This is a special one for me. I never got the chance to own one when these came out as it was during the “Macs not on intel phase” and I was firmly in the Windows camp. It was (and is) one of the nicest looking external webcams available. It pioneered some of the things we take for granted today while also letting some of ’s typical hardware over-engineering shine through.
Long before it was the norm, the iSight offered a built in privacy shutter. Not only was it styled after a typical camera aperture but it also trigger the iChat client opening when the aperture was open. The green “on” light that would flow down to all webcams in ’s lineup was also present on top.
Based on some articles I’ve read, it sounds like this was an extruded aluminum tube that had the holes drilled afterwards . You can see the laser etching is nowhere near the quality that offers today. The camera’s design language absolutely straddles two generations in lore: the plastic iMac era to the titanium/aluminum PowerBook era. We are still in the aluminum era today.
The packaging, while quintessentially also reflected a bygone era: styrofoam. While it is still sometimes (rarely) used for larger computers, it is impossible to find it in any accessories packaging today.
One of the other oddities is the clear plastic carrying case. As most people (today) realize, plastic generally scratches when exposed to moving metal, especially when it has sharp edges. While their design language probably dictated this back then, I’m sure it would be a leather/microfiber case today. The clear plastic does not age well (just ask any iPod owner that rocked it sans case). For a $149 webcam in 2003, I would have expected something…nicer?
But the quality has obviously not kept up with the time. 640×480 resolution doesn’t cut it today (but was pretty impressive back then, thanks to the glass optics). I am seriously considering giving it a sensor transplant (more information here) that is based off of the raspberry pie platform. Can’t wait to bust this out at a coworkering space! If I could afford (and justify) a current gen Studio display I would plug that into it too.
Maybe I should try it on an older Studio display….
