At one time, iStill was a useful program for taking pictures with the external iSight camera. Because the iSight had a pretty limited resolution of 640x480, taking pictures larger than that could be problematic; iStill, however, through the use of some clever tricks similar to image stacking, managed to make higher resolution pictures taken with the iSight look much nicer and sharper, while also giving you picture setting and focus controls.

Time marches on, though, and webcam resolutions have gotten much higher than that of the old iSight. Though iStill could continue to conceivably be a useful tool, if given the chance, it doesn't seem to be compatible with Intel Macs. I base this on the fact that iStill continues to run perfectly well with my PowerMac G4 running OSX 10.5.8 with a FireWire iSight, but can't access the built-in iSight on my Core 2 Duo-based MacBook, nor can it access the external iSight when plugged into the MacBook. The developer does not appear to be in any rush to fix these issues: the last developer comment was in 2005.

The bottom line is that iStill has potential to be a good, useful application, but lack of support has seriously hampered its usefulness. If you have a PowerPC Mac with an external iSight, give it a try... otherwise, move along.

AJH

Hi guys,

I appreciate the comments here. Any suggestions you send to me will likely get added to the next version, which I'm wrapping up now.

Regarding iChat vs iStill for still images...
I suppose if all you need is one pass images, and don't care about the quality of the image or the dimensions, you can get that from iChat. If you decide to try the software, one of the things you'll notice is that there are controls over many aspects of the video image that simply aren't available in iChat. I wish they were--it would greatly improve iChat's usability for me.

I made the registration system in such a way that if you really really don't want to pay for it, you may use the software indefinitely, you just have to put up with the registration dialog every time it starts up. Nothing more extensive is in there--no 'unregistered' message stamped on images, no timeout, no bad karma, etc.

Regarding digital cameras...
In the next version I am contemplating this as a feature. Unfortunately, very few camera companies are complying with the spec for allowing me much control over the camera itself. The ability to do much more than import images from the camera, one at a time is about all I can guarantee, though I believe I will be able to control Canon cameras with more precision.

That said, digital *video* cameras are very well supported in the next version, as are USB cameras, and hopefully a few pieces of lab equipment (microscopes).

The new feature list is extensive. Every reported bug is fixed, and every requested feature has been added. And it's a free upgrade for existing users. If anyone has further suggestions, please email them to chilton@mac.com.

Thanks,
-Chilton

I find it to be a GOOD THING.

I MUST HAVE ON-THE-FLY image transfer and archiving, for my job.

I am a teacher with over 150 students.
I desperately need to take snapshots of
student work and admin documents and
drag&drop each pic icon into its student's
portfolio folder. This must be done immediately after snapping each picture -- NOT later, as a batch download from a full media card. By filing each shot immediately, I don't need to open each file, re-size it, examine it to identify the student, re-name it, find its correct folder, etc. since I just snapped it and so I know whose folder drop it into.

Although the image quality of the iSight camera is marginal for document photography and on-the-fly image transfer and archiving, I can just barely get by with it for now.

Meanwhile, the author is looking into enabling that live-transfer capability for other, higher definition digital cams.

This live-transfer to laptop of individual pics is very difficult to find in consumer level cameras.

I have not found any that work with Mac OS X .

It will be a huge benefit to my efforts at work, when I can hook up my Fujifilm f-401 or similar camera, connect via cable to my iBook, and snap a shot that I can immediately drag&drop into its folder then do another snap and archive on-the-fly and so on.

For now, I have a marginally functional photo archive system. And I expect the megapixel cameras to come on board soon.

The image controls make it possible to set iSight for that marginal image quality.

I would like to encourage Mr. Webb to keep plugging at this app' and get those megapixel cameras on board : there are hoards of teachers and school administrators who need to archive student portfolios using a FAST work flow in a VERY BUSY classroom. With QT clips of student presentations and projects, etc. this will become THE METHOD OF CHOICE to document student work as is now required in Calfornia and many other states.

---gooddog

I don't understand what the big deal with this software is actually. It's also not "free" but asks you to register it for $25. The most sad thing about that is that it's not even worth that much. Just another worthless app if you ask me that does what other programs can do, but at least the other ones can do it better.

website still up, download link is down.
looking for alternative links.