Customer Reviews
Apple ISight 
2006-11-09
This is great for my son and his girlfriend - he's in Michigan at college and she's in Iowa at college. They can talk to each other all the time. Not quite as great as being together, but it does the job!
Great camera, lousy software, no mount for iMac G4. 
2006-11-04
I purchased two iSights so that I can videoconference with my mom and sister. The cameras work fine (but do get very hot if you keep them on for a long time). The only problem I still have is with the software (iChat). It works videoconferencing with my mom, but does not work videoconferencing with my sister. All of us use Macs. I have researched extensively in the apple support site, without success... changed firewall settings, router settings... none worked. The only way for me to videoconference with my sister is via Skype, which has poorer image quality.
The camera also lacks a mount for the iMac G4, so it has to sit beside the computer screen (not on top of the screen, where it is possible to look in the face of who you are speaking to).
Crisp image? Not. 2006-08-13
For $150, I expect a crisp image with no soft edges in good lighting. What a disappointment, Apple. I even aimed it outside during sunlight, with the window open and nothing in between, and still got fuzzy soft edges. I suppose if you minimize the viewing window to it's smallest little box, it might look okay. This is my second iSight. I returned the first one because of the same issue, only worse. Too bad I gave it another chance. This auto-focus thing is not as good as it could be. I'd rather have control of the focus. It looks nice though.
Very Good 
2006-08-13
The Apple iSight is a very expensive webcam, but if you compare the quality of image, ease of use, and the elegance and versatility of the design to its competition (the magnetic mount is wonderful) I have to give a guarded thumbs up to the iSight. It is the superior product, but the price is high, and its not problem free:
1) It gets very hot, very quickly, and stays that way as long as you're using it (this has not caused any problems though.)
2) The microphone in my Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" M9843LL/A (1.8 GHz PowerPC G5, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD-RW Drive) is clearer than the iSight's: People I connect to always ask me to change the iSight mic back to the built in iMac mic. Volume is the same.
( ADDENDUM March 23, 2007: The sound situation recently reversed and people began to say that my iSight's mic was much better, so I don't know WHAT to tell you about that one. I'm going to try and do some kind of test to clarify exactly what is going on but until then at least you know the camera gives you an option.)
The image is by far the best that I've seen of any webcam. I didn't experience the soft edges reported by a prior reviewer, but did get serious pixelation during some connections; however, that is more likely a problem of data transmission than a camera or software defect (I've also had problems connecting to PC/Logitech users via AIM, but I'm hesitant to blame that on the iSight, because iSight to iSight connections are very good.)
The software (which downloads from Apple when you install the iSight) seems to be glitch free, and automatically places the image right under the iSight, so you appear to be looking into the camera when you are looking at person you are speaking to.
Ease of use is typically Mac: plug and play. Effortless. The fact that its a FireWire connection leaves me with one more USB slot (which I needed) so I'm happy about that too.
A good product, but its expensive and there is some room for improvement (which is not likely to happen now that iSights are included in new Mac computers.) I would buy it again.
Best webcam out there 2006-05-10
Don't mess around trying to get other things to work - this one is wonderful, and well worth the extra money for a well designed cam that 'just works'. When I opened it, I looked for an install disk. Of course, there isn't one. You just plug it in and iChat fires up... Compare that to any other cam.
Great picture, good sound, and good compatability with other software like SightSpeed (free software that interoperates with PC for video conference pretty well).
Wonderful, but no longer available 2008-06-12
Would you believe there's an inexpensive substitute available from... Microsoft? The Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera is natively compatible with OSX 10.4.9 and up (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Vision_Camera)
The Live Vision Camera is not as beautiful and sophisticated as the iSight. It doesn't have autofocus (you focus it manually by turning the lens barrel) or a shutter to prevent unwanted video spying (instead a green ring glows around the lens when the camera is on).
Still, the picture quality is excellent, the camera is much smaller, convenient and portable than the original iSight, and you can't beat the price.
A great alternative to the iSight now that it is no longer manufactured.
Very nice 2007-08-25
But what else would you expect from Apple? I plugged it in and followed the onscreen direction. Within two minutes, I was looking at my picture on the monitor. Awesome!
Amazing! 2007-07-18
The iSight camera gives a crystal clear image- so clear, in fact, that I
decided I needed to make myself presentable before our next conference!
It runs smoothly - no jerking, & within milliseconds of real time. I use this
w/SKYPE to talk w/my children & grandchildren in Israel. We feel like we are
in the same room. It is easy to set up, & I hightly recommend it.
I found a great money-saving substitute 2007-04-28
This is the only other FireWire base camera for the Mac or PC. Great Picture and comes with removable stand.
FIRE-I DIG CAM F/HOME/OFFICE MONITOR/2X FIREWIRE 6PIN/30FPS MAC ( 2035 )
Apple comes thru again 2007-01-25
Video quality is excellent. The firewire connection and dsl or broadband provides some of the fastest responses in video casting with very, very little jerkyness. We recently had a video conference with our son and daughter-in-law from the birthing room in California after the birth of our granddaughter. Both of us were using PowerMacs and isight webcams. The video quality was great and I was able to take good digital photos of the baby directly from the screen. It was a great experience.
The connection was simple with ichat and AIM. I've also used it with gmail and skype with excellent results. I've used other video cameras of various quality, but the isight lens, auto focus, contrast and other features are the best I've seen. Firewire solves a lot of problems for both quality and data transmission/reception. It's very close to a real time, in the room experience.
I thought the cost was a little steep when I bought this unit a year ago, but the product is top quality and well worth the price.
