B1W Side-Facing Camera

He wouldn't have been able to get out of his drivers door if he had parked in the middle. Nice to see that he parked backwards so that he didn't block the drivers door of the next car.


The camera has done a very decent job of all those number plates, considering it is a cheap camera and is moving sideways.

Ah, right, I forgot that your cars over there have steering wheels on the "wrong" side ;). I do know what it's like to have be a contortionist to get into and out of my vehicle now and again similar to the image I posted on 4/20 only worse and we too have some very tight parking lots in some locations. I notice that much like here some people don't seem to park carefully in their designated slots thus leaving plenty of room between some cars and little between others. Wonder why the fellow with the Ram didn't avail himself of the apparently empty spaces on the opposite side of the lot?
 
Without being able to see the white lines, or knowing who got there first, I suppose it's hard to say who is in the middle of their bay or not. I agree that he probably parked as courteously as he could, given the space available!

York has some pretty tight (and short) parking spaces, but so do many other towns and cities across the country. Drivers of longer wheelbase vans sometimes drive through and occupy two spaces end-to-end (where parking is free, like at a grocery store).

My local "city" was incorporated in the 1750's and some of the streets are absurdly narrow. Some areas are wide open such as shopping malls that were at one time farms, meadows and open fields but in the heart of town there are tiny parking lots and streets that are probably more like York and where it is very hard for vehicles to manuver, much less park easily.
 
Reviewing the video, there were no spots available on the other side of the car park.

Even very compact cars like the Kia Picanto can find themselves squeezed by neighbouring cars of average size, with barely enough room to open a door either side.

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My local "city" was incorporated in the 1750's and some of the streets are absurdly narrow. Some areas are wide open such as shopping malls that were at one time farms, meadows and open fields but in the heart of town there are tiny parking lots and streets that are probably more like York and where it is very hard for vehicles to manuver, much less park easily.
My local city is so old that nobody can remember how old it is and claims the worlds narrowest street which is genuinely too narrow for two to pass: Parliament Street !
 
With my 2x side-facing B1W cameras, I now have 360-degree coverage :)
Go on then, make us a 360 VR video that we can spin around and choose the view ourselves...

:unsure:
 
With my 2x side-facing B1W cameras, I now have 360-degree coverage :)

View attachment 37654

Well, that's the whole point of adding side cams to front and rear coverage, isn't it? :geek: Looks good!

Ever since achieving 360º coverage on my vehicle I can't imagine not having it. Aside from having the protection for your car in the event of a mishap I think you'll find yourself recording surprising events you never imagined capturing on camera. That's certainly been my experience.
 
I would have driven my Dodge truck half way up that embarkment, and then hope no one took the remainder of the parking spot behind me :giggle:

with my pickup and SUV i have been known to park creative as their offroad ability made that possible.

It can also often be a issue finding a spot for a little car like mine, but it is due to some idiot not parking in the middle of his spot, and then it just snowball to the side, and soon you have 4 cars taking up 5 parking spots.
 
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I'm just getting to this thread after being AWOL for some time. From the start I lauded the B1W as an ideal side and rear cam, especially for it's price. Such a thin profile and it's non-cam look goes a long way, and with the good low-light performance there's none quite like it. Mine has endured the summer heat here without a problem and is recording 24/7 as the way it's hardwired makes turning it off a hassle. It's as cute as a kitten with the bite of a lion- how cool is that?

Side cam aiming can sometimes leave you having to choose whether you want more parking protection or more driving protection. The top of the side windows in my work van is 6 feet 2 inches up, and if I get close-in coverage my G1W-HC's won't see any part of a car beyond about 30 feet away. Many of the intersections I regularly go through stop the side traffic at or just past that distance, and I want footage of them when they blow their stop sign or a red light. Aimed to catch at least 50-60 feet out to get that, I can't see much below the windows of cars parked beside me. Boy-racers get only a roof view. The B1W in the back of my minivan seems to be similar in vertical FOV though I really haven't checked that closely. Being it's mounted a whole lot lower I don't have to compromise coverage close or far with it- it does both.

