My Pond Cam

[Smilingreen]

AI might be the solution. I need a heron model. ; )

Tried a bunch of different things over the years... fishing line zig-zagged across which they don't like, motion activated sprinklers, etc. Some things work but they're more of an ongoing pain in the ass for me just to try to prevent a once every few years attack. Pretty much gave up. Fish are 5 for a $1. Easier to just replace them. Since I've had my cams I have been able to run them off more often when I see them starting to come around. They tend to be persistent little f'ers though.

Just dig the pond deeper. When My wife and I lived in Nashville, I had a 6 foot wide by 25 foot long by 4 feet deep pond made with a big waterfall. I too just bought the feeder goldfish. They grew massive within 2 years. The pond being 4 foot deep kept predators from getting the fish, as they could swim deep and far to escape from anything that was on the banks of the pond. I never had any problem with mosquitoes, either. Anything that landed on the water surface was instant fair game for 15 hungry goldfish.

 

[Mike A.]

Yeah, it's 2 feet deep. I should have dug deeper but I was tired of digging. ; ) That was a real bitch to do by hand. Basically all tree roots from that big maple with a little dirt holding them together. Milwaukee Sawzall with big puning blades became my favorite tool.

Kind of funny... Like a lot of things go it's an example of massive plan escalation. Started out as a simple thought that I should get one of those little self-contained fountains to put outside for the cats to drink from. Then I thought, well, if I'm going to make a fountain might as well have a little pool around it. Then I thought if I'm going to make a pool, I could just make it a little bigger. Made it a little bigger and just kept digging. lol

But I like it a lot. Completely changed the yard and all of the wildlife it attracts.

 

[Mike A.]

Another view of the vicious homicidal frog attack from a crappy little Wzye V3 cam that I was using as a pond cam before I put the 5842 in.

 

[Mike A.]

Fox visitor close-up...

As can be seen, I have near/far focus issues using this cam. If I get the near focus set to capture sharp detail when the fish and frogs are up close, which I want, then I lose the far focus and vice-versa. Not sure that there's much that I can do about that short of a different cam. The sensitivity for focus adjustment is fairly small with the cam so close. I can't just use some mid-range setting to get both; rather, I get sharp mid-focus and lose detail both near and far. Any suggestions are welcome.

Also the lights still are a little too bright. Blows out the lighter colors of the fox's face. That I can more easily correct between light level and cam settings.

 

[djernie]

Fox visitor close-up...

As can be seen, I have near/far focus issues using this cam. If I get the near focus set to capture sharp detail when the fish and frogs are up close, which I want, then I lose the far focus and vice-versa. Not sure that there's much that I can do about that short of a different cam. The sensitivity for focus adjustment is fairly small with the cam so close. I can't just use some mid-range setting to get both; rather, I get sharp mid-focus and lose detail both near and far. Any suggestions are welcome.

Also the lights still are a little too bright. Blows out the lighter colors of the fox's face. That I can more easily correct between light level and cam settings.

Where is that frog now? Mr tough guy.

 

[djernie]

Love the pond, I will be renting a small tractor from home depot to dig my pond 4 feet deep.

 

[Mike A.]

Love the pond, I will be renting a small tractor from home depot to dig my pond 4 feet deep.

Definitely do that. Took me two or three weeks off and on to dig mine. Helped a friend build one after. Took half a day and a lot less swearing and sweating with one of those mini-excavators that he rented. Also used it to move most of the big rock too which otherwise involves more swearing and sweating.

Forgot to mention the other reason why I stopped digging at 2 feet... Here anything that's deeper than that is considered a "pool." Then you're into submitting plans and permitting and need to have a bunch of other things like locking fencing of a certain height around it, etc..

 

[Mike A.]

BTW, close focus for the 5842 is much less than the 1 meter Dahau lists as the spec for it. You can get it down to 5"-6" with pretty good focus. 12" easily. The purple rock in the corner is closer at about 3" and I can get that better if I push it a little more. That's at the edge of the lens too so probably better centered. Not sure what you'd ever want to do with it that close and not much depth of field but it does it.