Need suggestion for small USB/FW camera for chat

Question

I have an old (Tiger, PPC) laptop. My wife has an old (Panther, PPC) mini. I'm going on a trip and want to use Skype or iChat to be able to see the kids when we talk. Can someone suggest a camera USB/firewire camera which would be good for this purpose? I don't need too many fancy features but it would be nice if it weren't big and heavy (since I'll be traveling with mine). If it's on a flexible stick or mounts to the top of the monitor/laptop screen, that would be great. I see a bunch on Amazon but it's not clear which work with Panther/Tiger, which have Mac drivers, etc. Thank you!
Mike

Answer 1

Hi,
Yes and no (Again)
Any Camera is going to have to suit your Mac and it's input ports.
iUSBCam Utility only works for iChat.
It was originally designed to get the External iSight working on G3 computer less that 600Mghz.
Very quickly they added in the USB 1.1 camera option (At a push you could get a USB 1.1 camera to work n a G3/450Mghz processor as well)
It only works for iChat though. Or rather it is need for iChat as it manipulates the video from the camera into something iChat will accept.
I am not that sure if the current version of Skype will work with an older Camera.
If it does it will still need a Mac Driver for it if you only have USB 1.1 port on your computer.
There are two main Third Party Drivers out there for this (If the camera Manufacturer does not supply a Mac Driver)
Macam
and IOXperts
The IOXperts site does list a Firewire Driver for earlier OS versions (As it was not included originally) the OS has Firewire driver form about OS 10.2
They also state on their Site some restriction and workaround are needed for certain apps.
Summary.
The same info about camera types and Drivers still applies in the broadest sense.
You will not need the iSUBCam thing for Skype.
However I have not used Skype in some while and don't know if they still support USB 1.1 cameras.
NOTES
In theory as Skype does not produce such good a Video Pic as iChat it uses less processor power to create the Video stream.
However strangely this can have positive effects in lower Spec Machines as they can then produce a coherent Stream rather than something that breaks up due to their Processor not keeping up.
You seem to mention that you have Laptop running Tiger and the specs suggest this is a G4
What is the Mac Mini's processor.
Panther itself is not the limiting factor.
It is Input ports and availability of cameras to suit that.
Any G4 processor is going to let you have one to one chats - subject to the Internet Access at each end (Hotels can be a nightmare).
For the points
9:22 PM Monday; September 6, 2010
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