 |
| Fish Cam with stock lens prefocused |
The fish cam is made from a discarded discontinued 8-bit 640x480 logitech computer cam with an adjustable lens. Good images of fish are obtained by turning the lens to the shortest possible focal length which is about 3 inches. This images fish swimming about 3-inches into the tank. However, the field of view is much too limited and one must wait some time for a fish to swim into focus.
The color USB web camera is made for Microsoft Windows on a PC computer. The third party Mac software shows 640x480 photos using a 1,300,000 pixel CCD. It has a 2.6-foot cord built in. Macam software can be downloaded for free and will include live views, adjustments and photo capture.
 |
| Original Logitech Cam |
The cam has a plastic case with a swing down lid that gets in the way of mounting to aquarium. As the cam was old, it was easy to snap off the lid thus creating greater clearance between the cam and the face of the glass aquarium for easy mounting using 3M duct tape. Fig. 2
Making the Cam Mount
The Cam fits into a discarded 2.5-inch diameter plastic water bottle trimmed 4-inches from the bottom and with a semicircular cutout for the lens. Slide the mount back and forth in front of the tank and adjust the cam lens focus for each distance.
 |
| Pinhole increased depth but with vignetting |
To improve the depth of view to capture sharper images of fish beyond the 3-inch range, an aperture pin hole stop was placed over the lens. The aperture stop successfully improved focus across a larger depth of view however it also caused significant vignetting, thus limiting the FOV field of view to a small circle in the center of the frame.
 |
| Added fish eye phone lens for a wide FOV |
To improve the cam significantly, create a much larger FOV, and maintain a large field depth focus, an extra lens was added to the existing cam lens. At a cost under US$10, the 37mm 0.45x 49UV Super Wide Angle Phone Lens was configured and clipped onto the front of the cam over the lens center. Readjust the cam lens for focus each time the cam is moved. The result is a dramatic improvement, showing more fish throughout most of the aquarium in focus.
 |
| TV-like view of entire aquarium is amazing |
There are two options. One, attach the modified cam with the extra lens direct to the glass front of the aquarium with duct tape. This will show the appearance of larger fish in the direction of where the cam is aimed. The second option is to mount the cam farther away from the front of the tank. This can give a TV-like view of the entire aquarium for watching all the fish at the same time. Again, the original cam lens will need to be refocused for the sharpest view.
 |
| Live window is spectacular to watch |
While the Fish Cam can provide hours of entertainment and is loads of fun, it can also be psychological beneficial with its mood calming, and scientifically useful. The Fish Cam window can be placed anywhere on your work computer screen like a real time miniature aquarium. The cam can photo, video record and monitor a community of fish and analyze swarming patterns, behaviors, eating patterns, and identify fish by their analyzed markings. It can identify healthy or sick fish and study the condition of the plants and tank. It can be used to create a digital photo book and show growing fish and plants over time. Get to know your fish closeup. If the aquarium is a small nano tank, the Fish Cam electronic window lifts up the image of the tank and fish to a very convenient location. Watching the live window on a Mac with Macam is spectacular as the top half of the tank is a moving rippling reflection of the water and fish below.
 |
| Fish Cam with extra fish-eye lens attached |
Ironically the best views are with the fish-eye lens. However, the wide angle fish eye lens may be reconfigured as a macro lens to take microscope-like images. This can be useful for examining fish and plants close-up though it may require special mounting.
Links
Macam Download
 |
| The Fish Cam has a simple recycled bottle mount with clip on fish eye mobile lens |
https://sourceforge.net/projects/webcam-osx/
Logitech Cam
http://www.novatechgadgets.com/loquwefornow.html
https://www.pocket-lint.com/laptops/reviews/logitech/67375-logitech-quickcam-notebooks-pro-webcam
http://www.zdtronic.com/WEBCAMS/LOGITECH-961240-0403-QUICKCAM-PRO-USB-WEBCAM-FOR-NOTEBOOKS.html
https://www.cnet.com/products/logitech-quickcam-for-notebooks-pro/specs/
