Webcams

[eks]

I'm able to use an ancient webcam* on Lion using the Macam driver: http://sourceforge.net/projects/webcam-osx/files/macam/ and the images are quite decent!

* The 0.35(!) Megapixel Mustek GSmart Mini

[gaby]

mine is logitech HD Webcam C270. it's fine with me

[NixieToob]

Pretty quiet in here! Well I’ve recently had success with Logitech webcams and I wanna let folks know. Logitech hardware is terrific but it’s common to read on the web that they don’t work with Macs. It’s true that Logitech Mac driver software is lousy. Don’t even try to use it.

There are a pair of apps that, when used together, give excellent results: “WebCam Settings” (on the Apple store) and “CamTwist” (free - Google for it). I currently have 3 Logitech cams working simultaneously (C920, C910, C615). I’m running Snow Leopard on a 2009 Mini A1283. WebCam Settings allows things like manual focus, zoom, color & brightness, etc. to be set for each cam individually. CamTwist allows switching among the cams and setting image size & resolution on a per-cam basis. I’m using the older CamTwist 2.4 but the developer is working on a new 64-bit version (will require Lion or ML).

The 2009 Mini has 5 USB ports but only two High-Speed Busses (i.e USB 2.0). I couldn’t get things to work until I added a powered hub. USB 2.0 is rated at a max of 500ma. Logitech cams draw more than, say, a keyboard or a mouse. Before adding the hub I thought the data bandwidth from the cams was overwhelming the USB Busses but instead I found it was a matter of insufficient power for the cams. I now have two powered hubs - a Belkin F4U016 and a Pluggable USB2-HUB-AG7.

I posted these results on both the Logitech & Apple forums:

<http://forums.logitech.com/t5/Webcams/C920-software-for-MAC/m-p/1001161/highlight/false#M98900>
<https://discussions.apple.com/message/21119622#21119622>

Since I recently picked up this cool Mini on eBay I thought I'd post it here too!