MacBook Air FaceTime Camera vs iSight - Comparison

The Built-in Camera in the MacBook Air: A Comparison with the Aluminum MacBook

What's up YouTube this is Detroit Borg and in this video we're going to take a look at the built in camera in the MacBook Air and compare it to my aluminum MacBook. The camera built into the MacBook Air is called a FaceTime camera, but every other Mac that has a built in camera has an iSight camera. So far it's unclear exactly what this means. We do know that the iSight camera is capable of recording up to 1280 by 100 and 24 pixels. But the available API is from Apple only allows for recording at 640 by 480, which is standard VGA.

This is the same story for the FaceTime camera on the MacBook Air. If both the iSight cameras and the FaceTime cameras are recording in VGA, is there a real performance difference between the two? Is this just branding or is there something really different in the hardware? We're going to take a closer look at the positioning of the microphones on the computers as well. As you know, in the MacBook Air, the microphone is side mounted, it's mounted on the side of the computer. While on the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros, the microphone is on the front or top of the computer.

I've gone ahead and put together a few demos to take a look at how they perform with video recording compared to a standard macbook. Let's start by looking at my 11.6 inch MacBook Air, which is currently recording with my eyesight camera and it's recording the audio with a built-in microphone. This is just to give you a demonstration of how it performs with video recording compared to a standard macbook.

Now I'm going to start recording on this macbook and see if there's any difference. Alright guys, this is again detroit borg, this time we're recording with a 13 inch aluminum macbook. This was purchased in April 2009, so it predates the 13 inch macbook pro, but the specs are about the same, so you can probably see similar performance with a macbook pro, but the configuration is very similar.

I'm using the iSight camera and I'm also using the built-in internal microphone. In the case of the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros, the microphone is located on the front of the computer, while the MacBook Air is located on the side of the computer. So if there's any difference, you're going to be able to hear it in this demo. Now, to my eyes and ears, it does look like the MacBook performed a little better than the MacBook Air, but the difference is pretty small and not a major concern to me.

But if you're in the market and trying to decide between these two machines, there is another difference to consider. I'm going to summarize this video at the end of the article as it does conclude with more information about the differences between the MacBook Air and aluminum MacBook.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's up YouTube this is Detroit Borg and in this video we're going to take a look at the built in camera in the MacBook Air and compare it to my aluminum MacBook now the camera built into the MacBook Air is called a FaceTime camera but every other Mac that has a built in camera has an iSight camera and so far it's unclear exactly what this means we do know that the iSight camera is capable of recording up to 1280 by 10 hundred and 24 pixels but the available API is from Apple only allow for recording at 640 by 480 so that's standard VGA this is the same story for the FaceTime camera on the MacBook Air so if both the iSight cameras and the FaceTime cameras are recording in VGA is there a real performance difference between the two and this is just branding or is there something really different in the hardware the other thing I want to take a look at or listen to is the positioning of the microphones on the computers as you know in the MacBook Air the microphone is side mounted it's mounted on the side of the computer while on the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros the microphone is on the front or top of the computer so I've gone ahead and put together a few demos take a look what's up YouTube this is Detroit Bourget Here I am with my 11.6 inch MacBook Air right now it's recording with my eyesight camera and it's recording the audio with a built-in microphone now this is done just to give you a demonstration of how it performs with video recording compared to a standard macbook so let's go ahead and start recording on the macbook and see if there's any difference alright guys this is again detroit borg this time we're recording with a 13 inch aluminum macbook again this was purchased in april 2009 so this predates the 13 inch macbook pro but the specs are about the same so you can probably see similar performance with a macbook pro but the configuration is very similar the i'm using the iSight camera and i'm also using the built-in internal microphone and in the case of the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros the microphone is located on the front of the computer while the MacBook Air is located on the side of the computer so you can if there's any difference you're going to be able to hear it in this demo now to my eyes and ears it does look like the MacBook performed a little better than the MacBook Air but the difference is pretty small and not a major concern to me but if you're in the market and trying to decide between these two machines there is another difference to consider so once again guys this is Detroit Borg thanks for watchingwhat's up YouTube this is Detroit Borg and in this video we're going to take a look at the built in camera in the MacBook Air and compare it to my aluminum MacBook now the camera built into the MacBook Air is called a FaceTime camera but every other Mac that has a built in camera has an iSight camera and so far it's unclear exactly what this means we do know that the iSight camera is capable of recording up to 1280 by 10 hundred and 24 pixels but the available API is from Apple only allow for recording at 640 by 480 so that's standard VGA this is the same story for the FaceTime camera on the MacBook Air so if both the iSight cameras and the FaceTime cameras are recording in VGA is there a real performance difference between the two and this is just branding or is there something really different in the hardware the other thing I want to take a look at or listen to is the positioning of the microphones on the computers as you know in the MacBook Air the microphone is side mounted it's mounted on the side of the computer while on the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros the microphone is on the front or top of the computer so I've gone ahead and put together a few demos take a look what's up YouTube this is Detroit Bourget Here I am with my 11.6 inch MacBook Air right now it's recording with my eyesight camera and it's recording the audio with a built-in microphone now this is done just to give you a demonstration of how it performs with video recording compared to a standard macbook so let's go ahead and start recording on the macbook and see if there's any difference alright guys this is again detroit borg this time we're recording with a 13 inch aluminum macbook again this was purchased in april 2009 so this predates the 13 inch macbook pro but the specs are about the same so you can probably see similar performance with a macbook pro but the configuration is very similar the i'm using the iSight camera and i'm also using the built-in internal microphone and in the case of the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pros the microphone is located on the front of the computer while the MacBook Air is located on the side of the computer so you can if there's any difference you're going to be able to hear it in this demo now to my eyes and ears it does look like the MacBook performed a little better than the MacBook Air but the difference is pretty small and not a major concern to me but if you're in the market and trying to decide between these two machines there is another difference to consider so once again guys this is Detroit Borg thanks for watching\n"