Why is connecting a web cam such a hard thing on a mac... Is Apple playing monopolistic in only realy intergrating the iSight into things...
I have two webcams, and many utility preview windowns only work with limited range of web cams, and almost all I have tried with these are buggy, crashing, losing contact, freezing, etc.
I found Security Spy works excellently with both..
what to other macers use to see their web cam with...

Macam, still in beta after all these years, but functions well. It doesn't work with all cameras.

I use Evocam for web cameras. Simple but it does a lot. You can easily set multiple sensor areas in the field of view to trigger photo or movie or both if movement is detected for example. Last time it froze was two years ago. Any camera works or at least all the ones I have tried.

It can control the focus ring on an iSight and tons of other stuff.

Biggerfoot should have some expertise in this, too.

Nurgle:
As someone has already said, Macam is a free app that I've used too for webcams that do not seem to be supported for whatever reason.

This list of cams[ http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/cameras/index.php ]it supports looks almost never ending! It is Beta, but don't let that bother ya! It has been Beta for many years

Hi,, have gone though that list, and downloaded every app and utility I can find. (I am running a 24" intel iMac OSX 10.5.6) I dont why I seem to have trouble when every one else seees to get things going OK.
I have found that many of them work for a time, some freeze and a few actually seem to loose connection,. (Time out problems on scanning the USB bus.??) Maccam 0.9.2 seems to be the worst of them all.

worse when I disconnect the camera, they go beserke... often wont work again till computer is turned on again...
Security Spy seem to be the only one that works with anything, no problems at all.

I just wonder why I cant do things like show the web cam up as the camera input for imovie etc... apple seems to be focused on the iSight, and excluding all others...
ah well atleast I can now install windows on this dam thing... maybe that obsolete piece of programming will have retro features that make things work... hahaha

Maybe I don't understand but what is wrong with the built in camera on the iMac? Are you using remote cameras instead?

Actually, I am getting frustrated too about setting up my new security camera system. I mainly want to view live streaming via a local network and the Internet.

My problem is more networking related though. I am using Airport for the video security server and all works but viewing it via Remote Desktop is useless...it is so slow over Airport (an old iMac) that it is more like looking at a still taken once a minute and not streaming video. I have the computers in an out building so I can not hardwire things in (the electrical service is separate too so I can not use a plug-in ethernet port system).

I am using Security Spy and they have a great built in web server. It allows for seamless streaming and can view all of the files easier over the local network (I have not tried to set it up behind my Time Capsule to view via the Internet yet).

My problem is I have two cameras via USB converters. With my old iMacs, I have to use a iMac for each camera. One is a Bondi Blue iMac without an Airport port (do get me started about the days lost trying to get a Belkin Wireless G Gaming Adapter to work on it). I have the Airport iMac sharing its internet connection with the older iMac and that part works, however, the sharing prevents me from using the Security Spy server for Bondi Blue's camera due to the IP address.

My next attempt is going to hook up my old G3s camera servers and network them into the Airport iMac like I did before and see if the removal of the need to process video will speed things up via Remote Desktop.

If this does not work, then I am going to dust off my QuickSilver and try again. If I still have problems, I am going to look into getting a network video server but they are not cheap (defeats my purpose of reusing old stuff).

Back in the old days, Sitecam worked great but it is still OS 9 only.

Well, I just gave Remote Desktop with no video processing a try on the iMac and it did not make much of a difference. I am guessing the old Airport and a 400mhz iMac just will not work to watch streaming video. When I have everything hardwired in, it worked fine via the 10/100 ethernet port.

I have my alarm system programed to call my cell and OnStar and it would be great to click on the iPhone and see what is going on. My alarm also has smoke and flood (water pipe) sensors so it more a peace of mind thing. I live out in the country so I do not have many neighbors around.

I have to rethink this now. I do have one other old Airport card I can steal from my fitness room iMac (hate to lose the internet there). I have two QuickSilvers and a KVM switch I can use might be able to use the Security Spy servers with different IPs.

The other kicker is using the USB 1.1 video convertors, you only get a 320x240 video. With the old G3s or spending $200 for new 2.0 USB convertors, you can get 640x480 videos (better to see details like license plate numbers).

The quick fix is to spend $4-500 for a quad or ethernet video processor but I hate to do that.

You're on the B standard with the original Airport cards. I wonder if getting G WAPs, or G Ethernet to wireless bridges would do it. Something like a Linksys WAP54G, or any G router that can go bridge mode. You can probably get a WAP54G for around $35 on ebay.