Apple Isight Webcam

[Harald Atta]

Ihave an old external firewire iSight camera that I was trying to use with Facetime on my Mac Pro (2013) running Catalina. Facetime will not recognize the camera nor will it show up in the system preferences. I tested it with both iMovie & Final Cut Pro X and it functions just fine so I know the camera works. When I open Facetime, there's just a blank black screen. You can hear the camera focusing & the green light is on, but no video & no options to select it under the "video" tab.

At first, the only way I could get my Firewire iSight to work in FaceTime is to first launch the app using the built in camera in my MacBook screen (annoying as I mainly use my machine in clamshell with an external monitor). Once open and running on the built in camera, I could then select iSight under the Video menu.

Others are saying the iSight has audio issues in Catalina but mine works fine - the firmware is 1.0.3. (The last time the 'iSight Updater' app worked was in Leopard 10.5) Check About This Mac > System Information > FireWire to see details.

I can use my old firewire iSight for FaceTime by switching between my iMac's FaceTime camera and the iSight in the Video menu. May take a couple swaps. It's a bug for sure, and doubtful it would be resolved, imho. I can use it for any other app that has access to the Mac's camera, too.

For now, I just got a cheap $18 USB2 cam from China, and yes, I know, it's far superior to the ancient iSight, but I would really still love to get my Apple iSight working. It matches the Mac, and has auto focus, which the new ones do not, unless you get an expensive one.

I just connected my old iSight firewire webcam to my 2014 mac mini. I used a DisplayPort-FW800 and a FW800-FW400 adapter. Picture works ok (a bit laggy though) but no sound. I run Catalina 10.15.6. How your video @RobD38? Is it laggy or smooth?

I have a cheap chinese webcam, and similar to yours, I can launch facetime with both cameras to choose from, but isight audio is not recognized. so I am stuck with keeping the cheap camera for picking up audio.

I am using a MacMini 2018 and an external microphone. Since this morning the camera is no longer recognized. Same symptoms, when I boot my Mac the camera briefly comes on (focus noise and green light). Afterwards no app recognizes the camera.

Not sure if this is of interest but my ancient iSight also works. It has firmware 1.0.3 and it was nice to resurrect it for a test. It hasn't been used since my eMac was retired well over a decade ago. I have the iSight working with my iMac (late 2015 21.5 inch) and running Mojave 10.14.6

I plugged it in with the various adapters and got it to work with several video chat softwares, although without any sound. All the chat software continued to use my iMac's inbuilt mic. Also, my System Preferences did not recognise the iSight as an audio input.

I started with FaceTime which launched happily and allowed me to choose iSight as a camera. Skype and Zoom also saw the camera and I switched over to it. Same with Cisco Webex Meetings. Even Photo Booth could use the iSight.

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