From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: November 14, 2007 10:21:43 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Imaging Source Abandoning FireWire?

Hi David;

On 14-Nov-07, at 9:47 PM, David Illig wrote:

A few days ago I got an e-mail announcing new USB cameras from The Imaging Source.

Now I have received an e-mail saying their FireWire cameras on sale.

I don't see much a price drop (maybe $25?). The USB and FW cameras are the same price now.

What does it all mean?

Probably not much more than economies of scale or switching to different suppliers / manufacturers. The DFG/1394 used to sell for around $400 and by switching manufacturers, the price was brought down to $330.

And there are other Cameras available too. The PGR FireFly is a 8/16 (10 actual) bit camera that was about $250 USD last time I checked.

Are Mac users about to be punished again for the deficiencies in 

Windows-only hardware (poor FireWire support?)

Umm - look no further than Apple for not using FireWire. After running the other low end FireWire cameras out of business on the Mac with the iSight, they discontinue them and then replaced with a built in USB camera in most the Macs. And they dumped FireWire on the iPod for USB too.

Don't forget that Intel is one of the main pushers of USB and that's who does most of Apple's Board design work now. Apple doesn't do as much PC board or ASIC anymore once they dumped PPC. That's one of the reasons the first generation Macs did not ship with FW800 as Intel had no off the shelf solution for it.

I'd be much more concerned that Apple dumps the Mac altogether in maybe 5 years and becomes a "Consumer Electronics" company to produce phones, pods and iWare etc. Frankly given the fiasco that is Leopard and the atrocious developer support we get now a days, maybe they should stick to pods. :\

Milton J. Aupperle