SANParks.org Forums

I give up with the webcams. I see a pic of a buffalo next to the orpen water hole. I hit "save highlight". The saved highlight looks nothing like the pic I saw at the webcam as the buffalo (and the warthogs) have suddenly taken leave and nowhere to be seen.

The pic that's save has my name attached and make me look like an amateur photographer. (The fact that I am is not relevant though.)

Am I halucinating or do I have wathogs and buffs in my computer?

When did the addo cam come on line?

Hi BunnyHugger,
Please read Highlight Troubles.
Lots of 'mites have had the same problem as you with posting 'highlights'.


Yesterday .

Thnaks Matthys.

Much easier to just refrain from postig webcam highlights. Less distractions to keep me from doing some work sometimes.

This work stuff really interferes heaviliy with forum time. Really, I spend eight hours a day here. Do they really expect me to work as well?

Do you really expect them to pay you, BH ?

MATTHYS. I get paid so poorly, it's obviously only for my looks and sparkling personality.

If they paid me to work, they couldn't afford me.

I think Nossob Waterhole needs to have some water tankered in. I have been watching the water disappear into the mud day by day. I think the animals who rely on this waterhole must be getting desperate!
Please can something be done?
KInd regards
DiHaze

Hi Welcome!

The cement drinking trough in front is fed by a pipe with a ball valve system, keeping it full and ensuring enough drinking water. The water at the back comes and goes with the rains.

If it's not possible to show all four webcams on the Sanparks landing page, can we please have the Nossob cam back? The Addo cam is nice and all, but it's much more interesting to see what's happening in the Kruger and Kgalagadi...

Hi Dabchick,

I am sure that we will soon have the Nossob cam back on the landing page.
Please read here.
MelanieG (SANParks Web Content Editor) wrote :

I used to be absolutely, manically, obsessively addicted to watching the Orpen and Satara cams (to the hilarity of my family and friends who would groan every time I would call them over excitedly to show them another wildebeest drinking or a gecko crawling up the lens) but since the new zoom feature on the Orpen cam was implemented I have found it somehow less than exciting.

The big problem I think is three-fold:

1) Firstly, you can't do time-lapse videos of the Orpen cam anymore. Well you can, but its a right old flashy mess. In the past, whenever I went out or went to bed, I would set my screen capture software to 'on', then review the night's comings and goings. Reviewing it was a simple case of half watching it and waiting for my eye to catch something moving. That's impossible now as the scene is constantly changing.
2) As above, the beauty of having the camera pointed to the waterhole statically meant you could keep the cam window open in the corner of your screen while you worked on your pc and any 'change in scenery' - even something subtle like a dove drinking from the side - would catch your eye. Now with the angle/zoom changing every 30 seconds you actually have to be watching the cam all the time to really appreciate it.
3) There is something quite nice about being able to see the whole waterhole ALL the time. As great as it is to see a bit of a zoom on the left or right side of the waterhole, it always leaves me with gaping anxiety that a leopard/pangolin/serval/aardvark is sneakily having a 29 second drink over on the other side.

I think its terrific that our Sanparks webcam guy(s) is trying new and innovative things with the cams and 2 thumbs up for everything they do. But I really think we were better off with a static view of the hole.

Am I just too much of an old school traditionalist and technical bore or do others feel the same?

Jeff

I understand what you say, but I like the zoom option very much, because we get better sightings and lots of close ups.

Hi Jeff

I absolutely LOVE the touring and zooming

We now see "close ups" of animals we never saw before, even raptors are clear when they drink?

How special are the Wild Dogs can see their markings, before all we saw was a teensy weensy animal on the other side of the water.

At least the Satara cam is still static for you to time lapse what is happening there!

JJ

I'm for the touring cams. I used to get tired of seeing animals across the waterhole that were too small to tell for sure what they were.

Sylvia

Jeff
Know what you mean about people thinking you are about the cams!

But I love the zoom feature! The close-ups are SO worth the slight vertigo effect. And now that all four cams are so reliable, when they are all open, the movement at the Orpen (and Addo) cam catch my eye and make it easier to watch all four at once (while cooking, working, watching basketball... you know )

Happy Camming!
Hailey

Hey Jeff,

I love the touring, as we get much better pics.