With the supertanker length of my work van, full side coverage requires at least 2 cams per side so when I can get that far along my plan is to set the forward cams high for cross-traffic with the rear cams lower for parking coverage. Being that the forward passenger side cam looks through a door glass, it must be mounted high to avoid getting hit when I use that door, but the driver's side cam could be set lower at the loss of some discreetness. I'll be putting two B1W's forward and moving my G1W-HC's to the rear until I can replace them as they are getting cranky in operation now. Not sure what the permanent plan will be there, just hoping there will be money to do it with soon. The dilemma there is that the back windows are covered in plywood for work shelves,, so the rear cams will need holes drilled to see through and their form- factor will have to be flat to avoid damaging them.

It's almost humorous to be thinking and worrying this way when not so long ago I had just one cam in front and thought it was plenty. Having side coverage makes you always want it but TBH I can live with F&R only in a secondary vehicle which isn't as important to me. Given my interest in cams though, I'm sure that eventually everything in my stable will end up with full coverage eventually. No matter what, anything I drive for more than a few minutes will have at least a front cam in it, just too easy to do to not do it and any cam is better than none.

Phil
 
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As a trial, I mounted a B1W on the front door frame at the bottom edge of the window in my wife's car. It gets both a side view, and a blind-spot view by looking in the wing mirror. Unfortunately I don't think I can get the same angle to work in my car.

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@Dashmellow -> The point you made about camera height and lens is spot on I believe. Any chance you have photos of your mounting set up for your Mobius C2? I'm experimenting with different mounting options (e.g. from the ceiling liner, window, B Pillar). Any photos of mounts you have tried would be much appreciated, given you have tried many configurations. Thank you!



I gather that you've never visited the US as your characterization of US parking spaces being universally a lot wider than in the UK is not well founded. The size of parking spaces here varies widely depending upon where you park and where you go. While many shopping malls and big box stores have large parking lots with plenty of room for sizeable parking spaces other locations with less real estate to spare will crowd parked cars together like sardines. There are some nearby stores and restaurant where I simply can't park my truck in their tiny lots. It's always amusing to hear the assumptions and stereotypes about the USA voiced on these pages. Just yesterday I had to wedge myself into a parking spot where I could barely open my door enough to exit my truck and had to literally touch the other vehicle's door handle with my door edge being careful not to damage anything. There was little room on the opposite side as well. Anyway, the photo you posted of the three vehicles parked side by side would not be atypical here in America. BTW, the truck in your photo is a Nissan Titan, a full size pick-up truck. I drive a Toyota Tacoma mid-sized pick-up that is smaller, with a cab and bed that is somewhat lower to the ground.

While it is hard to tell because of the barrel distortion in this photo, note that my camera's perspective at 5 feet off the ground (pointing downwards) is at about at the midpoint between the top of this vehicle's window and the pavement. At any rate, even at this close range the Mobius C2 lens is doing what I want it to do as a side cam.
View attachment 37613

Not much later I was in a different parking lot where there is plenty of room between cars but the parking spots are so short that my pick-up truck sticks dangerously out into the flow of traffic.
(Notice the red SUV in the distance that has much taller windows than my Toyota mid size pick-up.)
View attachment 37614


So, your post got me thinking about the height of my rear window camera mount, so I measured it and the camera is 5 feet, one inch from the pavement. Then I spent the day observing other vehicles around town and discovered that this was slightly higher than many other vehicles but lower than various other pick-up trucks as well as even some passenger cars. Several SUVs even higher (taller) windows than my truck. On the lower end, compact cars tended to have the highest point on their rear window at about 4 feet from the pavement. Cross-overs tended to be higher than compact cars for the most part. Anyway, this was about the average range one could expect, except for some outliers like sports cars. Oh, vans like in your screen grab tended to have taller cabs and windows than many pick-up trucks.

