Looking for camera to work on iMac G3 500MHz (OS 10.4.11)

My son has a G3 500 MHz iBook and we've been able to video chat using the iSight camera with firewire connection. The video quality was often broken and we thought that was due to his network but he replaced the iBook with a Core Duo iMac (built in iSight) and the video is great.

Hello Frank Bravo

... we can audio chat (built-in mic), but we'd like to add a camera.

Video requires broadband at both ends. You do not specify that you have broadband, which Mac OS you use, or what iChat version you want to use for video, but here are the iChat minimum requirements for the various kinds of connections each will do:

System Requirements for iChat AV 2.1

Mac OS X 10.4: iChat AV(v.3) system requirements

Mac OS X 10.5: iChat (v.4) system requirements

If you meet the requirements for your version and still have problems, the problem may be your camera.

I have never tested video chat with anyone using Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000, but I could NOT find that it is a " Known Working Configurations" on iChatUSBCam's camera guide page. Unless you know that your camera is Mac compatible, test with a different camera that is.

For suggestions, see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5725045&#5725045

EZ Jim

PowerBook 1.67 GHz w/Mac OS X (10.4.11) G5 DP 1.8 w/Mac OS X (10.5.1)  External iSight

A MacAlly IceCam is suitable for a Mac with slow USB 1.1 ports. Lo-rez and low-quality image webcam but ultimately well-matched to that era of Mac. Higher resolution UVC compliant USB 2.0 cams like those listed at www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com would just choke a USB 1.1 port, have horrible frame rates and drive CPU utilization past 100%. A Unibrain Fire-i FireWire cam would be the best quality choice - bypass USB entirely. But an IceCam is the simplest, most affordable quick and dirty solution.

Did you or do you use the iChatUSBCam utility with that low spec machine ?



5:05 PM Sunday; January 13, 2008