Webcam recommendations needed

[gioman]

Hi,

I have a couple of Logictech webcams that I have used for WeatherCat's weather cam and they both seem to produce bad pics.   I know they were engineered for video chat and not for outdoor viewing through a window so probably age and engineering do not make them the ideal weather cam.  As far as communicating with the Mac Mini, I want to use firewire or USB3.

Any recommendations?

Keith

[Steve]

Hi Keith,

Before investing in a new camera, you might try fixing the web cam's near-sightedness. Heres a LINK to a thread on the WXForum where a fellow added a corrective lens to his web cam, and it works! I added one to mine an saw a noticeable improvement. Now, if your camera is not operating at optimum, that's not going to fix it. But if it works OK for closeup, the diopter might work for you.

Steve

[Blicj11]

Whilst we are on this topic, I am also looking for a camera recommendation, only I need a wireless option. I need to mount it inside but the window I need to point it out is not close enough for a wired connection. I am having trouble finding Mac-compatible wireless cameras. Any thoughts?

[Steve]

I have a Sharx Security IP exterior camera, but they also make a wifi indoor camera. Kinda pricy, and only 640X480, but it works well with the Mac.

http://www.sharxsecurity.com/index.html

[Blicj11]

Thanks Steve!

Kinda pricy, and only 640X480

You are right. I just looked at their interior wireless camera. My only hesitancy is that it is a 640 x 480 camera and VGA may be a wee bit too old school for me. They told me they are introducing new high res cameras very soon (currently selling them at a pre-release discount) but they are all outdoor models.

Sigh.

[Blicj11]

I have a Sharx Security IP exterior camera

Steve:

I was just looking at your website again. How are you capturing still shots from your Sharx camera(s) for your webcam? I know you are uploading them with WeatherCat, but I am asking how you are converting the video to still shots. Do the Sharx settings options allow you to take a periodic still shot and stick it in a file that WeatherCat accesses?

Thanks,

[Steve]

Blick,

I am using another image application called EvoCam to process my web images. They receive the live feed from both cameras and then capture images on a schedule (every 20 seconds for the garden and every minute for the sky.) WeatherCat only grabs the garden image every five minutes, puts its data on it, and uploads it to the site. EvoCam uploads the sky image every five minutes to the web site. EvoCam also makes a time lapse video, and uploads the sky images every midnight to the web page.

I'm pretty sure WeatherCat can do all of that with one camera now, but when I first got started, I was using WC's predecessor LWC, and the consensus was to use EvoCam for images. So I haven't changed. I'm also using two cameras, so I'd still need EvoCam for one, even if I did move the garden cam over to WeatherCat. I am using the previous version of EvoCam, because when v4 came out, the developers took out a bunch of the tools that we relied on every day. I haven't looked to see if they've improved it yet, as v3.7.5 still works great with Mavericks.

Steve

[Blicj11]

Steve:

Thanks for the info. I am seriously considering the Sharx indoor IP camera. Wish the resolution was better but I can't find another wireless IP camera that works with Mac. I live at 8300 feet in snow country and an outdoor camera just for a sky image requires a weatherproof, heated camera cover. I can get an ok image of the sky out the window for a lot less money. Just trying to figure out how to convert the Sharx video stream into jpg images.

[Steve]

Here's how I got mine set.



But that's with the image being generated by EvoCam (hence, the local file path.) But with an IP camera, you grab an image from it using the camera's URL as shown with mine in the bottom option. I'm not sure if a wifi camera has a URL like an IP camera, or if it shows up under the camera pull-down like a USB camera. Stu could help guide you with setup on that.

Steve

[Blicj11]

Thanks for sharing Steve!