Cam getting blinded by the light

[Wplars]

Heya,

Im running a Wordpress company together with some friends. Our office got one of the most amazing views in Stockholm and we thought it could be a great way to market ourselves. We had a webcam on our office filming some stuff on the office but mainly our amazing view. During 8-11am the sun reflects in the water and totally ruins the picture. It takes a few hours before the picture is back to normal again. Blurry, bright, pixel'd...
Can anyone explain this for us? If anyone can explain this properly and come up with a solution how we can get rid of this problem, we'd be more than happy to design you a simple web site. Just drop us a msg or here...

Cheers!

[Yago]

Could try a polarising filter in-front of the lens, rotate until max attenuation of reflected light.
A lens hood too will help reduce flare from other off angle light.

[katzohki]

Yeah I was going to say the same thing, polarising filter and lens hood.

[Wplars]

Could try a polarising filter in-front of the lens, rotate until max attenuation of reflected light.
A lens hood too will help reduce flare from other off angle light.

Thanks Yago! We will definitely take a look on this!

[Rick Law]

Just like a magnifying glass can burn a hole on a piece of paper by focusing the sun on it...

If your camera is in the line of sight of the sun and the sun is at-times visible on the screen, be mindful that it may burn your chip.  Typically, USB/Web cam doesn't have a shutter to block when not imaging.  So the focused sun will stay at one spot on your CCD for long enough to possibly cause permanent damage.