Recommend a web cam?

[MikeF]

Wife wants to video chat with daughter and first grandson...

They have a couple of eMacs from years ago, 10.3.# on them (if memory serves me right, a 1 GHz and 1.25 GHz model), and a cheap Dell laptop running Vista (it came installed). The daughter and son-in-law are not technically savvy (I end up doing most of their IT work remotely via phone).

We have a few year old MacBook Pro (2.16 GHz) with the built-in camera running 10.4.11. So we're set on this end.

Recommended web cam and software? Any favorites or dislikes? Should probably work for both the eMac and laptop depending on where they're located in their house...

TIA

[DRR]

You tend to get what you pay for.

I've tried both cheapo $20 Logitech Quick cam webcams, in addition to much pricier $100+ logitech cams. The image quality on the nicer cameras is MUCH better. (Clarity, color, FPS)

So assuming that you want to see every detail of grandson's little baby face, I'd recommend a nicer camera. I've used a Logitech 9000 for Notebooks and it worked out of the box with iChat and Skype.

One note of warning, webcam driver support from both Logitech and Apple is not very good. Once you home in on a model I'd research how well it works with Macs. Built-in drivers improved going from 10.3 to 10.4 - make sure whatever you get will work with their OS.

[space-time]

someone recommended this one a while back, I think it may have been john dough who recommended it, I am not sure. I keep an eye one it, but I haven't seen it in sale yet

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-960-00004...000RZQZM0/

[The UnDoug]

If they happen to have a video camera with a firewire output, they can likely use that as a webcam with iChat. I did that for years.

[Winston]

Here is a good source for ideas:
http://www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com

And a couple of sources for drivers if you find you need one in OS 10.3
http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net
http://www.ioxperts.com/products/webcamx.html


Good luck.

- Winston

[Article Accelerator]

DRR wrote:
One note of warning, webcam driver support from both Logitech and Apple is not very good.

If the system is running 10.4.9 or later, no web cam driver installation is required as long as the web cam is UVC compatible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_video_device_class

[jdc]

bought this for my moms iLamp, works fine, $22

http://www.macmall.com/p/4714583?source=mwbfroogle&dpno=7509937

[wowzer]

just marking this page...