OS X taking a photo with the iSight using a command-line tool?

Question

Is there a utility that is able to run from the command line to capture a single frame of the iSight inbuilt (and external?) camera? This would save to an image file. I have searched on Google and found utilities that link to websites that don't exist anymore.

Other options are:

• An Open Source GUI application I can hack into a command-line application?
• A GUI application being run for a small period of time, that can be configured via the command-line, temporary config files, AppleScript, etc?

This would be quite handy for creating apps for timelapses, security, fun etc.

Answer 1

"ImageSnap is a Public Domain command-line tool that lets you capture still images from an iSight or other video source. You might remember Axel Bauer's original isightcapture tool (that is no longer supported but still works on most systems). With ImageSnap I hope we'll be able to move forward and add features, adapt to the ever-changing Apple architectures, etc."

http://iharder.sourceforge.net/current/macosx/imagesnap/

Answer 2

wacaw looks interesting, andcommand line: http://webcam-tools.sourceforge.net/

Answer 3

As I mentioned in a related question, it seems that imagesnap no longer works on OSX10.11/El Capitan so another alternative is to install ffmpeg (MacPorts: port install ffmpeg or brew install ffmpeg) and run:

ffmpeg -f avfoundation -video_size 1280x720 -framerate 30 -i "0" -vframes 1 out.jpg