A119V3 Parking mode temperatures

[mariomart]

Time for an update.

The replacement camera I was sent ended up being worse than what I already had.

After quite a few bouts of correspondence between myself, the distributor and the manufacturer, including me sending many image samples and testing various conditions it comes down to this;

Quote from Distributor;
"After speaking with the manufacturer, they have advised me that this is a known phenomena that occurs with all lenses due to the expansion of materials with temperature. Unfortunately continuing to replace the camera is unlikely to see a different result. The manufacturer's focus is when the vehicle is in use which will produce the best footage as the air con will cool the camera."

Most of my issues were very noticeable once the camera had been operating in parking mode whilst parked outside on a typical mild sunny Australian Summer day of 30ºC or above, which resulted in parts of the recorded image becoming unfocused and unable to resolve clearly the details of a number plate.

I'm not going to say "Don't buy this", as I have decided to keep my camera and try other workarounds to minimise heat build up, I just want others to know that this camera does have certain limitations that should be known to potential purchasers is certain geographic areas of the globe.

And just for Nigel, I decided to make my heat-shield a little less "Bogan" ;-)

 

[Nigel]

Most of my issues were very noticeable once the camera had been operating in parking mode whilst parked outside on a typical mild sunny Australian Summer day of 30ºC or above, which resulted in parts of the recorded image becoming unfocused and unable to resolve clearly the details of a number plate.

If you want to use your camera in those conditions, you could refocus the lens yourself to match your climate, it has a screw adjustment if you open the camera up, although it is glued after factory focusing so you have to free it from the glue first which may not be easy. The factory will have focused it so that it works down to temperatures of -10 as in the dashcam's specification.

I've not seen many reports of people having issues with A119 focus so I'm a bit surprised you've had two, but not many people use it in parking mode in a climate where 30C is considered "mild".

And just for Nigel, I decided to make my heat-shield a little less "Bogan" ;-)

Looking much better, I was thinking you needed to paint your car blue to match, but you have solved that problem!

 

[mariomart]

I've not seen many reports of people having issues with A119 focus so I'm a bit surprised you've had two, but not many people use it in parking mode in a climate where 30C is considered "mild".

Looking much better, I was thinking you needed to paint your car blue to match, but you have solved that problem!

The location I reside in has seen Summer temperatures as high as 48.9ºC, and so far this week it has reached about 35ºC around 3pm each day, so not really dashcam friendly temperatures.

However my A119S V2 which I have been running for over 2 years has never had an issue, but it wasn't running parking mode.

 

[speedlever]

If you want to use your camera in those conditions, you could refocus the lens yourself to match your climate, it has a screw adjustment if you open the camera up, although it is glued after factory focusing so you have to free it from the glue first which may not be easy. The factory will have focused it so that it works down to temperatures of -10 as in the dashcam's specification.

I've not seen many reports of people having issues with A119 focus so I'm a bit surprised you've had two, but not many people use it in parking mode in a climate where 30C is considered "mild".

Looking much better, I was thinking you needed to paint your car blue to match, but you have solved that problem!

Hmm. For those of us using *F, 30*C is about 86*F... which I would consider pretty mild. It often gets in the 90s *F where I live and sometimes hits 100*F or a little higher. (35-38*C)

Hope I won't have issues with my new A119v3 in this regard.