The Clary Lake webcam is back in operation, at least for the time being. We’ll see how it fairs when really cold, inclement weather gets here- I may have to move it indoors but for now it’s up and running. It’s not an optimal setup by any means but the picture quality is a whole lot better than the old webcam and the view is much improved too: wider, higher resolution, less trees, more lake. In fact, the image is so wide it won’t fit on the page completely without cropping. I’ve put a link to the actual image on the webcam page so you can download the full-width original.

Unlike the old webcam, this is a standalone wireless camera and doesn’t rely on a resource-hog of a program to compete with me for CPU cycles, monitor the camera, take the pictures, and upload them to the web server- all that functionality is built into the camera. This will make it a whole lot more reliable. I can also remotely mess around with the camera, changing the picture size and where it’s pointing, and zoom in and out.

A planned future enhancement: installing a staff gauge in the field of view so you can remotely view the current lake water level. That would probably not work well in the winter when the lake is frozen.