry about cables and hook up, as well as a bulky and heavier video camera. Yes, the video and audio quality will be fine, but do you want to bother taking out your video camera each time to accomplish this? If you use a web cam once a year, the answer may be yes. To invest in a camera even as good as an ISight to use once a year may not pay, but if you will use it a few times, and mount it on your monitor and have it ready, yes, it does pay!

To sum it up, if you plan on getting into using a web cam for communication, fun, video dating, or whatever, and use it often, care about quality, buy the ISight. If you use it once a year, hook up your video camera and save $150, but using the ISight with its 1 FireWire hook up cable, will make your life a lot easier!