- Nov 11, 2009
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My two LUMIX cameras have an anti shake mode. Good job as having an Essential Tremor in my right arm any shots would be fuzzy to say the least. Notwithstanding, I have to really try and support the camera too.
- Nov 11, 2009
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My question was specifically related to the dash cam in hot weather when it may be covered by a sunscreen which would significantly increase the temperature that the dash cam is subjected to.
Mine fell off twice when the adhesive pads failed. The second pad that failed I had left in place for 24 hours to allow the bond to cure before fitting the camera to the mount. So I then opted for a suction mount which has been in place for a year now.
My smartphone has good electronic image stabilisation for videos and it works very well. However, that's only part of the issue as there are other parameters that will affect image quality.
Videos are more about capturing fluid motion and as such there's probably a better chance of reading detail i.e number plate, when running the playback than there is in capturing a single frame.
Frame rate is important for fluid motion but if you want a single frame to capture detail then shutter speed is important. The typical rule of thumb for video capture is that the shutter speed is linked to the frame rate as follows - 30fps 1/30th sec; 60fps 1/120th sec - and so on.
At these shutter speeds individual frames may well appear blurred. If you increase the shutter speed then you need more light. Apertures on dashcams and smartphones are fixed so the only other option is to increase the sensitivity - ISO speed. Which may well introduce more noise.
Then of course there's the compression of the resulting image data to produce a manageable file size - important in dash cams which may need to run for a long while. This is not a lossless process and detail often gets lost or aritfacts become apparent.
Quality of the lens is yet another factor. There's no point in packing more pixels onto the sensor if the piece of glass or plastic in front doesn't have much resolving power.
Taking into account all of the above I think it would be fair to say that the cheaper the dashcam, the less likely it is you'll get a good quality image.
Videos are more about capturing fluid motion and as such there's probably a better chance of reading detail i.e number plate, when running the playback than there is in capturing a single frame.
Frame rate is important for fluid motion but if you want a single frame to capture detail then shutter speed is important. The typical rule of thumb for video capture is that the shutter speed is linked to the frame rate as follows - 30fps 1/30th sec; 60fps 1/120th sec - and so on.
At these shutter speeds individual frames may well appear blurred. If you increase the shutter speed then you need more light. Apertures on dashcams and smartphones are fixed so the only other option is to increase the sensitivity - ISO speed. Which may well introduce more noise.
Then of course there's the compression of the resulting image data to produce a manageable file size - important in dash cams which may need to run for a long while. This is not a lossless process and detail often gets lost or aritfacts become apparent.
Quality of the lens is yet another factor. There's no point in packing more pixels onto the sensor if the piece of glass or plastic in front doesn't have much resolving power.
Taking into account all of the above I think it would be fair to say that the cheaper the dashcam, the less likely it is you'll get a good quality image.
- Jul 18, 2017
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Plus the suction cup is not so fiddly to fix the dashcam back especially when you have no available spare pads.
My dashcam is secured using the supplied suction pad but falls off from time to time - usually my fault for forgetting to deploy the blind for the panoramic sunroof in sunny conditions.
- Nov 11, 2009
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My 3M bonded pads have held steadfastly for 9 years since the Golf's screen was replaced and the 9 years since we purchased the Disco.
On buying both these vehicles I decided I would side step my earlier issues with suction mounts, once and for all.
Both rear cameras are also using 3M's pads but they have only been there two to three years, again trouble free.
On buying both these vehicles I decided I would side step my earlier issues with suction mounts, once and for all.
Both rear cameras are also using 3M's pads but they have only been there two to three years, again trouble free.
My solution with our two vehicles is to use repurposed, secondhand 212 and 312WG units, not as designed but placed on the rear windows. 2 K, 1920 x 1080 30 fpm units.
These cost me circa £20, on respectively Gumtree & eBay. In both cases I replaced the inbuilt batteries as these were decidedly tired, I recall these cost me about £10 each. The SD cards I got another eBay deal on decent new Samsung 64 GB, a job lot costing me effectively under £1 each.
The set up works well but has the typical direct sunlight glare issues these low spec units are prone to exhibit. I have not tried any polarising filtering.
My thinking apart from minimising the spend was that any rear dashcam has to be rear mounted to get any meaningful wide enough field of view,
A warning label of "camera recording", helps them being as needed as the tailgating did that motivated their adoption!
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- Jun 16, 2020
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I use a rear camera on my 522. It works really well. A 64gb card does enough recording on hi res. I cannot speak for the internal rear view as I thought the rear window option to be better.
