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m_brand0 · Dec 13, 2001, 04:34 PM

I am looking for a nice little webcam (color) that can also stream video (for video conferencing). Any suggestions?

-- Keith

masskinner · Dec 13, 2001, 05:48 PM

Good question. Are there any firewire webcams that include native OS X drivers/software?

m_brand0 · Dec 13, 2001, 07:46 PM

It just seems that most of the good webcam stuff is available only for Windoze. My roomate has a new Logitech Quick Cam and it's amazing but it's not available for OS X.. It kind of sucks that a lot of the good stuff is not available for the Mac platform..

- Keith

zekemon6 · Dec 13, 2001, 07:54 PM

The Quickcam is a piece of crap. I have one, Logitech refuses to fix the drivers for newer machines and OS X.

Digital Video is the way to go. I use my Sharp ($350, $500 off at Amazon) with the CoolCam software (exellent shareware, OS X native).

-z

iPaul UK · Dec 16, 2001, 11:05 AM

The 3Com Home Connect USB camera is supposed to be very good. And i'm told this works on OS X too. It also works in OS X Classic OS 9 mode. Which is something that very few webcams are capable of. For half decent Video conferencing software, you might like to try www.ivisit.com

randydarden · Dec 16, 2001, 01:54 PM

Check out CoolCam's homepage - they can recommend several webcams. It seems that if you want to use one in OS X, a Firewire camera is your best bet right now.

<http://www.evological.com/coolcam.html>

iNeusch · Dec 16, 2001, 03:30 PM

I own a ToUCam pro from Philips

It's cool, works perfect, but ONLY in 9

Philips doesn't seem to want to make drivers for it (in X), saying it's apple's fault... TOO BAD!

mdagate · Dec 16, 2001, 06:09 PM

Originally posted by m_brand0:
I am looking for a nice little webcam (color) that can also stream video (for video conferencing). Any suggestions?

-- Keith

I just picked up the Fire-i FireWire cam from Unibrain ($120+shipping) --> http://www.unibrain.com/products/iee...-i_camera2.htm

and... the FireWire DCam Driver for OS X from IOXperts ($14.95) --> http://www.ioxperts.com/dcam.html

They work great. The Fire-i comes with a rubberized clip that clamps onto a laptop display. It works well with the PowerBook G4 for videoconferencing, etc., although it doesn't swivel that much.

-- Michael

Jansar · Dec 16, 2001, 11:56 PM

I have owned an iBot for around a year now, and I simply love it. It's fast, dependable, and worth it. A driver exists for OS X, called the "DCam driver," but it costs $30, and I refuse to pay it, because I believe that the company should be able to make an OS X driver.

It runs 30 fps in 640x480 color...the advertisements are not false. That's what's so nice about a FireWire cam. I use it for security...heheheh.

Zoom · Dec 18, 2001, 01:20 PM

So, here's a question for those of you that have done this...

I've got an older Ariston iSeeU2 bundle, which came with two USB cameras and CUSeeMe. I gave one to my mother and we do video conferencing from time to time. I ditched CUSeeMe once I found (free) iVisit, which was mentioned early. I found CUSeeMe to be very buggy and the support was horrible.

The cameras don't seem too good. The picture from my mother's end seems particularly fuzzy and slow, even though we both have cable modem connections.

First question. Why the difference in quality? Does it depend on the horsepower of the computer at all? Hers is definitely old and underpowered. Is it the cable connection? Does the software reduce resolution for lower available bandwidth (as opposed to dropping the frame rate, which doesn't seem to be the issue)?

Second question. How much of the performance is in the camera itself? Or the connection? Is USB a limiting factor here? Would a FW camera be that much better, all other things being equal?

Third, how much difference does the video conferencing software make in quality/performance?

Fourth, what else can you really do with a webcam? Okay, I have no intentions of opening a live web stream on my life. What else? What are some cool applications for this toy? Put another way, how else might I justify buying a new/better webcam?

I'd be interested in trying a new set of cameras, so keep the suggestions coming. Please post prices, too. Do most of these support OS 8.6? That would be another issue on my mother's end. I've got OS9 and OSX at home, so I could work with either.

Pikachu_G4e� · Dec 22, 2001, 01:55 PM

There are many good firewire web cam out there.

Here is the review :
Firewire Web Cams

Good Luck

Best regards from,
Tan Li Kang

Zoom · Dec 22, 2001, 04:24 PM

Anyone have some answers to the questions I posted?

The macworld review talked about two FW cameras. How many others are there? Do Intel or Logitech make one?

ibookuser2 · Dec 23, 2001, 05:23 AM

Zoom, iVisit drops quality for higher framerates by default. Under one of the menus you should find "codec settings" where you can specify a higher quality. Keep in mind that higher qualities take longer for your computer to compress and take up more bandwidth, as well as more decompression time at the other end.

If you go into "video device settings" (in the same menu as codec settings) the video that shows in the settings window is the video directly from the camera. The quality will never be any better than it shows there.

Back to the topic of this thread, when I'm videoconferencing with my iBook I use an iBot. Works great. Only thing that I've found kind of annoying is that if it gets unplugged while it's in use, the machine hangs. Not really a big deal, except for the fact that the FireWire port on my iBook is a little loose.

On my dedicated videoconferincing computer (a performa 6400), I use an old security camera plugged into my A/V card. Couldn't ask for better video. This only works if you've got A/V inputs though...

Hi I'm Ben · Dec 24, 2001, 08:40 PM

i'm with the other guy, i love my iBot video camera, i did pay for OS X drivers for it though, not 30$... it was more like 14.99...

orange micro is a cheap ass company though, they make a few cool things, but the ibot ships with all shareware software for mac which i find very cheap of them.

Zoom · Dec 25, 2001, 12:51 AM

Originally posted by Hi I'm Ben:
i'm with the other guy, i love my iBot video camera, i did pay for OS X drivers for it though, not 30$... it was more like 14.99...

orange micro is a cheap ass company though, they make a few cool things, but the ibot ships with all shareware software for mac which i find very cheap of them.

Shareware meaning that it comes with NO free software?? You have to pay extra just to use the damn thing??

So. What's the best deal on this iBot cam?

lextek · Dec 25, 2001, 05:20 PM

What type of set-up (camera/software) to use between a Mac and PC? Might be cool for Gramma.

Bob

tullamore · Dec 28, 2001, 05:08 AM

So do you have to run the same software on both ends to do the conferencing?

Zoom · Dec 28, 2001, 10:16 PM

Originally posted by tullamore:
So do you have to run the same software on both ends to do the conferencing?

Excellent question. I think ideally all you need is the same encoding scheme at both ends, but I've been around standards long enough to know that protocols always have room for "interpretation" by a given company, and also that companies have ways of adding proprietary "extra" features that can make it impossible to use with a product from another company, even though they say they're using the same communications mechanism. But maybe this is different. Many times, companies end up licensing and embedding the exact same protocol/codec software.

tullamore · Dec 28, 2001, 11:08 PM

So that would be a....?

Anyone out there had good experiences using say different programs on different platforms to talk to each other?