[brickcam]

I have a loved one living in Italy until August, and so I dive into the world of webcams....

Since we both have macs and intend to use iChat AV to do the video chatting, it appears that I would need a firewire webcam, e.g. iSight, iBot, D-Link Firewire WebCam, or Stealthfire. However, a lot of threads mention the iChatUSBCam application that fools iChat into using a USB camera.

I know, there are a million posts about usb not providing sufficient bandwidth. Seriously though, I'm not overly concerned; a camera with 640x480 and 15 fps will probably be good enough for me. And if I can buy a used one on craigslist for an order of magnitude less money than an iSight... well, that's significant to me. Plus I have to buy two anyway. My iBook has usb 2.0 also, and that would be sufficient, if the camera supported it. Recommendations?

http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/

is another resource for using usb webcams with iChat, and they have a list of supported cameras.

The bottom line: I want to buy a set of webcams, and it doesn't look like iSight best fits my needs, because of the price. Are people using either of these two programs that piggyback usb webcams into iChat, and how do they work?

I'm also concerned about firewall/router problems, because she and I currently cannot get an audio chat going (and it appears to be a NAT configuration problem on her end)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93208

and so is it hopeless to try and get video through iChat? And SO....... is there a software alternative that wouldn't pose the same firewall issues?

I tried to include all the relevant info, and I know this is a monster post. Thanks for reading.

and actually, if someone could point me at a recent 'webcam review' site, I had trouble finding a good one. Thank you.

[brickcam]

I guess that was too much for one post. Sorry. Okay, boiled down:

1) Do the usb webcam/ichat workarounds perform acceptably?

2) Other videoconferencing software besides iChat if I'm having firewall issues?

3) Recommended firewire/usb 2.0 webcams?

[GORDYmac]

I have a QuickCam 3000 that worked fine with iChat along with the iChatUSBCam hack and the IOXperts Driver. Also works with iSPQ VideoChat and Yahoo! Messenger.

If you choose this route, go for the QuickCam Pro 4000, which has native OS X Drivers, and a lot better features. The IOXperts driver is flaky, and support is nonexistent.

[brickcam]

Thanks for the advice. Of course, at that price, I start to look at the iSight again. I'm probably either going to buy something cheap and used locally, or buy the shiny afore-mentioned apple product. Hmm. What's great for me is that my partner is getting an iSight for sure, so *I'll* have crisp video and sound from her I expect.

[GORDYmac]

Well, the QC 4000 is USB 2.0, 1.3 Megapixel photo, and 640x480 video. Not to mention auto pan & tilt, zoom, and other features. It's not that expensive, and iSight isn't necessarily better.

[brickcam]

It's true, it's a bunch cheaper. Thanks for the links. I did froogle it, but I didn't have the benefit of a good review page like that one.

(it amazes me that ppl expect their webcams to work well in low light. anyone who's ever tried indoor photography w/o a flash should expect to include lighting in their setup.)

[brickcam]

For anyone else, the cheapest I'm seeing the 4000 is ~55$ new, and the iSight ~120$ new or ~105$ used, all on ebay.