Video conferencing on a Mac has changed so much over the years. From the early days of Cornell's CU-See-Me which made tiny frames of silent, black and white video possible over a dial-up modem - to PC and Mac compatible HD full-color multi-party video and voice chat options available today.

It was a long, hard road of challenges even finding a Mac compatible webcam, and then a video chat solution that worked well and across platforms. Often times the Mac version lagged behind the Windows version in features and compatibility - or the Mac version was dropped entirely without a sufficiently sized user-base to continue development. Along the way programs such as ICUii, ISPQ, iVisit, CamFrog, AOL-Yahoo-MSN Messenger, Logitech VID, et. al., have struggled for a place in the ever-changing line-up of Apple's favored Mac chat software like iChat, iChat AV, FaceTime.

Fast-forward to today. Videoconferencing on a Mac is more robust than ever. Through much of this, SKYPE has survived and thrived across BOTH OSX and Windows to become THE de-facto standard for reliable Mac and PC cross-platform conferencing.

Skype Mac HD Webcam

720p FreeTalk HD Camera

Now at version 5x, HD Mac video chat is now supported and the v5beta recently added FaceBook integration. Though The Skype Store has tried to offer Skype compatible Mac webcams in their hardware listings, they were no bargain at full retail prices. In addition to the FreeTalk HD camera shown above, some of the better webcams for Mac Skype include the Creative Socialize HD AF, the world-class high quality Mac compatible Logitech HD Pro Webcam, and Logitech C615 HD Webcam

If you're looking for a low-priced Mac compatible Skype web camera + USB headset bundle with a goofy looking webcam that's driver-free on Mac OSX:

FreeTalk Buddy Pack

Analog/USB Headset