Monterey facetime camera not working

Just "upgraded" to Monterey and like others... lost external camera for FaceTime.

• Launch any app that uses the camera besides FaceTime by itself and the image transmission is fine.
• Start FaceTime by itself... image is corrupted and pixelated and 90% covered in green which is indicative of problem in the codec.
• Start any other app that uses the camera while FaceTime is running and FaceTime image is fixed.
• Launch FaceTime AFTER another camera app is running and FaceTime will corrupt the image on both apps.

Apple, stop pointing the finger at the peripherals and drivers as that is NOT the problem. Your OS is a unix system where the OS sits between the apps and the peripherals. The camera, in this case, is always 'ready' for any app to make a call on it. The fact that Zoom and your own PhotoBooth app both can call external cameras proves there is no issue with the peripheral or the driver. If there was a problem with the driver the issue would be seen on all apps making calls for the camera.

The fact that this issue is just in FaceTime points to a problem with FaceTime, how it loads codecs and how it talks to the OS. Since Apple has closed-loop architecture... this is 100% their problem. Their own app, FaceTime, is not communicating with Monterey and vice-versa.

Work around...

Launch FaceTime and then launch Photo Booth. Then close PhotoBooth.