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| Author | I'm back! (almost) it's been a minute! Might Win QuickCams work on Classic Macs? (Read 78506 times) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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cballero
1024 MB  Posts: 1179 System 7, today and forever 
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on: November 02, 2024, 13:33
Life happened.. big time  But the show must go on as they say  I'm pulling through some things, missing my Mac pals!  Hey, I was looking at a bunch of those old Connectix QuickCam Cameras for Windows; I wonder how hard it might be to get them to work on old Macs, or even emulated ones? I'm all thumbs when it comes to the wiring, but I'm thinking the Mac software may run them since they (should) be the same hardware, just different connectors, I'm thinking? So, in theory, imo, an adapter may be all that's needed (and it may be cobbled together with bits and pieces, maybe a little soldering involved? I mean, so pretty much all we have of the Mac versions is the software component on the MG, but there's a bunch online for $30-40 bucks shipped in the U.S. so, whatcha guys think? :O |
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB  Posts: 2023
Reply #1 on: November 03, 2024, 15:55
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Welcome back! Glad to read you again - I was thinking of you the other day and wondered what had happened, but then I don't want to bother everyone with "hey, how are you" type of reminder PNs :-) (though I've done that with Jatoba recently, whom we seem to have lost again ...) Your question about the Connectix QuickCam Cameras is interesting! I recently went to a retro computing fair locally, which of course was very PC-centric. And one of the dealers sold precisely such a Connectix cam for a small sum in original packaging. I was really tempted but then like you wrote, who knows if it'd even work? Finding a Mac version of it, unfortunately, seems next to impossible here in Europe these days.
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1179 System 7, today and forever
Reply #2 on: November 03, 2024, 21:42
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Truly glad to be missed, Bolkonskij!  next time, fight the urge to resist and just email or PM me; the worse that could happen is I don't reply, right? But I did miss everyone, all joking aside.I got excited when I remembered these little webcams, but was saddened to see not much exists of these as far as hardware availability of very early models. They were very popular, and I'm sure there are newer models I could look into, so this was more of a starting point for me
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ShinobiKenobi
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256 MB Posts: 362 System 7 fan
Reply #3 on: November 04, 2024, 04:58
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Welcome back, cballero!
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Bolkonskij
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Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023
Reply #4 on: November 04, 2024, 07:49
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Same with me! I actually talked to knezzen some months ago about how fun it would be to run some video conference at 160x120 resolution from our System 7 Macs. This was pioneering and interesting new tech at around the late System 7 era and it'd be fun to give it a try. But alas, while microphones can be found, webcams are very hard to come by. Maybe one day somebody will create a cheap retro webcam for our Macs, sounds like a fun project and cameras really have become "a dime a dozen" goods (not literally) We shall see what the future brigns :-)
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #5 on: November 04, 2024, 13:24
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Back in the 1980's there was a device called ComputerEyes for the Commodore 64. Here is an archive of the manual from archivedotorg. <https://archive.org/details/computereyesc64> This was a device using an RCA input that would capture and image from a video input source and render it for the Commodore screen. It plugged into the Commodore usr port which was a modified serial port on the Commodore which while being rather powerful for the time, would not be considered fast by a measure. As I recall there were plans around to make this as a homebrew project. Not sure where one could go with this, but it does seem like it might be a starting point to create a webcam for an early Mac. As I recall Computereyes was also available for the Apple //
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cballero
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1024 MB Posts: 1179 System 7, today and forever
Reply #6 on: November 04, 2024, 14:35
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Nice note there on the Commodores, Wove! I did own a Vic 20, so there's definitely love from my end for my first home computer, which I owned a year after my dad got us an Atari 2600 to play with! Those parallel Windows QuickCams are so low-hanging fruit price-wise; if only I was more hardware-minded, I'd buy one just to tinker with, but it'd end up in my personal not-so-little tech heap pile! I'm just shocked no mention of such tinkering has surfaced, but then Mac OS 7 lead to the Mac OS 8 era, so that might be a more sound way to start, then trace our way back to our beloved System 7 Macs; as it stands, my true Power Macs all are all Mac OS 8-9 and up Well, technically, my 2400c does run Mac OS 7.6.1, but it has limited ports due to its size, so my mileage may vary and I'm happy with the OS it has, so I'd have to do some careful setup to get it going with 7; food for thought, though.. oh! and I absolutely love the video conferencing idea; it's like you guys read my mind!! 
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Neal_SE30
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256 MB Posts: 401 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #7 on: November 06, 2024, 18:16
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Hey guys, didn’t Apple make a camera? They’re probably rare as hens teeth though. Maybe some abd converter might be out there. I’ll have a look:)
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wove
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1024 MB Posts: 1363
Reply #8 on: November 06, 2024, 19:10
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You might be thinking of the QuickTime Video Conferencing Camera 100 from 1995. The camera alone was ~$300, with the full kit being ~$1800. The camera output via an RCA connector so you would need a computer with that type of input. The full kit included a NuBus card that connected the camera as well as headphone/microphone for the conferencing part. Overall it seems about as useful as the Windows webcam;)
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Neal_SE30
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256 MB Posts: 401 System 7 Newcomer!
Reply #9 on: November 06, 2024, 20:54
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Yes that was probably what I remember. Thought as much, a load of money. If it’s serial camera you could get big mess of wires usb to abd converter and get any low end pc camera from 2000s I suppose but you would need some software to use it, one where you can select port. I would love to try in a compact Mac in b&w. I’ll look it up.
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