New MacBook Pros == New 1.3 MP Camera Sensor
June 26th, 2007 by kenor… Built-in iSight The Next Generation
At WWDC, Glen had the unenviable task of hitting the compatibility lab and testing the upcoming release of iGlasses on as many computers as he could. When checking out the new 2.2 and 2.4 GHz MacBook Pros, he noticed something interesting about the built-in iSight:
It’s a whole new camera. Really!
First, looking at System Profiler:
It has a new USB PID. What I’ll henceforth have to refer to as the original built-in iSight, had the USB Product ID: 0×8501 and reports its manufacturer as Micron. The new built-in iSight has the Product ID of 0×8502 and reports manufacturer of Apple Inc.
Now the cool part: It’s a 1.3 megapixel sensor! I wrote a simple test application to capture a frame of video using an SGDataProc and save it to the Desktop. On my older 2.33 GHz MB Pro with the original built-in iSight, what I get is a VGA (640×480) image. This is the maximum size of the original camera, which I know for sure uses a VGA sensor.
Then, braving the 95 degree the heat, we got on our bikes and cruised down to the Cambridge Apple Store. After fighting our way through the crowds of people asking if they can pre-order an iPhone, we commandeered some MB Pros. The same test program produced a nice, big 1.3 MP (1280×1024) image.
UPDATE: Test app available here.
Other differences:
The new camera supports all of the VDSetBrightness, VDSetContrast, etc. calls. The old camera only supported Saturation and Sharpness. This causes an odd bug in iGlasses which we’ll have to fix very soon.
Whereas the original camera was uyvy (’2vuy’ in QuickTime), the new camera’s data is yuyv compressed. (that’s YUY2 for you Windows users or ‘yuvs’ in QuickTime parlance.) It’s the same as the previous 4:2:2 format except the 16-bit words are byte swapped. This doesn’t cause a problem for iGlasses which knows how to deal with both data types as this is the YUV format used by our iMage USB Webcam.
Interesting:
- I haven’t verified this yet, but I’m going to guess that 10.4.10 (which includes a new 2.0 version of the UVC driver) is required to get the larger sized image. This would explain why nobody noticed this last month when they were first released.
- I’m guessing they’re still using a Micron sensor. A few sources have indicated that the iPhone will also use a Micron sensor for its camera. The phone is supposed to have a 2 MP camera.
- iChat and other iApps don’t take advantage of the larger image size. If we stretched our iChat preview window up to around 1280 wide (the aspect ratio is not 4:3 in iChat 3), it was clear that we were looking at a VGA image scaled up. iChat and other such apps are probably calling SGSetChannelBounds with 320×240 or 640×480 because that’s the size they use for conferences, whereas I’m specifying a really large size (1600×1200).
- Thanks to Dave for letting me mess around with his new laptop this afternoon.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
FWIW, My 6 month old 17 inch MBP, 2.33, has that same camera. Micron, 0×8501. So the change happened a bit before the Santa Rosa upgrade.
Thanks for the heads up though, I wouldn’t have looked if you hadn’t posted this..
June 27th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
DKrause: Maybe I wasn’t clear. ” Micron, 0×8501″ is the OLD camera; been there since built-in iSight day 1. 0×8502 is the new megapixel camera on the Santa Rosa models.
June 27th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I’m sorry, you’re of course correct, I mis-read that, both here and TUAW’s link throught to here.
Take care, and thanks again for your blog.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
[...] Enlace | Mac Daddy World [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
[...] at Mac Daddy World confirmed an interesting discovery with a friend recently. Namely, the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros don’t feature the same iSight as [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
[...] Aunque no se indica en las características técnicas, parece que los nuevos MacBook Pro incluyen una cámara de 1,3 MP capaz de capturar imágenes a una resolución de 1280×1024, lo descubrieron en Mac Daddy World. [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
[...] Apple Computer, Inc: To those who don’t know. I am a huge Apple fan. I am a Switcher. I switched around the time when the Mac Mini came out, and I fell in love with my iMac G5. I love how Apple does pretty much everything. Now, fanboyism aside, (to be as objective as possible) my next topic is the MacBook Pro.Since I am going to college soon, I have decided to purchase a MacBook Pro with an Apple Developer Connection (ADC) student discount. The package costs $99, and the once-per-lifetime hardware discount is $400 on the MacBook Pro. That means that it’s $1,599 instead of $1,999. Nice difference for a college student! I am quite happy about that, as it allows me to actually afford it, instead of the Black MacBook. I love the 1440×900 resolution, and the (newly discovered) 1.3 MP camera1, as well as 2 GB of RAM and a GeForce 8800 GT. Smokin!1 About that 1.3 MP camera: New 1.3 MP iSight [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Neue iSight im neuen MacBook Pro?…
Im Anfang Juni vorgestellten MacBook Pro steckt offenbar eine überarbeitete iSight, die erstmals einen 1.3 Megapixel-Sensor benutzt. Einer der Entwickler hinter diversen Ecamm-Produkten wie iChatUSBCam schildert in seinem Blog, wie er mit einem Test-P…
June 27th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
[...] increased resolution they’re still stuck in VGA. But an upgrade’s an upgrade, right? New MacBook Pros == New 1.3 MP Camera Sensor [Mac Daddy World via [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 9:28 pm
[...] announced when Apple upgraded their Macbook Pro line was that the new laptops come with a 1.3megapixel iSight camera, instead of the VGA one that we’ve grown used to. The bad news is that no applications take [...]
