Video capture with iSight under Tiger?

June 17, 2008 3:11 PM

I want my Mac's iSight camera to capture video, not just still photos. I'm running Tiger (10.4), not Leopard (10.5). Will anything other than upgrading to Leopard let my Mac do this? (Is there any hack or third-party software that lets the iSight act as a video camera under Tiger?)
posted by sparrows to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Open iMove HD and you can capture from the iSight. I know it works in Leopard, I'm pretty sure you could also do it in Tiger.
posted by cgomez at 3:16 PM on June 17, 2008

What software are you using now? I'm pretty sure the iSight has been marketed as a video camera since its introduction.
posted by jjg at 3:19 PM on June 17, 2008

Best answer: if you upgrade to quicktime pro, this is a feature.
posted by modernnomad at 3:22 PM on June 17, 2008

Response by poster: I'm using Photo Booth. (From my googling, the Leopard is the first OS in which Photo Booth lets iSight act as a video camera.)

Now I see my question would've been better said, "What free, small (Photo Booth-like) software can I use to capture video with iSight?"

(Because I deleted iMovie long ago and I don't have access to my install discs.)
posted by sparrows at 3:23 PM on June 17, 2008

Response by poster: Actually, perfect answer, modernnomad. I have other reasons to switch to QT Pro, so here I did it and am capturing perfectly w/ the iSight. Solved, thank you! :)
posted by sparrows at 3:29 PM on June 17, 2008

In case any one else wants this answer, there's a pre-beta version of Vidnik that is serviceable and freeware.

I've run into a few bugs but overall it got the job done.
posted by tachikaze at 4:03 PM on June 17, 2008

This used to be called iRecord but is now called iVeZeen.
posted by gaby at 5:51 PM on June 17, 2008 [1 favorite]

On my laptop I'm able to record movies from the built-in iSight camera using iMovie. I imagine it would work for an external iSight camera too. Plus, you're right in your editing application.
posted by centerweight at 8:55 PM on June 17, 2008

I'm away from my mac, but there is a application I've used to record from my firewire camera that was taking a feed from my VHS player. Trying to do this in imovie didn't work, but this little 'development' app worked really well. Will post a link to it once I get on my mac later...
posted by sdevans at 12:49 AM on June 18, 2008

gawker will let you do time lapse movies with the isight, too

i recently set it up to record what my cats are up to when i sleep. turns out one of them spent a little while laying *on* my head. sneaky damned animal.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:15 AM on June 18, 2008 [1 favorite]