Installing is not for the faint hearted. Getting through to the rear window and behind the head linning.
If I find the time I will post pictures.
John
I have a Nextbase GW522 with the optional front-mounted rear-view camera - I don't recommend this rear view option as the rear passengers block the view - even with no rear passengers, the rear headrests still block a lot of the view.
- Nov 16, 2015
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That was my thoughts, I was thinking more of the small round one.
I like JTQ's idea of a 2nd hand smaller Nextbase.
- Jun 16, 2020
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I like JTQ’s thinking and it may save a few shillings. But it still needs power getting to it and it is much more bulky than the small round one.
Other advantages of the integrated rear cameras are:-
- The rear can be viewed as Picture in Picture on the front screen.
- On playback, both front and rear views are synced.
In both my vehicles there is a 12 volt outlet in the boot, so wiring up is not too courage challenging. The supplied wire leads intended for the front use proved to be plenty long enough with both the Golf & Disco.
I mounted right at the top, in the Golf's case bonded to the plastic surround finisher, in both cases using these alternative mounts LINK so the cameras are tightly up as high and obstructing as little as possible.[Images can be set to be rotated 180 degrees if other bottom mountings options prove better]
The wire then fits between the glass and that finisher, it springs away readily enough, then at the tailgate hinge only about a foot away it pops out then traves tucked into the bodywork's tailgate seal. That's "rear" non sealing lip ideally suits doing this just as Nextbase give as an option in a front instal case. Then into the join in the boot internal plastic liner finisher to exit by the power socket. It would be neater if I purchased a new socket with fly leads to pick up the feed to the built in socket and put this all behind the finisher, then the plug would be out of the way. One of those intended jobs long forgotten till now as what I did works. If Maplins was still on the high street the story might be different.
Re them being more visible than the better purpose made items. The reality is they are no real issue, at least to us, actually smaller in the Golf's case than the wretched supplying dealers sticker, that simply is bonded with some wonder product I can't get to yield.
However, being visible has quite a positive side to it. The tailgater, well the slightly more switched on ones, also twig after being way too close there is a camera sat there recording exactly what they are up to and would have already captured their registration plate details along with their aggressive, near lethal behaviour!
I have witnessed and the camera captured some of these penny dropping, oh **** moments, you see it in the driver's face.
The whole motivation to have rear dashcams in my case was to address tailgaters, having been very aggressively pushed by a waste haulage lorry to exceed the 50mph limit, how I was not physically contacted beggers belief. My intent was if ever this happed again there would be consequences as I would have the evidence. So a visible camera is no bad thing, but also a probably better effect and cheaper solution is a label LINK
I mounted right at the top, in the Golf's case bonded to the plastic surround finisher, in both cases using these alternative mounts LINK so the cameras are tightly up as high and obstructing as little as possible.[Images can be set to be rotated 180 degrees if other bottom mountings options prove better]
The wire then fits between the glass and that finisher, it springs away readily enough, then at the tailgate hinge only about a foot away it pops out then traves tucked into the bodywork's tailgate seal. That's "rear" non sealing lip ideally suits doing this just as Nextbase give as an option in a front instal case. Then into the join in the boot internal plastic liner finisher to exit by the power socket. It would be neater if I purchased a new socket with fly leads to pick up the feed to the built in socket and put this all behind the finisher, then the plug would be out of the way. One of those intended jobs long forgotten till now as what I did works. If Maplins was still on the high street the story might be different.
Re them being more visible than the better purpose made items. The reality is they are no real issue, at least to us, actually smaller in the Golf's case than the wretched supplying dealers sticker, that simply is bonded with some wonder product I can't get to yield.
However, being visible has quite a positive side to it. The tailgater, well the slightly more switched on ones, also twig after being way too close there is a camera sat there recording exactly what they are up to and would have already captured their registration plate details along with their aggressive, near lethal behaviour!
I have witnessed and the camera captured some of these penny dropping, oh **** moments, you see it in the driver's face.
The whole motivation to have rear dashcams in my case was to address tailgaters, having been very aggressively pushed by a waste haulage lorry to exceed the 50mph limit, how I was not physically contacted beggers belief. My intent was if ever this happed again there would be consequences as I would have the evidence. So a visible camera is no bad thing, but also a probably better effect and cheaper solution is a label LINK
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- Jun 16, 2020
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As promised here are two videos of front and rear views of a near miss that happened a couple of years ago. I edited them using the Nextbase viewer. I chose to have no sound. The sound has my horn and choice language.
