I have a Pluggable USB Microscope that defaults to 640x480 and I want to raise the resolution to just under 2MP.. How do I adjust a USB webcam or USB Microscope resolution without a System Preference?

I came to the same conclusion and ordered a true 5MP (not interpolated) sensor unit. After numerous attempts I was never able to get a snapshot still over 0.3MP with the 2MP unit.

Thanks for your reply.

I am using the Pluggable USB Microscope 2MP 250x, and the WebRTC software shows it to have resolutions up to 2MP, but Digital Viewer, Photo Booth, iMovie and other products like Webcam Settings don't seem to see a resolution over 640x480. I have been working with Pluggable Support and they say "some Macs just don't work". I'd hate to think my one-year-old Late-2013 Mac Pro has this as a shortcoming. I have tried reboots, reinstalls, demo packages, different USB paths and PRAM resets. Regardless, the USB Microscope comes up at 640x480.

This seems like such a simple thing.

Finally, I stumbled across an article on Alternatives to AMCap for Mac, and the top voted software product was Debut, from NCH in Australia. I downloaded the free home version (in spite of negative reviews in the Store) and it immediately defaulted to taking 1600x1200 PNG image snapshots. I have some work to do with this by I am encouraged enough that I invested in a Home License of Debut and I'm now lining up the items that need imagery taken at this resolution.

Once my 5MP USB Microscope arrives I will possibly move the 2MP to my laptop and use it more as a handheld device.

Thanks for your interest, your suggests and enjoy your day!

PS. AmCap is a highly regarded video capture package for the wrong operating system and the ten Mac alternatives had varying dates of the most recent update. Even Debut might not be optimized for the pending App doom that I get regular warnings about, but that only seems to happen once so I don't recall if it gave the warning or not.