Review: iSight
Developer: Apple
Price: $150
Requirements: 600 MHz G3, Mac OS X 10.2.5, iChat AV
Recommended: fast Internet connection
Trial: None.
The Challenge
It suddenly became a dilemma. My Mac-using protégé, Clayton Spayer, and I finally had a chance to meet up after a year of online conversations. Clayton lives in the Central Illinois Valley, and I live in Southern California. Due to a wonderful happenstance, we needed a way to enhance the communication between our homes and we needed to do so quite quickly. The Apple iSight has proven to be an exciting solution to our sudden dilemma.
Clayton and I became acquainted in The Mac Observer forums. He’s a high school student and I’m a former technology director at an LA-area prep school. We’d spend hours discussing Macs via Apple’s iChat over AIM. This worked well because all we really needed were text and voice capabilities to talk about Macs. But this summer an extraordinary thing happened that challenges reason and still stuns the senses.
Call it fate, destiny, or even divine providence; Clayton and I met one another in person in an against-the-odds encounter that has changed both of our lives and the lives of our families. Clayton and his mother, Sue, were heading west this summer to spend time with family members in California. I had plans to take my kids to visit family in Connecticut. Unaware of each other’s travel itineraries, we planned to meet up at the Apple Store at The Grove during the week I knew he’d be in the LA area. The rendezvous at the Apple Store didn’t happen.
Instead I met him, he met me, I met her, and she met me as we all boarded the same Amtrak train from LA to Chicago. Unknown at first to all members of the traveling parties, Clayton and Sue and me and my kids were scheduled on the same train—a happenstance that defies the odds. Clayton and Sue were on their way home to Illinois while my kids and I were traveling east from Los Angeles through Chicago to New York.
I was bewildered when Clayton told me his travel itinerary and I checked his train reservations against my own. Why in Heaven and on Earth had events conspired to bring about this encounter? I soon discovered the answer. It was that moment when Sue and I first gazed at one another upon meeting at the train station in Los Angeles. Yes, we were riding on a train, but we both felt like we had just been run over by one too. It’s that maybe once-in-a-lifetime encounter when one astonishingly meets a soul mate.
After two days together on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief as it rambled across the desert, mountains, and plains, even the 10,000 cell phone and land-line minutes of conversation between us didn’t seem like enough contact to comfortably close the 2,000-mile gap between Burbank and the Illinois Central Valley. We needed more and we wanted more. It’s one thing to talk; it’s another thing to be able to look at one another while we communicate.
The Solution
Enter the Apple iSight. I don’t know who thought of it first. It might have been Clayton. After all, he wanted one and it might be a chance to get his mom off his cell phone. On weekends after Sue’s cell phone battery is exhausted from our seemingly constant conversations, she grabs his cell phone until her phone’s battery has a chance to recharge. No matter who had the idea first, we both trekked to our nearest Apple Store on the same Friday night. It took me all of 20 minutes to arrive at the Glendale Apple Store. I was all set up and waiting when they returned from their four-hour round trip to the Oak Brook Apple Store.
The iSight
The iSight took no more than ten minutes to set up. That includes time opening the box and staring curiously at the three stands included in the package. I use a 15" Titanium PowerBook so the choice of stands was an easy one. One of the stands is designed to fit on the TiBook’s sleek display enclosure. The package also includes a plastic tube to store the iSight when it’s not in use, and it comes with all the FireWire cables and adapters needed for easy setup and operation. There’s no power adapter needed because the iSight is powered by the Mac’s FireWire port. The diminutive video camera is only about 3 1/2 inches long and less than 1 1/2 inches wide, so it sits unobtrusively on any of the included mounts.
My First Impressions
OK, so it’s not the same thing as being there. No way. No how. But at least with the iSight we can look at one another when we talk. I can dispose of one piece of geek paraphernalia during our conversations—my alien-style cell phone headset. Thanks to the iSight’s video capabilities I’m no longer at a loss to keep myself visually occupied during conversations. The downside is that the other party can tell when they’ve lost your attention if even for a moment. I can no longer surf over to a Mac Web site or read the editor’s beta copy of ATPM while engaged in conversation without being nabbed. Not that I’d do that any way. Really, no I wouldn’t! Not ever!
The $149 price tag for the latest Mac gadget pays for itself quickly. No more watching the clock and worrying about long distance charges per minute or awkwardly arranging call times to be sure conversations start during the “unlimited” hours on the respective cell plans. Conversations are carried over the Internet via iChat AV. Considering the two-hour time difference between Burbank and the Illinois Central Valley, this has allowed us to converse before 11 PM Central Time without concern for cost.
iChat AV
The iSight works in conjunction with Apple’s iChat AV software currently in beta release. The first commercial version of the product will be included in the OS X Panther upgrade.
