Advice on image quality?

[Richie83]

Hi all,

First off, please excuse the dirty windscreen in the shots, just got back from a country trip and the bugs were a nightmare. Also, running the March firmware. Haven't done a factory reset, yet. Purchased from a retailer in Australia.

Just need some assistance on my image quality. Been trialling the camera over the last few weeks, but it seems my image is a bit grainy/out of focus. I'm using the new CPL filter (which is amazing, I might add, has cut down my reflections immensely).

First shots are with CPL, day and night. Seconds shots are without CPL, day and night.

Is there something 'off' with my camera?

CPL Day



CPL Night


No CPL Day



No CPL Night

 

[petepete]

spotted the "off" thing...

the cam is facing forward and you wanted a rear cam ???

 

[jokiin]

can you give us a screen shot from an open car park (something like a Bunnings) so we can see something with a lot of cars at various distances

 

[Richie83]

Thanks for giving me an excuse to go to Bunnings

Here they are from today. I don't think it's focus, just seems 'grainy', although these look better. The night shots just look overexposed, so maybe adjust the EV?

 

[jokiin]

what's the serial number of your camera?

 

[Richie83]

Serial is SGGC15300127.

 

[alexsoll]

@Richie83
You should know that CPL slightly degrades the sharpness/clarity of the picture,
but reduces glare.
Of two evils choose the lesser.

 

[Richie83]

That's cool, to be honest I'm pretty happy with the picture, I think I might back off the EV to reduce the night flare. I'm just used to my 1560p PoE cameras, really hanging out for a 4K dashcam.

 

[wozzzzza]

really hanging out for a 4K dashcam.

aren't we all.

 

[daniel_bel]

Yes, we are.
4K and 60 ips for sharper shots in movement.

 

[jokiin]

next year maybe, we'll see

 

[daniel_bel]

Did we mention 180°, distortion-free?

And peace in all the world? Clean water and air? Plenty of money for all? Better yet, no money anymore.
All you need to do is dream, dream, dream...

 

[jokiin]

180° is out of the question, world peace might be pushing things but it would be nice instead of all the madness we have now

 

[wozzzzza]

180 would be a bit ridiculous, you would get the entire dash board from top and look awful and all the A pillars, the sky, maybe the roof lining and a lot of useless car stuff.

 

[daniel_bel]

You are free to cut out what you don't need afterwards. Ok let's compromise at 175° horizontal.

Seriously, that's why I advocate a swivel base, to be able to use two low-angle cameras pointing sideways both side with a large central overlap.
Of course it is not needed to process and record the 180° in top-down direction.
If distortion was minimal one could later stich the two movies in a cinemascope combination.
I don't mind having the A-pillars in the picture, but it would be nice if the movie could show everything I was able to see and what I did or did not.
Because like it or not, my real vision and probably yours is near to 180°, including peripheral vision.

The most important was: distortion-free. As it is now with the 9665, the borders are already almost unusable.
There is at least one dashcam that tries to handle this before recording, with acceptable results.

 

[jokiin]

Because like it or not, my real vision and probably yours is near to 180°, including peripheral vision.
.

yes same, you can't read things at the edges though, that requires turning and refocus

The most important was: distortion-free. As it is now with the 9665, the borders are already almost unusable.
.

a wider lens still has borders that are unusable but has a wider field of view to start with, it's also a tradeoff as the focal sweet spot is smaller and perceived depth of field is skewed with a wider lens

like everything it's all about compromises, there's no one perfect solution, not with current technology at least

 

[2000rpm]

As mentioned on another topic running at the moment: angle too narrow and it looks like you're too close to the car in front, but angle too wide and it looks like you're taking far too long to stop. Medium angle is probably the best for a single front cam unless you can run two cams - one wide and one narrow angle. For several reasons, wide angle is probably best for a rear cam.

Even taking resolution to 4k won't make a huge difference unless the sensors are either considerably more light-sensitive due to technological advances, or have a considerably larger surface area to absorb the light.
Plus a bigger sensor is going to require a proportionately bigger lens of decent quality to get enough light onto the sensor.

More pixels + bigger pixels + bigger lens = $$$$

 

[petepete]

bout time we got this technology when paying £200 a poxy dashcam..