Webcam + Sky = white

ihouse · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 11:34 pm

Hello Guys

This is my first post here however i have trolled in here for a while. I am slowly understanding cumulus and weather stations alot more than when i started and im feeling like i can contribute now.

I have a quick (i hope) question for those of you whom have played around with webcams and weather. I have a Logitech USB Webcam, which is probably 5 years old or so. When i use it for anything indoors its great however when i point it outside to use as a weathercam the whole screen goes white (too much light outside?) has anyone encountered this problem? Can you only use specific webcams for this purpose?

Cheers for your help in advance, and thanks for a great site.

steve · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:56 am

I bought a webcam a while ago with the intention of pointing it out of the window, and got unusable results similar to yours. The manufacturer later told me it's not suitable for this purpose, I can't remember the technical term they used as the explanation.

Someone suggested a filter might help, but I haven't tried.

Gina · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:05 am

It could be that some webcams haven't got auto exposure or insufficient range of exposure to cover the brighter light outside.

geoffw · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 8:21 am

Also the quality (cost) of the webcam influences the 'quality' of the output.

fractonimbus · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:04 am

Old post, but I am in the same position - I wanted to set up my old Logitech Communicate STX (V-UBK45) webcam to take sky images. Result: horribly washed out images, unusable.

I did some ferreting around the Logitech forums and came across a potentially useful tip: turn off the "anti-flicker" setting. This limits the minimum exposure to 1/100 or 1/120 second (Europe/Oz/NZ or US/Canada/Japan) in order to integrate over the fluorescent light flicker cycle to cut web cam flicker. But those exposures are far too long for outdoors.

The story is (and I have not confirmed this yet as I'm at work - will in a few hours) that turning off anti-flicker allows minimum exposures as low as 1/1250 second and shows nice daylight images.

DN

fractonimbus · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:43 am

Yes, the 'turn off anti-flicker' control in the Logitech software works wonderfully well. The little Logitech webcam works down to near darkness, and up to full sunlight.

DN

robynfali · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:29 pm

just this week done mine, still messing with it, but i solved the "whiteout" problem by putting an old lens from a pair of sunglasses in front of it

nking · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:47 pm

robynfali wrote:

just this week done mine, still messing with it, but i solved the "whiteout" problem by putting an old lens from a pair of sunglasses in front of it

What can I say 8-)

good idea.

robynfali · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 8:21 am

I am not saying its as good as the expensive ones, no where near it, but this was this morning, from a 13 quid webcam and a lens from a 2.99 pair of sunglasses

Super-T · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:18 am

you need an old pair of Autodim glasses.

robynfali · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:21 am

I know mate, but this in the interim, is sort of working, blue sky etc, no clouds around at the moment or they would show up too

Gina · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:43 am

A polarising filter helps with the sky - makes blue sky darker. Of course, it does cut all the light by 50% too.

robynfali · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 9:50 am

Only one i have Gina is for my camera, and considering its a Canon Brand 58mm Circular polariser, its too bleedin expensive to sit in front of a 13 quid webcam lol, this is a temp fix, till I can get/afford something a bit better!

Gina · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:45 am

I bought polarisers for my webcams from Amazon and they were something like half that price. There were cheaper ones but I wanted small ones to fit the boxes I was using to protect the cameras. (I'm greedy, I've got two :lol one pointing south and the other pointing north.) Cheapest on Amazon ATM is just over a fiver. https://www.amazon.co.uk/7DS-Lens-Filter-Circular-Polariser/dp/B0039Z9LCG/ref=sr_1_37?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1297507124&sr=1-37

Gina · **Posted:** Sat Feb 12, 2011 10:52 am

Thread on using polarising filters is here :- http://sandaysoft.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2890

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Webcam + Sky = white

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