External iSight camera with M1 Mac?

Solution 1:

I too get the same results as you are getting. Works on my 2017 27" iMac but no audio.

This video indicates that the iSight camera needs to be updated to Firmware 1.0.3 for the audio to work properly.

For the updater you would need an older Mac. I have an old PowerPC G5 but have not hook it up to see if the updater would work on it but I plan to try it soon.

• How to update external iSight firmware?
• External iSight microphone audio not working

I did see on one of Apple's pages that it indicated an external iSight will work with Big Sur. No confirmation if it includes Big Sur.

It doesn't work at all on my M1 Mini but system info can see it so that to me indicates the connection is good.

When I called to ask Apple about it the person wasn't of any help. They actually had not heard of an iSight camera, internal or external, before. The best they could do was get provide the link to the updater.

Solution 2:

This is what happens when drivers to recognize the specific features connected via a physical bus are lacking. Great triage and notes, and who knows if someone at Apple would take the time or risk to include the drivers needed for this to work. The clear “no support” for Vintage products means it would be a big exception.

• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

However, the heart doesn’t care about rules like this, so I too love the design of that camera and am keeping the cables and hardware in my kit and hope to get a vintage computer some day to put it all back in “service”. I’ll update this if I discover driver options for either the iPadOS M1 platform or macOS M1 platform.