Monterey, CA

Aboutcam Intro Page.

The camera and server itself are located at the top of Seaside CA. and pointing back across the bay towards Monterey/Pacific Grove. Many locals will tell you that this is indeed one of the best views of the bay! We've tried other locations but this one carries the most information in one picture.

Who are we?
We're a small website whose original propose was to simply share a webcam view of one of the most beautiful places on earth and the place we call home. We also wanted to provide some additional "bits and pieces" of local information we thought our viewers would find interesting from a native's point of view.

How long have we been around?
Montereycam.com.com was unofficially launched back in the Summer of 1998.

Where are we?
The camera and server itself are located at the top of Seaside CA. and pointing back across the bay towards Monterey/Pacific Grove. Many locals will tell you that this is indeed one of the best views of the bay! We've tried other locations but this one carries the most information in one picture.

Why isn't the picture live?
The webcam is live in the sense that it's showing the weather for any given day but in terms of full motion or streaming video the answer is simply this - there wouldn't be anything to look at. You might see a bird or cloud pass by but other than that you'd find it terminally boring. Uses like that only slow the net down for everyone needlessly. In the future we may add a camera in a place with picture content that might warrant steaming video but for now the picture schedule serves it's intended purpose well enough.

What's the picture schedule?
The server boots up daily at 6AM and begins posting pictures at first available light which we set depending on the time of year. The last picture is timed for sunset. Currently, uploads are every 30 minutes.

Why is the picture old sometimes?
Sometimes the server locks up or an ftp is missed or software demons attack or the camera is temporally offline or...sorry! Since the camera is in a location that we don't always have easy access to, it sometimes takes time to get the camera back up and running.

Why is the picture hazy/blurry or other?
"Whew", this one drives us even more crazy! Many-many factors cause these conditions. Most often however the fault lay not on our end but rather Mother Nature. Coastal marine conditions are the most common reason for a hazy picture. If the picture looks gray and hazy then in Monterey it probably is. Remember that if you were standing at the camera location on a hazy, overcast day the camera's representation of the scene would make it look even worse by the time it's been digitized and sent to your browser. There are also numerous lens issues, glare from the afternoon sun, zoom factor, film build-up on the glass etc. We're always working on this issue and we hope to have some great improvements to offer in the near future.

Why do you have sporadic equipment problems.
Yes, we do have equipment problems that pop up from time to time. We try to check on the camera status a couple of times a day so it's still possible for several missed uploads to occur before problems are caught. Fortunately, the server reboots itself on a daily schedule to keep the missed uploads as few as possible. We also experience software glitches periodically just like anyone. When strange or funny looking pictures show up that's usually what's going on. It seems to pop up every few months...or when we really-really need the camera to be working.