Is the iSight camera in the MBA a lower quality one than the MB?

Question

My friend just bought a Macbook Air from eBay, the model identifier is "MacBookAir1,1". It's had a fresh install of Snow Leopard on it and all the updates have been installed. It might be my imagination but the built in iSight image seems way below par compared to my old white MacBook. When I load Photo Booth it just looks grainy, even in good light.
I wondered is this because the camera in the MacBook Air is simply not as good as the camera in the regular MacBook? Or are the cameras the same, and it's just that the software needs something doing to it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

ncl47 wrote:
My friend just bought a Macbook Air from eBay, the model identifier is "MacBookAir1,1". It's had a fresh install of Snow Leopard on it and all the updates have been installed. It might be my imagination but the built in iSight image seems way below par compared to my old white MacBook. When I load Photo Booth it just looks grainy, even in good light.
I wondered is this because the camera in the MacBook Air is simply not as good as the camera in the regular MacBook? Or are the cameras the same, and it's just that the software needs something doing to it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You are probably correct that iSight hardware resolution is lower on MacBook Air (MBA).
BTW, the lower resolution cameras are not limited to MBAs. My 13" MacBook Pro has the lower resolution camera, too.
Many MacBooks (with possible exception of the MBA) have 1.3MP (1,280x1,024 pixels.) To determine whether a built-in iSight is the 1.3MP camera or the 0̸.3MP version, you may be able to use the test explained in this page:
  http://macdaddyworld.com/?p=19
If your Mac will not run that software, you can test by recording a short video test clip using QuickTimeX (Snow Leopard users only) or iMovie 8 (the iMovie version called iMovie '09 in Apple's iLife '09) at maximum resolution to see if you can capture video larger than 640x480.
iMovie 8 can use my LED Display's inbuilt iSight to record at resolutions of either 640x480 or 1024x576, but any iSight that can capture greater than 640x480 images with any software must have the 1.3MP iSight.
For info of other readers: All external iSights were 640x480 cameras.
Everything discussed so far has dealt with hardware resolution. The only thing you can do about hardware resolution is to use a different camera. This link gives info on camera alternatives:
  http://www.mac-compatible-web-cam.com/
Understand that software runs all iSights. Therefore, even if Macs with the higher resolution camera, you only get higher resolution images if the software you are using accesses the additional pixels. Therefore, don't trade Macs or cameras solely for increased resolution unless you know that the software you want to use can use the additional resolution.
For example, Photo Booth can only produce a 640x480 image, even with an iSight that offers higher resolution. If you are looking at the images on the respective Macs that captured the PB images, the difference you see may be largely due to the differences in the displays. To remove that variable, copy both images to both computers to judge whether the disparity is in the camera or the display.
If you want more info about iSight resolution, try this search of Discussions :
  http://tinyurl.com/2bkv9wh
Here is one representative thread from that search that will give you a good overview:
  http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11592569
EZ Jim
Mac Pro Quad Core (Early 2009) 2.93Ghz w/Mac OS X (10.6.4)  MacBook Pro (13 inch, Mid 2009) 2.26GHz (10.6.4)
LED Cinema Display  G4 PowerBook  1.67GHz (10.4.11)  iBookSE 366MHz (10.3.9)  External iSight