Reviewing and Testing the Vantrue N4 Pro S

[EricSan]

Pretty clever! How did you attach it? Did you use a ring of FunTack, or just blobs on the sides of the camera?

 

[Paul Iddon]

I used a round screw on Viofo CPL with blobs of blutack:

 

[jsmith]

Pretty clever! How did you attach it? Did you use a ring of FunTack, or just blobs on the sides of the camera?

Two pieces of VHB on either side overlapping the existing adhesive.

@Paul Iddon Good Idea with the Viofo A139 filter. A much more professional and factory look than my setup!

Mind uploading a video from the rear camera with the A139 CPL fitted?

CPL makes huge difference. Here's a screenshot from N4 Pro S rear camera. You can actually see the driver now versus a huge glare from my tinted window.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Two pieces of VHB on either side overlapping the existing adhesive.

@Paul Iddon Good Idea with the Viofo A139 filter. A much more professional and factory look than my setup!

Mind uploading a video from the rear camera with the A139 CPL fitted?

CPL makes huge difference. Here's a screenshot from N4 Pro S rear camera. You can actually see the driver now versus a huge glare from my tinted window.

View attachment 83837

I'll pull one of the card when i get a chance over the weekend m8.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Screengrabs:

1st with CPL stuck on, 2nd without it:

Short videos of the same stretch of road 5 or 6 minutes apart - the first one with the CPL attached, the 2ns one having removed it.

Hope that helps.

Paul.

 

[jsmith]

Screengrabs:

1st with CPL stuck on, 2nd without it:

View attachment 83865

View attachment 83866




Short videos of the same stretch of road 5 or 6 minutes apart - the first one with the CPL attached, the 2ns one having removed it.

Hope that helps.

Paul.

Strange as it sounds, your vehicle doesn't show a significant difference with and without the CPL. You do notice the slight reflections aren't present with the CPL mounted. It might also be the UK weather dislikes sunshine so you didn't catch one of those few bright days.

Thanks for doing this comparison!

 

[EricSan]

I used a round screw on Viofo CPL with blobs of blutack

That looks much neater than mounting the rectangular polarizer and giving the camera “wings.” That circular polarizer is pretty heavy though, I hope it holds well.

 

[Paul Iddon]

That looks much neater than mounting the rectangular polarizer and giving the camera “wings.” That circular polarizer is pretty heavy though, I hope it holds well.

It has fallen off once.

I go have a small black elastic band (like you find around cables in dashcam boxes sometimes) which I will try tomorrow- it is maybe just wide enough to have enough width to vover both the cpl and the body, but I will have to investigate if it would fit.

I think a strong glue might do better (Bostik maybe).

 

[EricSan]

That does help to reduce glare which seems to vary quite a bit from car to car. The reduction in glare is most noticeable in the reflections in other car windows. My rear dash is pretty terrible for reflections.

Hmmm… so now there is a new task at hand: To determine which company makes the lightest circular polarizer 🤣

 

[jsmith]

That does help to reduce glare which seems to vary quite a bit from car to car. The reduction in glare is most noticeable in the reflections in other car windows. My rear dash is pretty terrible for reflections.

Hmmm… so now there is a new task at hand: To determine which company makes the lightest circular polarizer 🤣

I realize the Viofo CPL-300 isn't a perfect fit but it does do a good job. @Paul Iddon Viofo Circular CPL does seem to help some (notice bottom right reflection gone), but his window doesn't seem to suffer as much glare as others. Either way, it's proof of concept a CPL filter is recommended for Vantrue's rear cameras.

They are redesigning them so anything that occurs won't obviously happen until afterwards.

I'm on pause about 2 weeks before resuming testing cameras. Few things popped up and will restart thereafter.

 

[haiou_f]

Can N4S be powered through OBD interface？

 

[jsmith]

Can N4S be powered through OBD interface？

Yes. I have it powered via the OBD II in another vehicle. Seems to work ok, but I haven't had a chance to bug test it thoroughly.

 

[EricSan]

Here are some night time stills from parking mode, comparing the Vantrue N4 Pro S and the Viofo A139 Pro. Both front cameras are wearing a circular polarizer.

Here are two screen caps from the same time from the front cameras in a parking lot.

Vantrue N4 Pro S parking mode resolution is 1920x1080 at 15fps:

Viofo A139 Pro parking mode resolution is 2560x1440 at 30fps

Here are 100% zooms from each.

First, from the N4 Pro S in parking mode (1920x1080):

And the Viofo A139 Pro 100% zoom (2560x1440)

Here is a comparison from the rear cameras from the very same perspective.

Vantrue N4 Pro S Parking Mode rear camera resolution 1920x1080 at 15fps, no polarizer installed:

And from the A139 Pro rear camera resolution 1920x1080, with the Viofo rear polarizer rectangular lens installed:

and here are 100% zooms from each camera.

This one is from the N4 Pro S (1920x1080):

and from the Viofo A139 Pro (1920x1080), with the rectangular polarizer installed:

Overall, the rear camera on the N4 Pro S is quite a bit darker than the A139 Pro. Both cameras are set to EV=0.0

 

[Finnegan]

College Park? I thought those looked like Maryland tags. We don't see too many front tags in
Pennsylvania, do we? 😎

A nice batch of comparison pics in less-than-ideal conditions. 😉

 

[EricSan]

Good eye! We were touring Univ of Maryland with our daughter. This was the parking lot of the Honey Pig restaurant (among other places). I’ll post some screen grabs from driving at night next that include front tags (we don’t have those in PA).

 

[EricSan]

@Jeff_Vantrue - i’m just now noticing this after making these images. Is it possible to add a time and date stamp to the rear camera videos? I can think of a number of situations where this could be beneficial to remove ambiguities from the video evidence.

 

[Jeff_Vantrue]

Normally, the rear camera should also display the time and date stamp. I’ll email you two firmware files so you can update both the front and rear cameras. After updating, please check if the stamp appears correctly on the rear footage.

@Jeff_Vantrue - i’m just now noticing this after making these images. Is it possible to add a time and date stamp to the rear camera videos? I can think of a number of situations where this could be beneficial to remove ambiguities from the video evidence.

 

[jsmith]

@EricSan

I made the suggestion to Vantrue to change parking mode from 15FPS to 30 FPS.... It makes a huge difference. Vantrue stated they were working on other projects, so guessing this wasn't a priority

 

[EricSan]

change parking mode from 15FPS to 30 FPS.... It makes a huge difference.

Are you referring to the bloom of the headlights from the front camera?

 

[jsmith]

Are you referring to the bloom of the headlights from the front camera?

Smoothness of the video and the number of frames gives you a better chance of capturing an event. Standard motion is 25 FPS (Europe, etc) and 29.97 FPS in USA. 15 FPS isn't a fluid capture rate.