803 - Very fuzzy video & stills

[tomtoby]

Morning all - Just got a new 803 (8gb internal with GPS) and trying it out the other night I can only assume I must be doing something wrong! Attached still grabbed from registrator viewer. Video footage is equally as fuzzy - have tried on a few different PC's and all the same result. Haven't messed about with the settings really apart from setting it to max resolution and super fine. This was taken on the internal memory, so not a card issue. The suspension on the car is set to very hard, so could it possibly be that the mount is vibrating ever so slightly and causing the lack of focus, or have done something wrong / got a duff one?

 

[jokiin]

Looks like the focus has not been set correctly

 

[Nigel]

Take another image in the daylight, will be much easier to analyse.

First impression is that the car is OKish, things get increasingly blury with distance so it's probably oscillating which given your car is maybe not a big surprise! Some 0803s have rather loose mounts, does yours feel firm? If not then find the thread on shimming the base and follow the instructions...

 

[tomtoby]

Thanks both:

I deliberately didn't touch many of the menu options, and certainly haven't messed about with the focus, so could it really be that?

Don't have a daylight clip with me at the moment, but do have one from a well lit tunnel - showing the same blurry result. Mount is as snug as a bug, hence wondering if it might be the car (it is a fairly harsh ride), but these two stills were both on good surfaces.

 

[Nigel]

On second look, the distant lights are blurred sideways which is the direction it would oscillate with a loose base, given your car I recommend you tighten the base by following the shimming thread even if it does feel reasonably firm. What engine do you have?

Let's see a frame taken in daylight with the engine turned off...

 

[tomtoby]

Thanks Nigel - In that case will give the shimming a try and see if that solves it. Just the regular 1.8, but she's a bit more track focused than road (semi slicks, decat, sport exhaust etc)

 

[Nigel]

Thanks Nigel - In that case will give the shimming a try and see if that solves it. Just the regular 1.8, but she's a bit more track focused than road (semi slicks, decat, sport exhaust etc)

There is no point in the shim if it is still bad when parked up in daylight with the engine off - in that case I would get it replaced. If it is only blurry when moving then it is probably the mount and a replacement may not sort it. If there is a lot of vibration in the windscreen glass then adding some weight to the camera may also help.

 

[David106]

I take it you have removed the protective film covering the lens?

 

[tomtoby]

I take it you have removed the protective film covering the lens?

Hah, yep, I did double check though! Going to try a few more daylight & night shots tonight (driving and stopped) and see what results I get.

 

[jokiin]

Have you worked out where it has the best focus, at what distance? Haven't seen your images on PC yet but it does look like the lens focus has not been set

 

[tomtoby]

Have you worked out where it has the best focus, at what distance? Haven't seen your images on PC yet but it does look like the lens focus has not been set

Thanks - Do I need to set the focus specifically, as kind of just assumed it would work out of the box?

 

[Nigel]

Thanks - Do I need to set the focus specifically, as kind of just assumed it would work out of the box?

The focus is fixed at the factory, you need to open it up and remove some glue before it can be adjusted, if it is focus then I would get it replaced as must have missed quality control etc. Not sure I've heard of any being out of focus.

A daylight image while parked with engine off will answer the focus question.

Presumably you have a normal glass windscreen, not a plastic one causing focus issues?

 

[jokiin]

Focus is set by hand during production, human error means sometimes it won't be perfect unfortunately, happens with any brand

 

[miji2]

Check to make sure you have a recent firmware. Mine had the same problem. Focus _is_ messed up on the lens, but on top of that the old firmware used some weird (compression) algorithm which made the images look just like yours : grainy + fuzzy. With a new firmware, the image is just plain fuzzy. See my post here .

 

[BuzzMega]

Looks like classic manufacturing focus flaw.