Curiously, iChat AV puts a small window of one’s self inside the displayed window of your iSight partner. Though the self-view window can be sized and moved around inside the larger window, it still takes away from what can be seen of the other party. To my knowledge this small window can’t be turned off. In my opinion users should be given the option to turn it off.
iChat AV can be used for one-way video. Hooking up a digital video cam or iSight to your Mac allows one to send digital video to other iChat AV users. But that’s not nearly as much fun as a two-way video conversation.
Video Quality
Depending on processor and Internet connection speeds, video quality may demand that the iSight window remain small. There is an option to display the image full-screen, but one pays a price because there is a significant loss of quality when that option is selected. The user can resize the window from the default 352 x 288 pixels to just about any dimension on the screen. But in general, the smaller the window size the better the video image quality.
Again, performance will vary based on processor and Internet connection speeds. Dialup users are not able to use this product. However, with a powerful processor and fast Internet connection, iSight will deliver up to 30 frames per second (fps) of 24-bit color digital video. The lens auto-focuses to provide the sharpest picture possible.
I admit it. I’m enamored with the iSight for several different reasons. But how might a high-school-age Mac user describe the product?
Clayton’s Impressions
“Hello, Mister Spayer!” someone says to me from behind as I am walking around Los Angeles Union Station. It’s Robert Leitao. From that point on, life has changed drastically for my mom and me. As you can tell from Robert’s elaborations on our meeting, things are happening quickly and have brought about many changes in our lives for the better.
We needed another form of communication along with the phone. After all, Robert lives 2,000 miles away. I suggested we purchase iSights for each of our homes. The iSight is known as the “eyes and ears of iChat AV.” We both researched the product and determined that it made an ideal communications solution. In another strange twist, Robert had upgraded to DSL from dialup the week before we had the first iSight conversation. Because the iSight requires a high-speed Internet connection, this made video communication between our homes possible.
As Robert mentioned, we both made our way to an Apple Store on the same Friday night and we both came home happy. Almost immediately we were up and chatting. It took Robert only around ten minutes to set his iSight up, compared to my 20-minute setup time. I can explain, honestly!
First I had to stare with awe at the box and then delicately open it. After I “ooh-ed and ah-ed” for a while, I finally decided it was time to set it up. The actual installation was surprisingly simple—pick out the stand for your particular Mac (in my case an eMac), affix the stand with the provided adhesive, thread the FireWire cable through the stand, and plug it into the Mac’s FireWire port. iChat AV automatically opens as soon as it senses the camera. I was video chatting with Robert within 30 seconds of plugging in the camera.
The quality of the iSight is amazing. It uses a 1/4-inch color CCD image sensor and has 640 x 480 VGA resolution. Focusing isn’t a problem, because the iSight has a built-in auto-focus mechanism. It can even capture full motion video at up to 30 fps. Of course, such high fps requires a massive amount of bandwidth.
The iSight uses the FireWire cable to carry power, audio, and video—one cord for everything you need to video chat. The integrated, dual-element microphone touts noise suppression abilities, which proves useful with an eMac.
From the moment you open the box and see the iSight, the three enclosed stands, the plastic storage case, the FireWire cable, and the FireWire cable adapter, you know that you are getting nothing but the best. $150 for a digital camera for the Internet may seem high, but the quality of the product and its unique design makes it worth the price. A 2,000 mile gap between families is difficult, but the iSight has proven to be a perfect solution to our long-distance communication dilemma.
A Couple of Points
In the tens of hours we’ve used the iSight and the iChat AV beta, we’ve had only a couple of minor issues usually resolved by restarting iChat. These include a couple cases of a loss of sound and occasionally jittery or slow-moving video. Internet connection speed will impact video quality and these issues may have had more to do with the Internet connections than the iSight or iChat AV.
Although the iSight can capture images at 640 x 480, at 15 fps over iChat AV the camera delivers images to the viewer at 176 x 144 and scales up to 352 x 288 at 30 fps on a very fast connection on a high-performance Mac. The iSight does not capture video for iMovie, although there is third-party software available. The iSight can be used as an external microphone for iChat AV or iMovie for audio-only conversations.
The camera does tend to get hot if it’s left plugged in to the FireWire port for hours at a time. I’ve chosen to routinely remove the iSight during times I anticipate it will not be in use.
In Conclusion
Is the iSight the same as being there? Heck no! But for people who would like to communicate in sight and sound across great distances it’s an extraordinary product. In this case, after a train trip we’ll never forget, the iSight allows Sue and me to share moments we hope to always remember. In Clayton’s case, he gets his cell phone back and all parties save big dollars on telephone and cell phone charges.