I tried to upload to our local police but they insisted on having the segments before and after. Which I had already deleted. I have no clue as to why.
Dropbox
Nice sunny day at the Air Balloon roundabout. Note, the Air Balloon pub ready to be demolished to allow for road improvements still in progress.
I think it shows the advantage of having front and rear to highlight the whole incident.
John
- Nov 11, 2009
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Good clarity but I don’t think that the police would have taken action, but examples of bad driving. This dash cam footage led to a prison sentence although fortunately there wasn’t an accident.As promised here are two videos of front and rear views of a near miss that happened a couple of years ago. I edited them using the Nextbase viewer. I chose to have no sound. The sound has my horn and choice language.
I tried to upload to our local police but they insisted on having the segments before and after. Which I had already deleted. I have no clue as to why.
Dropbox
www.dropbox.com
Nice sunny day at the Air Balloon roundabout. Note, the Air Balloon pub ready to be demolished to allow for road improvements still in progress.
I think it shows the advantage of having front and rear to highlight the whole incident.
John
Melksham man sentenced after recklessly overtaking lorry - BBC News
Dashcam footage shows Emmanuel Sylva almost hitting another lorry during the "reckless" incident.
www.bbc.co.uk
- Jun 16, 2020
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I agree, but they might have ‘had a word’ with him.Good clarity but I don’t think that the police would have taken action, but examples of bad driving. This dash cam footage led to a prison sentence although fortunately there wasn’t an accident.
Melksham man sentenced after recklessly overtaking lorry - BBC News
Dashcam footage shows Emmanuel Sylva almost hitting another lorry during the "reckless" incident.
John
- Jan 3, 2012
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When we took the previous car in this week I could not get the dashcam of the windscreen then a salesman came to my aid he manage to remove except suction pad it now in the new car lucky we have plenty of spare pads but nextbase sticker is not staying on my rear window is there anything i can put on to help it ?
Having found enough change down the back of the sofa I've just bought a Nextbase 322GW package. Front and back camera; two memory cards: polarising filter: case and fittings for £126.
Front camera fitted this morning and wiring to rear almost all the way through. Probably finish it tomorrow.
I've tested them on the bench at it looks good...even couples to my phone ok. Road test tomorrow hopefully.
Front camera fitted this morning and wiring to rear almost all the way through. Probably finish it tomorrow.
I've tested them on the bench at it looks good...even couples to my phone ok. Road test tomorrow hopefully.
I'm happy with the Nextbase 322GW, although the smartphone app which is supposed to connect to the camera to allow live view or download images is useless.
However, I've had a chance to try a couple of Carplay/Android Auto Screens.
One, 10.26 inch screen had a built in Dashcam - which was absolutely useless. So,so quality image and not information on the video, not even date and time. Also it was in the wrong place in the car and had little visibility down the road. Included was a reversing camera but I couldn't be bothered to try that.
The actual Android Auto function though worked very well, connecting to my smartphone which in turn connected to my car radio. Problem was finding somewhere to mount it and when I did find a suitable position I found the large screen a distraction.
The second one was a 7 inch screen with no camera and it works very well and I've found somewhere to mount it where its not a distraction. So, this is now a permanent addition to my car.
I run TomTomGo and PowerAmp apps from my phone plus Google Maps and they can also make and receive calls and messages. Could be voice controlled but I'm not bothered about that yet.
However, I've had a chance to try a couple of Carplay/Android Auto Screens.
One, 10.26 inch screen had a built in Dashcam - which was absolutely useless. So,so quality image and not information on the video, not even date and time. Also it was in the wrong place in the car and had little visibility down the road. Included was a reversing camera but I couldn't be bothered to try that.
The actual Android Auto function though worked very well, connecting to my smartphone which in turn connected to my car radio. Problem was finding somewhere to mount it and when I did find a suitable position I found the large screen a distraction.
The second one was a 7 inch screen with no camera and it works very well and I've found somewhere to mount it where its not a distraction. So, this is now a permanent addition to my car.
I run TomTomGo and PowerAmp apps from my phone plus Google Maps and they can also make and receive calls and messages. Could be voice controlled but I'm not bothered about that yet.
- Nov 11, 2009
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No possibility of mounting that on my RAV as its inbuilt screen is there and it plays Apple and Android. But could be useful on the runabout enabling Car play via a larger screen than my Garmin. What is the price?
Prices vary but the 7inch should be less than £50. Ten inch maybe £50 upwards. Plenty on Amazon.
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