Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro Compatible with 2009 Mini?

I know two people using the QuickCam Vision Pro with Skype on their minis - no problems.

The Quickcam Vission Pro works fine and has very good quality both video and audio.
There is a know problem with it though that is easily replicable, and can get annoying:
If you put your Mac to sleep the system will 'loose' the camera. Quickly unplugging it and plugging it back in solves the issue; though it's consistent on a new Mac Mini as well as Nehalem Mac Pros, and has been widely reported.
My hope is that this is a software problem with re-initializing the device after wake-up, and will be fixed in the future, but do keep this in mind.

The camera is also not recognized by iMovie (incl. 09), but works great with iChat, Skype, Photobooth etc.

Best,
Dan

We have confirmed this issue (not working after coming out of sleep mode) on three Macs with consistent results: two Mac mini's and a Macbook, all Intel Macs running on MacOS 10.5.6. When you bring the computer out of sleep mode, the camera will not work. If you bring up Photobooth or iChat it says there is not a camera present. It appears the microphone does work via System Preferences.

We have seen the rebooting workaround, but this is a huge hassle. We have discovered that you can remove the camera from the USB port and plug it back in again and it will work. Since we purchased these cameras for the Mac mini's this is more difficult than it sounds and is real inconvenience.

These cameras are supposed to be UVC cameras and are listed as 100% compatible with Macs.

UPDATE:
Through some channels we discovered this is a known issue with MacOS 10.5.4 and newer. It seems when in sleep mode the USB ports turn off. When the computer wakes there is some issue with turning them back on, and reportedly, it has something to do with Quicktime? Hopefully, Logitech is working with Apple on this as many of us are stuck in the middle.

These cameras have very good video and excellent audio. They'd be perfect if this issue was resolved.

Regards.

Interesting.
Of course, we have had no issues with any other USB devices, ranging from game controllers to printers to UPS's lifenines. I am not sure why any issue with the USB port, or drivers would only affect the camera...

I DO hope Logitech is working on it as well - but as much as I like their products, I am have been less than enthused with their support (and drivers, when required) over the years....

I agree, great cameras otherwise, but this IS annoying (at best)...

There have been USB issues with 10.5.6. Not sure if it's related to this problem, but seems suspicious. I noticed this when I plugged in a USB thumb drive into my iMac keyboard after 10.5.6. It gave me an error of not enough power. I did a search for that right after the upgrade and found there was a ton of issues with people complaining about their iPods and iPhones not working/charging anymore when plugging into a keyboard or directly into the machine. Search "usb power problem 10.5.6" and sadly you will pages of issues. It doesn't seem to affect all machines though.

Message was edited by: get2anthony

I cannot get the audio to work in Photobooth when using this camera's mic. Any ideas how to make this work?

I have discovered the identical problem. Any solution, aside from the work around mentioned, as yet?

I have the identical problem. If I reboot everything works fine. In addition to not recognizing the camera at all, I sometimes get a message that the camera is in use by another application. But the only active application other than Finder is iChat.

I thought this had been fixed in a recent OS update - that's why I went out and purchased the camera. Any one else have experience with a high quality webcam (this is for our living room) that actually works consistently?

Hi Folks

There was supposed to some sort of fix in 10.5.7 but on my mac pro, the issue hasn't gone away at all

I was given a work-around solution to this problem by an Apple employee at the genius bar in the Apple Store in Century City, California, which is in West Los Angeles. His name is Robert Stern. He thought that it might be a power problem. He said that instead of plugging the webcam into the computer directly, I should try plugging into a powered USB hub that is connected to my Mac Mini. It worked. He thought that the webcam needs more power to transmit video than it does audio. He thought that for some reason when the the computer comes back from being asleep only portion of the power the webcam needs is being given to the webcam. Therefore, the webcam can handle the audio portion of a video call via the webcam's microphone, but not the video portion of the call. He thought that by using the powered USB hub, the webcam never loses the full power it needs, even when the computer comes back from being asleep. Of course, I suggest using a USB 2.0 hub get the most out of your webcam. At some point perhaps Apple and Logitech will address this problem and fix it so that there is no need to plug the webcam into a powered hub and instead can be plugged directly into the Mac Mini. Until then, this is the best solution. Many thanks to Mr. Stern.

I too found the same sleep problem for an otherwise great webcam.
There is a 3rd work around I came across - the BEST in my opinion. Rebooting (takes time) and unplugging the USB port each time (takes some fiddling at least with the position of my mini).

Close the program (e.g. Skype, PhotoBooth).
Go to System preferences > Audio> Input
Even though the Vision Pro is grayed out as the default, click on it to highlight it again in blue.
Close >Relaunch Program> Voila!!!!

I've also have had the issue - have 2 cameras so was able to test on different macs - all the same results - except in my 8-core 3.2 macpro i have it plugged into a pcie usb card. it works every time from sleep. if i plug into the built-in front or back usb ports, it doesn't get recognized on wake from sleep. for me just opening the sound system preferences input tab fixes the issue otherwise (you can tell it's working by the fluctuating input levels in the microphone area. i think I'm going to try a powered usb hub for the theater mac mini and see if that works.

BTW you can put an alias to the sound system preference on your desktop/dock/etc. to save a little bit of extra clicking. system/library/preferencespanes/sound.prefpane

This problem now appears to be resolved - with the 10.5.8 update I think.
I no longer have to use a work around to get the video picture on waking from sleep.