webcam shopping

L

lujhu

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I am looking to get a webcam, but there aren't many to choose from where I live.

Since I don't think I can find a cheap camera that works with a mac I will have to get either a logitech or the isight.

I don't know much about cameras and I was wondering if someone knows the difference between them, and if it is worth the money to get the isight.

m
 
Why not get a cheap firewire webcam? They should all work with macs. I bought myself a very cheap d-link firewire webcam and it works great.
 
I was in the same boat. Japan is awash with great PC hardware, but the pickings are slim for webcams. I ended up going with a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 (about US$85), despite having had terrible experience in the past with Logitech web cameras. The mounting hardware has always been awful with these cameras, but this camera has a surprisingly sturdy, flexible base (that should accomodate just about any monitor) and standard tripod screw mount if you want to go with something a little more permanent. I have no complaints about it yet. My old PC webcam used to hang down in front of the screen, so going with a set-top camera was a bit of a sacrifice to me.

The image quality is about what you'd expect from an $85 camera. It's not bad, but don't expect me to spontaneously burst into song about it. The drivers support 'face tracking', but I have a hard time believing it does much of anything. Most of the time, it is fully zoomed out, where software panning is impossible. Overall, I'd say it was more expensive than it is worth, but not too much so.

If they were available here, I would have bought a firewire camera and perhaps later I will buy an iSight. It's part of how I make money, so it's not hard to justify the added expense.
 
Firewire isn't available in Japan?

I'm in Taiwan, I wonder if we have them here. I live in a small town and there isn't much available period.

I'm going to a big city on Sunday and will see what they have there. Although I think I'll end up with the quickcam pro for notebooks.

michael
 
go to io experts web site.drivers for web cams +list of supported cameras include philips.logitech + other hardware drivers.
 
Does anyone know of a webcam that can allow me to use voice along with video on yahoo messenger? I tried the Logitech quickcam zoom and downloaded the driver on Logitechs website to use it with Tiger but there doesn't appear to be a tab on yahoo messenger to use voice. Is there a webcam out there that will do both on yahoo messenger or does yahoo messenger for mac not even offer the option of voice. I just switched to Mac this week and I'm worried that I might have made a mistake if I have to keep buying third party software.
 
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