Willing Webcam Advanced Configuration

After the initial configuration of Willing Webcam, I noticed a few things that I wanted to fine-tune.

  • Codecs – Willing Webcam had three codec choices for time lapse videos:  MS Video 1, Indeo video 5.10 and SWF.  The default was MS Video 1.  I noticed after a few days,\ that the video quality wasn’t that good.  I did some searching around their forums and found a posting that said that was true and to try using the Indeo codec.  I tested that for a few days and the quality was better.  However, I initially had a problem playing the AVI back on my Windows 7 computer.  I found a posting that said you had to register a DLL on Vista and Windows 7.  I next did a test of SWF.  The file size and quality was the same as Indeo.  However, when I tried to open up the SWF in Adobe Premiere Elements, the SWF crashed the program.  So, the Indeo codec was the selection.  All three did upload to YouTube.
  • Mounting – I was testing the web camera looking out our upstairs bedroom window.  This provided a good vantage point for the view below.  However, the noise of the old desktop computer wasn’t the best for sleeping.  I decided to move the computer and camera downstairs but then I needed to figure out a way to mount the camera up high in the window sill.  So, I made a small wooden frame and screwed it to the top of the window opening.  It was behind the window blinds and I was able to route the USB cable around.  I was able to position the camera so the horizon was in the bottom third of the image.  Check out the Woicik Current Weather.
  • Webcam controls – I left everything on the Logitech C910 as automatic.  I did some testing to find out if it was better to turn off auto focus.  I notice with the new mounting that the camera was focusing on the window glass.  So, I turned off auto-focus and set the focus to be distant.  I started testing the other settings like exposure, gain, color intensity and white balance.  It didn’t take much to cause the image to be less than desirable but thought I found a good balance.  The main reason I wanted to turn off the automatic settings were to prevent the condition I was seeing where a time lapse would radically change during the day.  So, I checked the time lapse the next day.  The results were terrible.  I had tuned the auto settings on an overcast day.  However, the next day was sunny and the image was washed out.  So, I turned back on the auto settings.