Copyright © 2003 Robert Paul Leitao and Clayton Spayer,
rleitao@atpm.com. Reviewing in ATPM is open to anyone. If you’re interested, write to us at reviews@atpm.com.
Reader Comments (87)
Any clues???
If you're really doing that much videoconferencing, you should definitely consider signing up for an iChat account. Besides, the Mac Yahoo Messenger client only does video...not sound. Stupid, Yahoo. Stupid.
If you're talking to a Windows user, if they have the latest version of AOL Instant Messenger, you can video chat with them as well.
The iSight's microphone, however, may not work. A forum I scanned through seemed to indicate that Microsoft's most recent driver updates for FireWire may enable the iSight's microphone on a Windows machine, but we cannot confirm that.
If you'd rather use your computer, there are various videophone applications available, some of which are able to connect Mac users to Windows users. here is a list of many choices. iVisit is one that I've personally used a small bit that works cross-platform and seems to work fairly well.
Please check the connection speeds on the wireless set-up. It's possible constrained bandwith may be creating issues.
also, any experience about quality issues when plugged into a PC ? .. my pc has a Firewire 400 and Firewire 800 port .. do you think Apple would be updating iSight in the near future .. I won't mind buying it as long as they don't update it till summer 06 ..
Cheers,
Khurram
Please advise.
I first suggest your cousin get a new PC. If her computer is giving her the kinds of problems you describe, I doubt any solution will work well.
If AIM is not working on her computer there are serious issues. I suggest making sure she is using SP2, has all of the incremental Windows updates installed and that the disk has not been compromised by viruses or intrusive spyware. Further, be sure there are no port blocking or firewall issues involved.
The best solution might be for her to invest in a Mac. Mac to Mac you will have many hours of happy video chats.
There are various purported claims on the 'Net of an iSight camera working on a Windows PC. I'll believe when I see it.
The Apple iSight solution is not designed with Windows in mind. If you wish to use a video camera on Windows, I suggest purchasing one for that purpose. However, the quality will most likely not be anywhere near that achieved by the iSight working on a Mac.
My wife and I just bought a G5 and want a iSight. We want to use it to visit with her parents who of course have a PC. Let me make crystal clear before I go blow $150. If I buy an iSight, sign up for iChat (which is free?) and use iChat my end will work (or do I have to use AOL IM too),
And then my wife's parents buy a PC web cam, sign up for AOL IM (which is free?), and use AOL IM, we will be able to visit with video AND audio working? I think both our connections are (fairly fast) DSL. Am I missing anything? Please fill me in!
-Thanks
So yes, your only expenditures are the web cameras. As a Macintosh venue, we prefer to not get into the PC side of things too much, but let me repeat that you may use any Firewire-based video source with iChat. It doesn't have to be an iSight. If you already own a video camera that uses Mini DV tapes and connect it via the Firewire jack to your computer, it should also work, as will most any other Firewire web cam.
With both parties using AIM (iChat running on AIM), you should be able to connect without a problem.
She attached and installed the software today and after some fumbling we were able to connect. However, she has video and audio of me but I am only able to get audio. The two screens on my display show my image only. When I went to Connection Doctor, it indicated that I was receiving 100% audio, with 0% video. Do you have any recommendations?
Hal.
As for what firewire is, it's another type of interface connection, just like USB. Before USB 2.0 was available, firewire was a faster connection. There's now a faster firewire protocol than USB 2.0, but it's not in widespread use yet. You'll find that virtually any MiniDV camera uses firewire to carry the audio/video signal when capturing to your computer. Some webcams, like the iSight, use firewire instead of USB.
iChat does have a feature to do a one-way videoconference. Since your friend is using AIM on a PC, it's possible the one-way feature isn't supported, so yes, you may very likely need a camera, too.
iVisit is a completely different conferencing application. You'd both need to have it installed if you wished to use it instead. There are versions for both platforms.
Also when using the webcam for yahoo, does it run a bit slower then it would for iChat when chatting with those on a PC? Regardless it still would work as well, correct?
Regarding Yahoo, I don't know what you mean by "slower." Maybe you're talking about the frame rate, in which case you are correct. Every time I tried using Yahoo videoconferencing, I could only get a little better than a frame per second, and don't forget you won't be able to speak to the other end—only see them.
Can you recommend a webcam I can use (with Yahoo Messenger) connected to my PowerBook.
