Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I use my ’06 Macbook Pro in clamshell mode running a 1080p monitor, which doesn’t allow me to use the built in iSight. I wanted to give the Macally camera a try as I have used one of their hard drive enclosures before with good results. Also had seen a Youtube video of someone recording decent quality video using this camera and was optimistic that it would perform the same on my system. I tried the camera using Photo Booth and Quicktime Pro and both applications gave very low frame rates (about 5-10 fps) on video and grainy photos. The built in iSight camera on my 4 1/2 year old MBP is much better. This camera, and any other UVC webcam, also do not work as capture devices for iMovie. On a positive note, the built in microphone is quite sensitive and has reasonably good audio quality.

Long story short, I would not recommend this webcam to those who already have an iSight camera. Perhaps the low frame rates were due to my older system/OS (2.16ghz Core Duo, 2GB DDR2 667 RAM, OS X 10.5.8) but the iSight camera on the same system performs much better. It’s unfortunate that there are not that many options for Mac users when it comes to affordable external webcams, and while the Macally camera does work and provide basic functionality, its performance isn’t what I was hoping for.

This is what I get for buying a product that did not have reviews. It is a plug and play. Worked right away but performance is terrible. Video stutters maybe like 2 frames per sec. Not usable to record any clips even at the lowest setting. Should have returned it…

I purchased a Mac Mini near the end of 2012 to replace a mid-2007 iMac. The iMac has a built-in monitor and a built-in camera and mic; for the Mini I purchased a large, high-quality monitor from Samsung but wanted convenient audio and video input which is why I purchased the Macally MegaCam. It fits on top of my monitor securely enough, looks nice, and after plugging it into one of my Mini’s USB ports it “just worked” without requiring any software to be installed or any configuration on my part – which is the way a typical end-user like me wants things to work.

The MegaCam’s mic works perfectly. I use it mainly for Google Voice (essentially using my computer as a telephone) and dictation of text with the camera unused and covered by the slide. The price of the MegaCam was low enough that I think I paid a fair price for a very high-quality USB microphone.

I also use FaceTime and other live video applications a little bit. Unfortunately, the camera is nearly worthless for this purpose or any other video application. The picture is quite nice, but the framerate is extremely low. Like maybe 2-3fps. I think this is because the camera is always imaging at its maximum resolution, which is just too high for high-framerate live video. If it came with software which allowed the resolution to be adjusted then the framerate would probably be fine but this webcam comes with no software and nothing I could find from third parties worked (admittedly I didn’t spend too much time looking).

So I have a USB webcam that has really excellent audio in, takes lovely stills (rarely useful), and is close to worthless for video. That’s OK for me since 99% of the time I’m using it either for phone calls via Google Voice or for dictation. For me, it’s a 4-star product. But for anyone looking for a webcam, which means anyone looking for live video input, it’s essentially worthless because of the very low framerate; hence the 3-star rating.