Montara.com provides community resources about Montara, CA
Title
Montara, California
Description
The Montara web cam is hosted using gear all over 10 years old. The camera itself is a Sony Hi8 HandiCam that was dropped one time too many. It has a hard time focusing, but given sufficient fiddling, it'll hold the focus (at least until the next time we lose power). It long ago lost the ability to "roll tape". It was a great camera in its day. It has great optics, and a terrific zoom. Webcams, even the "good" ones like the Apple iSight, can't match it for grabbing a shot of Montara Beach.
It's plugged into a PowerMac 6100 (c. 1994) running Mac OS 9.1 (the most current OS the 6100 can run). It has an AV card with s-video input. Over time, the image has started to show signs of electrical interference. Changing and rerouting cables, checking the ground, and reseating the AV card have not helped. I suspect it's the camera itself.
Well, so much for the PowerMac 6100. It finally gave out. What a bargain, really. That thing ran for over a decade. Sorry to see it go.