Something to keep in mind, because most people don't realize this, but the Macintosh version of Yahoo Messenger can only do video conferencing. For reasons that completely evade us, Yahoo has never yet chosen to include audio conferencing with the video. Just as bad, and this applies to both Mac and PC versions, Yahoo's video frame rate is only about a frame per second even over broadband.
I have successfully videoconferenced with a PC user who had a USB cam and the latest AOL IM client while I used iChat (which only is available on the Mac platform). The issue seems to be whether the camera itself work on a PC and not whether a Mac user with an iSight and a PC user with a USB cam can connect.
The only problem is the juice of your firewire port, make sure it is a regular 6 pin because mini-firewire ports don't produce the voltage needed to get a picture from it.
While some people have claimed difficulty, you're supposed to be able to use your iSight and iChat to videoconference with Windows users if they have a current version of AIM. You can also use Yahoo Messenger, but it's video only (no sound in the Mac version) and very low framerate. iVisit is another choice with clients for both Mac and Windows.
For another cross platform full video product, take a look at the newest Skype beta 2.0 for the MAC. This newest version supports full video conferencing. I have tested it between my mac and PC laptop, but have not had an opportunity to test it with others (yet). Skype will also access the camera specified. On the MAC for me, it is isight, but I have successfully used a previous version of a Logitech Webcam with other applications. Have not yet had time to experiment with the other cam on Skype.
That may be of assistance for people who have difficulties getting on AOL IM (or who do not want to :) ).
Regards,
Paul
Paul M. Muhlbach, A+, CNA, MCSE, MCT
Lately, I've had far better luck using Skype instead. Download the latest beta versions on both sides and use your camera over Skype instead. I've not once yet had a problem connecting to someone's video over Skype.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93245
did you figure out why you were just getting a black screen with your isight? i haven't been able to get mine past the black screen either (though my ibook g4 has more than sufficient power to do so).
Theoretically, with you on iChat (which, by default, runs over an AOL Instant Messenger account) and someone else on AIM for PC, you can video chat, but I was only successful doing that a few times.
I'd suggest both you and your PC-using friends/family try Skype instead. The client is fine on both Mac and PC and support very nice video conferencing. If you do use Skype, however, I might advise you to not leave it running 24/7. You're supposed to be able to—especially if you pay for SkypeIn service to allow people to call you with a regular phone number. But a friend of mine noticed that Skype's network likes to randomly pick people to act as some sort of peer host or something, and if he left Skype running for days, Skype would direct huge amounts of packets through his connection...and probably anyone else's. These packets are small and normally you'd not have any issue with it. It just happened that he had an old router that would only handle a few active connections at a time. So his poor router was getting overrun with all the connections. Newer routers shouldn't have any problem with whatever Skype is doing. But it makes no difference to me because I only launch it when I need it. I don't use SkypeIn.
My husband is in Iraq, so I tried to hook it up last night so that I could talk to him (he has an Acer Ferrari with a built in camera and is using AIM 6.1). I hooked up my iSight, iChat AV opened (so far so good), the green light came one, Skype even got excited and notified me that I could now video chat with Skype, but all of the preview screens were black. I tried to connect to my husband and he got an error. He tried to connect to me and I got an error that said that I failed to connect. The green light goes off after a few minutes and Skype quits detecting the camera, if I unplug it and plug it in again, everybody sees it, but it's still not working. I am running OS 10.4.10 and don't see an iSight update for it.
Will my iSight work? Is my cable bad? Is my firewire port bad? I have searched the internet for this and can't find the issue.
I also tried to just voice chat using my internal microphone to no avail. I then tried to voice chat using the iSight microphone and he still received errors. Any advice? I haven't "seen" him in over a month and I'd really like to.
I would really appreciate the advice.
Thanx everyone!
As for software, if you can't get iChat on your Mac and AIM on the PC working to video chat, try Skype instead.
Again thank you very much,,, you guys been great help!
Actually, with videoconferencing, a headset mic is best so that the sound of the person you're talking to doesn't come through your regular speakers and pick back up into the mic, causing feedback. I've got the Logitech Premium USB Headset 350 on my Amazon wish list.
But my question is, does the Inbuilt iSight work with MSN Messenger for Mac, if we both have it, could it be used on that instead of just iChat, Yahoo, AOL.
Thanks in advance
I recommend using Skype instead. There are clients for both Mac and Windows, and the videoconferencing works great. Yes, it's free unless you use it to call standard 10-digit phone numbers.
I have once been successful using iChat to videoconference with someone on Windows since iChat just uses the AOL IM protocol. But I couldn't reliably make it work every time. On the other hand, I vidchat with my parents and my brother's family over Skype without trouble.
What are some suggestions/advice to improve this? or is there a program/software that i can download that is compatible with the ICHAT.
Thanks
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