Webcam Microscopy

Just a very short post sadly, real life is pressing down on me again... But check out my latest Instructable; with a normal webcam and 5 minutes you can make a >100x microscope...

Infrared Sky Timelapse

And now for the timelapse, this is one I captured yesterday at one frame per five seconds, over 10000 images! This really shows how nicely infrared light cuts through the haze on a humid day and increases the contrast between the sky and clouds. Check it out here.

Software used:
Webcam capture: AbelCam
Automated image sequence renaming: ImageJ
Video creation: VirtualDub
Video transcoding: VLC media player

IR Webcams and Night Vision

One thing most people don't realise about CCDs (the light sensors in the vast majority of digital cameras) is that they are very sensitive to infrared light. Sadly this is only near infrared, 800-1000nm wavelength, not thermal infrared, but is still great fun!

Modification of a webcam to see at these wavelengths is generally very simple, you simply have to take out the filter which cuts out the infra red light...
Then replace it with a filter which only lets infrared light through, household examples of this are exposed colour film negatives, a floppy disk platter, magnetic tape from a cassette and coke...
You can see the IR filter in the centre, it's the greenish glass, and my replacement filter cut from a floppy disk to the right.

Once converted the webcam will act like a black and white camera (the filters used to give individual pixels different colour sensitivities are transparent to infrared). The sky appears dark, plants a brilliant white. Fluorescent lights produce no infrared light, but the glow from your oven lights up the whole kitchen! Infrared is particularly suited to cloud and landscape photos as it is less affected by haze.
At some point I'll get round to posting a timelapse of the sky in infrared, it looks amazing!

Timelapse and Snow

Amongst some of the more unusual things I have collected over the last year is a set of 3 identical (at least till I got my hands on them!) webcams. They all now have some pretty interesting properties - infrared, pinhole, low light, spectroscope - oh so many things to write about! Having said that I'm just going to show you one of the most basic pieces of fun you can have with a webcam...

Webcams are made for timelapse, it's so easy to set up, and a modern webcam has a pretty good image quality. With no further ado here is a wonderful timelapse of some snow, captured during the heavy snow February this year. Check it out here.

Software used:
Webcam capture: AbelCam
Automated image sequence renaming: ImageJ
Video creation: VirtualDub
Video transcoding: VLC media player