apple isight

[dean w]

hi all just seen an apple isight webcam with a 1/4inch ccd chip and was wondering if these cameras would fit a normal usb on my laptop or would it have to be a apple computer hope you can help

[Cornelius Varley]

Macs use 1394 firewire ports so you will need one of those. You will also need a driver which you maybe able to obtain from Unibrain . link to Wiki article

[dean w]

hi thanks for that but will i be able to fit one to my pc or just to apple computers

[LukeSkywatcher]

hi thanks for that but will i be able to fit one to my pc or just to apple computers

I'm no consumer/electronics expert but i feel if it is an Apple product...........it will only be able to be used with other Apple products such as a Mac.

Apple dont leave their products wide open to the general market............although they can be "hacked" to work with non Apple electronics............which means the warranty is null and void.

I really dont know. I'm assuming.

USB ports the world over are the same so that is not an issue. However its the drivers etc where you may encounter problems.

[Cornelius Varley]

Laptops / PCs don't usually have a firewire port. You can get a pc card for a pc or a pcmcia card for a laptop with a pcmcia slot or maybe a firewire/usb adapter would work.

[Dai150PL]

The isight camera does not work with any Mac astro software as it is not Dcam compliant, so would assume that would count for windows software also.

[Cornelius Varley]

It might work under windows because it will be seen as a 1394 video camera.

[Jim-a]

I have an isight and a while ago did a bit of research to see how suitable it would be to use for astro stuff - the general opinion seemed to be that whilst they are great cameras for normal usage, their low level light performance was quite noisy and that, coupled with the fact that they are not cheap webcams meant that there were much better options for conversion to a prime focus astro webcam

[geoff_k]

I have a Mac but I don't use if for astro imaging. I don't think the Isight is really suitable for the purpose anyway. Best to stick with PC based products as you have many more (and cheaper) options.

Geoff

[dean w]

ok goys thank you i think i will give this one a miss seems like a lot of work for not much in return