This thread got me thinking about my six or so years of side camera experiments and this motivated me to take an inventory. I realized that I've experimented with nine different side facing cameras and 12 different lenses. The Mobius cam with a C2 lens has proven to provide the most ideal coverage for my purposes. Obviously, with each camera and each vehicle the results will be different. With each camera and lens I've tried, it took some trial and error (what you are calling compromise) to find the optimal positioning for the particular camera and lens. In the end, some cameras proved ill-suited for side camera use while others were much better. Some cameras just seems to perform better as well but that's more a function of DSP and sensor. Camera height surely plays a role but ultimately, everything else aside I think choice of lens is the primary factor in choosing a good side camera.

As for how low to aim the lens I suppose it matters what kind of coverage any given camera can provide but experience taught me that it was vital to have at least some amount of very close-to-my-vehicle coverage for parking as well as the possibility of a side impact while driving. For parking it's good to see down to the pavement as much as possible, especially for door coverage and the possibility of vandalize. At the same time it's obviously important to have a full view of the adjacent lane of traffic as you point out in the image of the van cab that gets cropped out. For this reason, after thinking this through and reviewing your footage and stills I am no longer quite so impressed with the B1W as a side cam as the lens coverage just seems too narrow (both height and width). Other similar screen-less, tube style cameras may be better choices and there are many on the market these days. I had good luck with the mini-0806 and mini-0906 for this use as their FOV was better for suited for this purpose.

BTW, speaking of huge USA parking spaces here's a three year old screen grab shot at a nearby Walmart store. The parking lot is enormous (I'm parked somewhere near the middle.) and the spaces are the longest and widest I've ever seen anywhere! It avoids many of the tight parking problems, dented doors and other typical conflicts people often experience and makes it very easy to park there which I assume is the reason they provide this much room. Cars can essentially fully open their doors with ease with room to spare.

This image is from a G1W-H fitted with the original Mobius C lens.
View attachment 37617
 
@Dashmellow -> The point you made about camera height and lens is spot on I believe. Any chance you have photos of your mounting set up for your Mobius C2? I'm experimenting with different mounting options (e.g. from the ceiling liner, window, B Pillar). Any photos of mounts you have tried would be much appreciated, given you have tried many configurations. Thank you!

This photo is a tad out of date as I use a different mount now. I've experimented with a variety of side cam mounts including some DIY efforts (especially the one on the far right in the first photo.) I've also had a good experience and no issues with THIS tiny mount from Gitup, although another member @Harsh has reported that the locking nut breaks easily. You can see a photo of my DIY mount next to the Gitup mount HERE for a comparison. In any event, because my vehicle has fixed glass rear windows inside a recessed frame I always "ceiling mount"my Mobius cameras which makes side facing cameras fairly easy to install in my vehicle.

Mobius-side-mount.jpg
 
@dlucente, BTW, the mount in the above photo is worthy of consideration if it will work in your vehicle. Many members here on DCT find this mount quite useful.

It is an action cam helmet mount with the strap and bottom plate removed. These mounts are inexpensive and widely available.


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They have a new one on their website for 6.99, different design.
 
They have a new one on their website for 6.99, different design.

I assume you mean this one:
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That was the same mount that originally shipped with the Innovv C3 motorcycle snake cam and I have one of those.
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It's "ok" but not great. It was very difficult to tighten it enough so that it would stay put. And unlike a ball joint style mount there is no lateral (horizontal) adjustment available, similar to the helmet mount above.
Also the mount slides into a slotted holder on the base plate (as you can see in the Gitup photo) and it has a tendency to slip back out unexpectedly because it's not all that tight a fit.
Maybe the Gitup version is improved but I eventually gave up using the Innovv.

I see there is another interesting looking helmet mount for sale over on Gitup, also $6.99 USD. It's low profile, turns 360º and has a nice wide, stable looking base.
Might be worth a try but it needs the companion "GoPro" style mount for it to work as a tripod mount.

mount3.png

gopro.jpg
 
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