Webcam questions for iChat

As a PC guy who finally cracked and got a Mac Pro (sitting in a box next to me), I'm disappointed to read about all the issues regarding webcams and iChat. My display has no iSight, and I thought I'd simply order one (until Apple discontinued the external model). I spent the last few days poring over the discussion boards and shopping at every computer store in the county to find the best solution. Ralph's posts have been really helpful, but I was hoping for a simple solution (one of the reasons I got a Mac to begin with).
I don't like eBay, so I'm left to other options. All the Logitech literature/forum posts seem to indicate it can be recognized by iChat with the use of patches, but the boxes of the webcams indicate that functionality is compromised (no zoom, no enhanced video/audio, etc.) and no guarantee that it will work at all.
Has anyone tried the iMage cam (http://www.ecamm.com/mac/imagewebcam/) that claims to be a complete Mac product? At this point I'm just hoping that I can buy something out-of-the-box to put on my monitor and know that it works.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this, and for any help you might be able to give!

Another follow up to my problem. To see if any other hardware was causing interference, I disconnected all USB peripherals including the hub leaving only the XBox camera attached to the card. No change to picture quality. I disconnected my speakers (attached to audio line-out port). No change. The only other hardware left connected is my Netcomm 1300 Modem Router (ethernet connection), mouse and keyboard (on the USB 1.1 connections).
This seems to indicate a software problem. I only use Skype and iChat and I don't use them both at once! Interstingly, Skype actually is able to put up a recognisable picture (even though it gets banded with intermittant purple and yellow!) but iChat has only a black box with a very intermittant quick flash of the correct (or normal) picture but a constant smaller middle box of diagonal line hatching (poor description I know but words fail me here).
As for software I have tried shutting down everything else when either Skype or iChat are open to no noticable effect.
Any help appreciated! Thanks

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