June 27th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
[...] MacBook Pro รุ่นใหม่ (Santa Rosa) จะมีกล้อง 1.3 Megapixel ติดตั้งมาด้วยซึ่งผลิตโดยบริษัท Micron ให้ภาพที่ความละเอียด 1280×1024 เอาไปใช้กับพวก iChat หรือ iApps ต่างๆได้สบายMac Daddy World [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 1:12 am
[...] June 28th, 2007 Mac Daddy World appears to have discovered something interesting with Apple’s camera. http://macdaddyworld.com/?p=9 [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 1:40 am
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June 28th, 2007 at 3:39 am
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June 28th, 2007 at 8:28 am
[...] at Mac Daddy World confirmed an interesting discovery with a friend recently. Namely, the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros don’t feature the same iSight as [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 10:42 am
[...] increased resolution they’re still stuck in VGA. But an upgrade’s an upgrade, right? New MacBook Pros == New 1.3 MP Camera Sensor [Mac Daddy World via [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 11:44 am
[...] developer blog, Mac Daddy World has found an interesting discovery on the new Santa Rosa based MacBook [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
[...] Read more… [via Mac Rumors] [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
[...] na blogu Mac Daddy World, że Apple po cichu, bez oficjalnej informacji, zaczęło montować nowe iSighty w Macbookach Pro. [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
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[...] iSight 1.3 MPx in the new MacBook Pro “Santa Rosa” (EN) [...]
June 28th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
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June 28th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
[...] Speculation is that this has only just been uncovered because Mac OS X 10.4.10 is required to take advantage of the hardware improvement, which takes the max resolution from 640×480 to 1280×1024. Apparently, though, iChat, etc. don’t (at least yet) support the higher resolution. For the whole story, check out the article. [...]
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:34 am
Anybody check with Photobooth or Skype to see if they support the new higher resolution?
July 13th, 2007 at 10:23 am
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July 27th, 2007 at 1:04 am
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August 15th, 2007 at 2:38 am
[...] A QuickTime-al felvett videók azonban még mindig 640×480 VGA felbontásúak voltak. A Mac Daddy World nem elégedett meg a “nem” válasszal, így egy speciális programmal tesztelték a [...]
November 10th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
[...] be better for those of use who use multiple chat programs and wish to take advantage of those nice cameras in the Macbooks. Yahoo Chat for OS X has had video chat for years, and support in MSN has been recently announced. [...]
October 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am
UPDATE 29 October 2008
The new MacBook Pro 15″ (late 2008) has dropped back to the 640×480 iSight. The MacBook 13″ (late 2008) and the MacBook Air (both early 2008 and late 2008) also only have the 640×480 iSight.
I’m not sure if the 17″ MacBook Pro model in the Apple Store I am in is the late 2008 refreshed version, but it still has the higher resolution 1280×1024 pixel iSight
The not-yet-available 24″ cinema display with Mini-DisplayPort DOES have the higher resolution 1280×1024 pixel iSight.
I’m surprised that Apple haven’t consolidated all their products with the same higher resolution iSIght by now as the part can’t be a great deal more expensive (particularly when they add the volume of consumer MacBook sales, but there we go …
October 29th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I should add that the older plastic MacBooks also only had the 640×480 pixel iSIght.
June 13th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
QuickTime X under Snow Leopard has video recording at 1280×1024 on my MBP!
I hear that iChat goes to 640×480, by the way.
Photo Booth is still the same size.