Just a reminder that I post a current image of the weather at my website of the Woicik Weather Camera.

With the reverse of going back to the Logitech QuickCam C910 under Windows 7, I decided to double-check that no other camera solution would give a sharp image.

I first searched for cameras used for time-lapse scenarios.  Most I found where DSLR cameras and that wasn’t really an option on price.

I next looked at outdoor wireless cameras.  This was intriguing since it would eliminate the issue of having the camera inside and pointing through the window.  But, after finding some images, these devices were really meant for low-light situations at night.  There daylight color rendering was just off.

I was thinking maybe I would buy a Microsoft web camera and try that.  I was searching on the weather forum websites for suggestions and stumbled on to a posting about near-sighted webcams.  This was really interesting.  Apparently the webcams think infinity focus is anything between 3’ and infinity.  This makes sense because that is what their purposes is.  There are correction lenses used for DSLR camera that fix eyesight.  The key is to put these diopter eyepieces in front of the webcam lens.

I decided to order one and give it a try.  It arrived a few days later from Amazon and I attached it using some wire like one of the posters did.  It was late in the day but the image did look better.  I found a backup image and compared the two.  It was better.  WOW!!!

Before

After

With upgrading my weather computer to Windows 7, I found out the Canon PowerShot A520 doesn’t work with the Willing Webcam software.  Though it is listed on the supported camera page, a second reading showed that it was only supported under Windows XP.  I did some further research and found out that Canon stopped adding the feature that allowed remote control of the PowerShot line via USB cable a few camera generations back.  I did find a possible alternative in something called CHDK.  CHDK is short for the Canon Hack Development Kit.  It is a technique to install an alternative firmware on a SD card and boot the camera to it. I had a newer Canon PowerShot SD780IS and gave it a shot.  I tested it with a different time-lapse software called VideoVelocity which supported CHDK.  Unfortunately, after all that configuration, it still didn’t work with either VideoVelocity or Willing Webcam.  So, I threw in the towel and went back to the Logitech C910.  It was fuzzy but worked under Windows 7 and Willing Webcam.

My current weather computer is Windows XP.  With the end of support just a few months away, I decided I should update the computer.  I had another old computer that would support Windows 7.  The OS installation went fine.  I did a Google search and found an article on how to move the WeatherLink station files.  This went fine and things looked okay.  However, I had changed the hard drive configuration so the folder paths needed to be changed.  I found all the places and then everything seemed to be working.  I did notice one slight issue.  I thought the files weren’t upgrading since the file dates didn’t change but they were newer files when I looked on the website.  Not sure if that was some Windows 7 issue but technically nothing wrong.

I originally setup my weather camera to use a Logitech QuickCam C910 web camera.  I did some previous research and the choices seems to be either a Logitech or Microsoft web camera.  I liked the C910 because it said it was HD and had a good lens with auto-focus.

The operation went fine however over time I became less impressed with the C910 camera.  My biggest compliant was the images were blurry.  It didn’t seem like it was an auto-focus issue as I had the focus on manual focus to infinity.  But, this change required me to leave the software running all the time which was an issue when the computer rebooted and I would have to turn off the auto-focus again.  Lastly, the CPU was always running around 50% usage.

But, the image quality became the sticking point.  I decided to do some more research.  The research pointed me to using an actual digital camera.  The Willing Webcam software said it supported some models of Canon cameras.  I had two cameras but neither worked.  I did some more research and found out that Canon supported a protocol called PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol).  A free software called gPhoto has a list of camera that support PTP so that explained why my two didn’t work.  But, now I had a list of what did.

I was thinking of buying a new camera didn’t make a lot of sense.  I looked at eBay first but actually found better results at Amazon which sold many old, used camera.  I selected a Canon PowerShot A520.  It only cost around $20.  I needed to order an USB cable, too.

I tested the camera and it worked fine.  I had to change my mount on the window frame but finally got the right position for the camera view.  The images were excellent.  In fact, I had to reduce the resolution because the time-lapse movie was too big to store.  Check out the results at Woicik Weather Camera.