GS1000 / GS2000 / GS5000 Lens Replacement

[kay188]

Bought a 1.8mm lens off DX to mod into my GS1000.
I didn't have time to cut a bigger hole in the housing for the 2.1mm lens yet, so this 1.8mm lens fits right in the housing without any mods.
There is slight vignetting from the lens being resessed into the housing.

HOWEVER. I tested it and 1.8mm is not far from 2.1mm. It's almost the same so this video footage will be a test to show what modding a PROPER wide angle lens does.

The angle of view is now the exact same as the ITB100-HD and the DR400G-HD.

 

[Mtz]

Good purchase, nice angle.
I hope you will post some video during daylight.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[kay188]

Good purchase, nice angle.
I hope you will post some video during daylight.

enjoy,
Mtz

Thanks. Like I said, the new wide angle is not that bad. The images I took only look bad because it is using the full angle of the lens, and 1080p video uses less field of view.
It's now around 140 degrees compared to 90 degrees of the original lens.

I will post daytime video when I have the chance.

 

[Mtz]

I don't know what you did this time but the image is better than that screenshot when I said is "bad".
If is better just because the recording in 1080p, than keep it only in this mode.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[vta1985]

That footage is the GS1000 camera? I haven't seen one the imprints the GPS data on the video. Can you provide a link where you bought it?

 

[jokiin]

That footage is the GS1000 camera? I haven't seen one the imprints the GPS data on the video. Can you provide a link where you bought it?

Lots of them do that now

 

[kay188]

I don't know what you did this time but the image is better than that screenshot when I said is "bad".
If is better just because the recording in 1080p, than keep it only in this mode.

enjoy,
Mtz

The pictures I took was from the GS1000's camera mode. I press the picture button when the camera is not recording.
It uses the whole sensor to take a picture. 1080p only uses the center of the sensor for video.

That footage is the GS1000 camera? I haven't seen one the imprints the GPS data on the video. Can you provide a link where you bought it?

All of the GS1000 with the most recent firmware does this.

 

[jack]

All of the GS1000 with the most recent firmware does this.

hi, I just bought GS1000 and I wonder whether my SMH4.36.220812B is the most recent firmware ?

 

[bls]

I've purchased a few dash cams lately that were all under $120, just received a GS1000 from DX and now trying to decide which I like best before permanently installing one in my vehicle. I'm very happy with the GS1000 although the recorded audio is noisy and the lens has a much narrower view at 1080p than the 120 deg. advertised. Having good audio is the least of my concerns but a wide angle view like the other cameras I have would make this camera my favorite so I decided to try a number of other lenses I already had which have no built-in IR filter. The manual spec's the existing lens as a F2 3.4mm and 3.4mm agrees with what I found comparing it to the 3.6mm and 2.8mm lenses I tried. A 2.5mm and 2.1mm were also tried comparing the resulting 1080p video image to what my F500LHD provides and the 2.1mm came close, but a 1.8mm would likely make the field of view nearly equal.

The main reason I replied however, is to answer DashCamMan's question "Are the colors all off without the IR filter?" and to provide the following daytime example using a lens with no IR filter that some have been waiting for.

There was very little difference between indoor Images taken with the original lens (with an IR filter) and those taken with lenses without an IR filter. Using a lens without an IR filter wouldn't affect outdoor night time images much either other than making the camera a bit more sensitive to what little light there is and allowing it to take advantage of any IR light that may be available. But from images taken with my unfiltered lenses using just IR illumination it's obvious that the gs1000 sensor (in my camera at least) is very sensitive to IR and from the image above taken with a 2.1mm unfiltered lens during the daytime when there's lot's of IR from the sun it's obvious that this camera requires a properly filtered lens. (Non-filtered lenses can often be used with much less drastic results as many cameras have a sensor that's either much less sensitive to IR or has a filter that provides at least some IR filtering bonded onto it. Even many IR sensitive cameras with IR LED's for night time illumination employ some IR filtering to make them suitable for outdoor daytime use as well). IR filtering is often provided by elements within a lens, but on my camera it's easy to see that an IR filter has been added to the rear of the lens and images taken using only an IR light source show that's it's extremely effective which of course makes the camera IR LED's totally useless. I'm guessing the filter was added to improve the day time image quality which is very nice, but in this case it would have been nice if the IR LED's had also been replaced with white Light LED's although any form of illumination from a camera within a vehicle is basically useless for improving images taken of things outside the vehicle.

My lens tests also revealed that the viewing angle is much greater for gs1000 still images which is where I'm guessing they got the 120 deg viewing angle spec from. The video viewing angle appears to be about half as wide. Not sure exactly why that is, but sure would be nice if it was as wide.

 

[jokiin]

s where I'm guessing they got the 120 deg viewing angle spec from.

the measurement offered is a diagonal measurement so how much vertical res it has can impact the perceived width for two 'same spec' lenses, meaning two lenses could both be called 120 deg lenses but depending on how much vertical res there was to each as to how wide the picture would be in comparison

 

[bls]

The standard for the size of a TV screen is the diagonal measurement (in inches or cm) of the viewable area but from a quick search of the web there doesn't appear to be any standard for the viewing angle of a lens and specified values can either be a vertical, horizontal or diagonal measurement depending on what someone chooses to use. I personally favor horizontal measurements as I'm much more interested in knowing the coverage width than height and have never found a need to think in terms of what diagonal coverage is needed.

But regardless, of whether vertical, horizontal or diagonal measurements are used, the problem of what focal length lens to use on a particular camera for a particular viewing angle is much harder than simply basing the choice on the viewing angle a lens is capable of or the viewing angle a lens provides on a different camera as the viewing angle provided also depends on the size of the image sensor and is often different in different cameras. The size of the image sensor area actually used also often varies between different cameras and different resolutions which makes things even harder and why, in the tests mentioned in my previous message, I simply compared the coverage area my gs1000 provided with each of the lenses to what my F500LHD provided to find what focal length was needed to provide the same.

 

[smellytofu]

I replaced the lens on my GS1000 with a 2.1mm lens from DX. The angle of view is now 160 deg in 720p, and it should be about 140 deg horizontal in 1080p.
The lens does not have an IR filter, so now you will pick up IR light, and have better brighter night performance at the cost of IR light skewing up the colours.

Lens from DX:
https://dx.com/p/2-1mm-160-degree-wide- ... 18&u=15237

***As an alternative, you can choose the 1.8mm lens which has a wider view.
It looks like it will fit the existing housing so you don't have to cut the plastic for the large 2.1mm lens.
https://dx.com/p/replacement-fixed-iris ... -8mm-47018

The existing mount did not work for some odd reason, I didn't screw up the threads or anything, so I had to buy mounts off ebay.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/150947627201?ssP ... 571wt_1163

Here are pictures of the mod. The housing will not go back on because of the lens is huge. I will be cutting the housing to make room for the lens.

Tiny hole to be made bigger.

Hi there, I can't seem to have the magical search words to find the standard lens base. Can you please send an updated link or something to search for. I'm trying to change the lens and it's been glued too hard to remove and I'm almost destroying the base. Does DX sell the base?