ISight

ISight is a webcam of the computer manufacturer Apple. It was first presented on 23 June 2003, together with a matching video conferencing and chat software called iChat AV at the Worldwide Developers Conference. In June 2006, the first generation of camera in Germany has been withdrawn from the market.

Technology

The first generation of camera has a 1/4 "color CCD image sensor with VGA resolution (640 × 480 pixels) and 24 - bit color spectrum. It differs from most Webcams by the built-in auto focus function in the range of 50 millimeters up from infinity. Moreover, the iSight has a three -piece lens consists of two aspherical lens with a viewing angle of 54.3 ° and an f / 2.8 wide aperture. Moreover, it has a built-in full-duplex directional microphone with background noise suppression. the device can at full resolution up to 30 frames per second supply (30 fps). connecting to a Mac via FireWire. The camera has a housing made ​​of aluminum alloy, weighs 63.8 grams without bracket and can be rotated both tend. at the top of the housing is a green recording LED on the can detect whether the camera is active. For continued protection of privacy can be turned off with a twist of the front lens ring and the camera completely obscure. It is striking that the camera is very warm during operation. The resulting problems are indeed not known, Apple does not recommend to ensure an ambient temperature of less than 35 degrees Celsius. It was developed by Apple for use with the chat software iChat AV. The design of the camera comes from Apple in California.

In the succeeding generations the model, the camera is incorporated into the screen housing the Apple device. Furthermore, these models have been developed technically.

Accessories

The camera is supplied with a protective plastic container for selbige, a white FireWire cable of about 1.5 meters in length and four brackets. With these you can attach the device to different monitors or turn on a horizontal surface. Due to the limited tilt up it may be used only conditionally standing on the table.

Operating Systems

The iSight works except with Macs and Windows and Linux PCs with FireWire port. On Windows, the built- in Windows XP is enough generic IEEE1394 WDM driver from Microsoft for Linux, the libdc1394 library is needed. Both operating systems can currently not yet deal with the built-in microphone for Linux exists but already one approach.

Thus, it is also non-Mac owners possible to use the iSight with video telephony programs. Various camera parameters such as brightness, contrast, color, and focus can be personalized with the open source software Coriander thereby also manually. The same is possible with the plugin iGlasses even when using iChat AV.

Comparisons / tests

The computer magazine c't tested in issue 22/2003 multiple webcams from different manufacturers and certified the iSight " outstanding technical achievements ." Furthermore, the high refresh rate is praised: "Thanks to the Apple FireWire camera transmits sovereign consistently 30 fps, regardless of the lighting conditions. Even with 640 × 480 pixels rushing 29-30 frames per second over the wire. " Just as the relatively high purchase price but also is " somewhat overzealous automatic white balance " criticized. As the only camera in the test, the iSight has an auto focus. The article makes no details of the firmware of the model used - however, one can assume that the testers have investigated a camera with version 1.0, since the corresponding issue of the magazine on 22 October 2003 has been released, updates were not available until later though.

Integration with Apple products

Having been in the last iMac G5 revision an iSight camera has been integrated, have been integrated into all devices with screen -in iSight cameras in the wake of the change to the Intel x86 platform. Thus the following models now have an iSight camera:

• MacBook Air and older MacBook Pro ältereMacBook
• IMac G5, iMac Core Duo and Core 2 Duo iMac
• LED Cinema Display
• IPad (from second generation)
• IPhone (from fourth generation)
• IPod touch ( fourth generation from )

For some time, the iSight camera is touch especially in iPod, iPhone and iPad installed as a main camera. The webcam is said in the iOS and Mac devices now FaceTime HD camera.

Others

Since 19 February 2004, a firmware update (Version 1.0.2) for your device is available, which according to Apple improved IIDC compliance, optimized auto exposure and white balance as well as better overall performance should bring. The update released on April 14, 2005 ( Version 1.0.3 ) promises to turn an optimized audio performance. To load the updates currently a Mac is required.

The above the screen recessed into the housing of the new Intel models iSight features other than the stand-alone device does not have an auto focus.