Using a Polerising Filter With your Weather Webcam

[Gina]

And now a bird in flight too...

webcamr.jpeg

[PaulMy]

Gina,
Amazing. I wish I could get a view and scene like that Still tinkering with settings for quality.

You can view my daily videos on Weather Underground from link at www.komokaweather.com. Neat to see the rain on video, but had a freeze on the uploads so a big part of the last 24 hours is static


Paul

[Gina]

The polarising filter is working well today - nice white edged clouds against a blue sky

webcamt.jpeg

P.S. The cattle are in the two fields off to the left (east).

[Gina]

The cattle are back in this field

webcam4.jpeg

[daj]

I'm not a huge fan of Cows -- Im terrified of them. LOL

however, that is a nice chocolate box picture.

[Gina]

Cows are curious cowards They will come up to you within a couple of feet but will shy away if you try to get closer. Generally pretty harmless except when with calves, when they become very protective. I wouldn't say cattle are my favourite animals. Dogs, goats and pigs are much nicer.

I thought the attached image was rather nice and showing that the filter on my north facing webcam does a very good job of darkening the blue sky.

[gwheelo]

Gina and the Webcamers -

In response to your comment on my Cumulus Soup post here is the filter combo I bought.

Opteka 34mm High Definition² Circular Polarizing + UV (0) Ultra Violet Haze Multi-Coated Glass Filter Kit

47th Street Photo
List Price: $49.95
Price: $16.95

The discount looked good and I figured two filters must be better than one, They are separate filters and can be used separately or in tandem - I will try all combinations and hand in my report. Unfortunately I am in Washington DC at the moment and the weather site is in Spain so no reports until after September 1. I can handle the software problems remotely - but obviously not the hardware changes. The web cam will be the Microsoft Life Cam - it just went on sale at Newegg for $54.00 - and I still have to build the housing and mount. BTW what did you use to seal the lens mount to the case?
GW

[Gina]

BTW what did you use to seal the lens mount to the case?

I cut a hole in the plastic (ABS) box just big enough that the filter thread fitted tightly and sealed it with silicone sealant.

[gwheelo]

Finally have the new MS LifeCam up and fitted with both polarizing and UV filters - I found little difference with or without the UV filter - so left in it place as protection from the elements (wind, rain, sand from the Sahara (carried by the wind from Africa and delivered by rain, and locally called "Fang" in Catalan.) The first problem appeared last night in a very heavy rain when water entered between the two filters. That is solved, I hope, now with more silicone sealant. By the way Gina, I mounted the camera in a small plastic enclosure similar to yours. Initially due to the enclosure being exposed directly to the sky the lens fogged over during temperature and humidity changes. That has been solved with a 35mm hole in the top of the enclosure. I fashioned a ventilated cover from a section of PVC pipe cut length wise in half and mounted over the enclosure & hole as a hood. There is, of course, a hole in the bottom to exit the USB cable. So far it has solved that problem. Next time on the roof I will take a photo for the Forum.

The Polarizing filter really brings out the blue sky and all other colors are enhanced. Take a look for yourself at:http://www.wheelocknet.net/cam/index.htm?gb . The best views are noon to 19:00 camera local time which is UTC + 2 as the camera faces almost directly east into the morning sun.

ImageSalsa is the ftp source and works flawlessly - Yawcam was ditched due to consistent problems with "timeout" errors.

ImageSalsa at first refused to install on my Windows Home Server box but Jason at ImageSalsa sorted that out within a few hours. I know a few of you are using WHS (I know Steve does) so here is the solution:

All I had to do was add ImageSalsa.exe to the DEP exclusion list in System Properties/Advanced/Performance Setting/Data Execution Prevention.

Here are the instructions passed on by Jason at ImageSalsa:

The issue is with DEP - Data Execution Prevention. I could go into it but I will just give you the URL to the Support article.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352/en-us#6

As well here are the important parts of that article:

Per-program DEP configuration
For the purposes of program compatibility, you can selectively disable DEP for individual 32-bit programs when DEP is set to the OptOut policy level. To do this, use the Data Execution Prevention tab in System Properties to selectively disable DEP for a program. For IT professionals, a new program compatibility fix that is named DisableNX is included with Windows XP SP2. The DisableNX compatibility fix disables Data Execution Prevention for the program that the fix is applied to.

The DisableNX compatibility fix can be applied to a program by using the Application Compatibility Toolkit. For more information about Windows application compatibility, see Windows Application Compatibility on the following Microsoft Web site:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 05066.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 05066.aspx)

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
912923 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912923/) How to determine that hardware DEP is available and configured on your computer

Perhaps this will work with other problem installs om WHS.

George

[gwheelo]

Here is an example of my new WebCam image - see one minute updates @ http://www.wheelocknet.net/cam/index.htm?gb
Camera is fitted with both "circular polarizing" and "UV" filters. FTP via ImageSalsa, camera is a MS LifeCam Cimema.

WebCam2_small.jpg

and the sophisticated camera mount and housing!

GW

[werribee_au]

and the sophisticated camera mount and housing!GW

I just love your Inclination adjustment mechanism

[gwheelo]

Inclination adjustment mechanism copied from 18th C. Naval canon design - worked then - works now!

GW

[Gina]

Love it And it's what I did until I made up a proper bracket. I think Heath Robinson would be proud of us

[gwheelo]

Someday - version 2 may even include a mechanical adjustable bracket and the tape and wire may be replaced by nuts and bolts, maybe!

GW

[Gina]

Plastic boxes are quite good at taking self-tapping screws (or wood screws) and save fiddling with nuts in awkward places (my fingers don't work quite as well as they used to!) They don't tend to work loose either.