[X4U] alternatives for iSight camera?

[Jerry Krinock]

On 2012 Apr 16, at 13:46, Linda Weidemann wrote:

> My USB AT2020 has been flawless for two years' worth of podcasts -- no clicking whatsoever.

The one that has the microphone trouble is an A4Tech Model PK-720MJ "Viewcam".  An Apple Genius told me that there was an "issue with some microphones", but several months later AppleCare told me on the phone that there was no such issue.  I trust the guy I can look in the eye.

> But the I think the OP's question was about cameras for the mini, since it has no camera. I'm curious about this too, as I'm using my old Firewire 400 iSight with an 800>400 adapter to run the iSight -- and I would really like something different, as I'm also using the FW400 with a Griffin iFire to run my G4 baseball speakers on my mini. :-)

On 2012 Apr 16, at 16:30, John McClernan wrote:

> Before web cams became more commonplace, with my MacMini I used my Firewire camcorder on "record", without a cassette installed. New device purchases did not fit into my budget at the time, so I used what I had available.
> Worked just fine.
> YMMV

Well, I didn't mention that because I thought I was the only cheapskate who tried that.  Yes, it worked.  But what a pain in the neck.  Had to plug in the AC adapter, turn on the power, start recording, pause.  Not to mention trying to clip the damned thing to the top of my display.  Just joking.  Actually, I cut a piece of aluminum the size of a flash adapter and screwed it to the bottom of a bookshelf with just enough looseness to allow the camera to slide on.  Then it took several minutes to get the camera on there because the piece of aluminum would spin around.

I also used a voice recorder as a microphone for a while, which was even more fun.  No AC adapter so I had to keep two AAA batteries charged.  And since there's no cassette, I had to "record" the audio, and after two hours, it would say stop because it ran out of memory.

You must be an engineer too, John :))

It's *so nice*, now that I splurged on a microphone and camera, to just hit "Answer" when Mom calls on Skype now, and have it "just work".