B2W recived

kamkar

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Dash Cam
10 years, many dashcams
So after resolving who took care of my parcel here in Denmark, and giving their support a call, then i finally got my camera too.

BUT ! after having been cooking for a week + i was so hyped that i installed it right there on the parking lot outside the parcel pickup point, so i only have a couple of phone pictures to share for now.

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The car need a good old camera cleanup for sure, but that will happen with the next batch of cameras.

PS. I must say having removed my mirror, and still having cameras right there on the windscreen, well not having the mirror there feel pretty nice.
 
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Okay ! So now i have been messing around with the B2W for a few days, and i have developed some opinions on it.
As far as the #1 dashcam thing, that be the camera starting and recording every time, i have only seen it perform optimal so far, but i am of course just a few days into using it, so the 128 GB Toshiba memory card i am using now have not yet filled up one time as i only have 4 -5 hours of drive time on it.

When it come to the general performance the B2W also perform as one would hope for, and the click of the IR cut filter engaging / disengaging you get used to, but it is a all new dashcam sound for me.
Going into a parking garage or as yesterday under some trees, and the cabin camera will change to IR mode, even if it is not all that dark in there, so the light level of where the camera change to / from IR mode might need a slight tweak down the line.

In regard to the camera and its placement on the windscreen i feel there are issues but ones shared with all 2 in 1 Uber / taxi cameras.
While the B2W are not a big camera in itself, then when you get to installing it it do get a little bulky, even if you as me use the stick on mount, using the suction cup only amplify this "issue"
As my car have a mirror mounted off the sealing it is set some way back from the windscreen, and so will block much of the view from the cabin camera it the dashcam are mounted up high in the optimal place for a dashcam.
So your option may be to offset the B2W a little to one side or the other, or mount it lower, but then stealth are gone, but of course if its your car you only use now and then for making a extra buck then it is something you can live with, only problem might be if your local law have a issue with people sticking god know what to the windscreen.
Many places have strict rules in this regard, Denmark where i live are one of them, BUT ! it don't seem to be a law that are strictly enforced i must say, but never the less the rules are there and should then be complied to or changed in the proper manner.
As you can see i have removed my mirror for testing the B2W as i can not get myself to mount it in a illegal place, but removing the cabin mirror are actually legal here as i have 2 wing mirrors on my car, so fir testing the B2W i will proceed for a little while with this setup.
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As i also told the developer in the beginning i don't personally feel these 2 in 1 solutions are optimal. I personally prefer the regular dual channel design and then have the cabin camera on a short wire so you can tweak its placement.
1: the camera get harder to install, not least in the optimal place, so stealth will get affected, but on the other hand thats not a major issue for all people, some actually want their camera to be seen.
2: i dident even think of this but have found out during B2W testing, as the 2 lenses are "locked" together in the horizontal plane, then you are forced to have a 50/50 split as if you aim the front camera lower your cabin camera will be aimed higher.
BUT ! in all fairness most cameras and the B2W handle the 50/50 split just fine, so not a major issue just something people have to realize before going with a camera like this ( not aware of similar cameras that allow for a individual adjustment in this regard )

Also another thing i have found during my short use of the B2W, the screen are not that bright so even tilting the camera so i look strait at it my tired old eyes have a problem reading it, and i had to give up on setting B2W as plate number, i was simply not able to see what i was doing on the screen.
I am able to see icons ASO on the screen, but the image in general are hard for me to see, not least the cabin camera as it is in general even less brighter than the feed from the front camera.
And i have found no option to adjust screen brightness.

When it come to the footage itself, it are not bad.
There are clear signs that bitrate are not that high ( using 16 / 8 mbit option ) i really would like to try 20 / 4 mbit ( to stay with the same total bitrate )
But ( EU ) plates on oncoming cars in good lighting conditions are a easy capture with 80 & 80 KM/h speeds, and the first night the rear camera even captured the plate on the car behind me, and i did not expect the camera to be able to do that.
Lower light or in other ways worsening conditions and plates and other delicate details of course become a problem, but thats the same for any dashcam i know off.
But if you mount your camera lower you might not be able to do that, depend on camera position and rear window size i recon, but if you get it all right it can be done and my first video in the footage thread prove that.
The hardware used to build the B2W are sound and valid, it is not packed with the cheapest you can get, so its chance of performing just about as good as you can get are there.

So for now i am happy to have the B2W in my car, and i look forward to play with it in the time to come.
I have left room for more cameras to the right of the B2W, and that space will also be put to better use as the cameras there will make way for newer models.

I would like to see some changes to the image profile too, ATM i feel the footage are a little on the "hard" side to look at, it is not bad but i do feel changes here can be made successful.
 
I would like to see some changes to the image profile too, ATM i feel the footage are a little on the "hard" side to look at,
What do you mean by "hard" ?

Do you have WDR on? I recommend "ON" for this camera.
 
Yes WDR are on, pretty default settings.
By hard i mean sharpness
 
@kamkar1 your comments pretty much sum up my thoughts about the 2-in-1 camera. It is hard to place in a good position where both lenses can see what they are supposed to, and at the same time not obstruct the driver's view through the windscreen.
The 50:50 thing was OK for me after I tweaked the angle a bit.
I think 20/4Mbps is worth trying as there's not a lot moving around inside the car.
 
Yeah not sure if 4 mbit on the cabin camera will mean lesser chance of capturing something seen in the rear or side windows, but then again i would not rely on that, to me it is a cabin camera and nothing else and so 4 mbit should be just fine.
Beside if your windscreen force you to mount lower on the glass, legal or not, then that will give you even less of a chance capture out of the windows, at least if we are talking plates.

I am currently waiting for parcels, and getting burned by at least a day, and if not for the incompetence of Danish postal and them now sending parcels thru new sorting centers, then traffic on the E 45 motorway that seem to have at least 1 major crash daily in my area with that meaning all north or southbound lanes closed for a few hours.
Anyway as a consequence of that i don't do much driving in the daytime, but at least i get to run the laundry which was also sorely needed, not least as i don't have a "better half" to do that.

I was hoping @Falsificator could whip up a quick 20/4 mbit firmware to see how that goes.
 
I was hoping @Falsificator could whip up a quick 20/4 mbit firmware to see how that goes.
This is not a problem at all. In the menu there are two positions to select video quality for two cameras.
I'm still studying the parameters of sharpness, contrast, brightness, metering and gamma curves.
Change curves and compare.
GAMMA - B2W.jpg
While I'm more interested in the density of the black level...
 
When you feel like it M8.
The missing frame, i looked for it yesterday but did not find it where i looked in the footage, will have to look more for it i guess.
In a couple of hours i go for a little drive to do some shopping, will be looking for the missing frame after that.
 
When you feel like it M8.
The missing frame, i looked for it yesterday but did not find it where i looked in the footage, will have to look more for it i guess.
In a couple of hours i go for a little drive to do some shopping, will be looking for the missing frame after that.
Mine appears to drop to 28fps in the dark, but still sticks 30fps in the video file, that might be where you missing frame comes from?
Not sure why it drops to 28fps in the dark since the shutter speed doesn't require it... uses the same shutter speed as the A129 IR, which remains at 30fps in the dark.
 
I have looked closer frame-by-frame and I'm getting a 12-frame cycle, both day and night.

The first 5 frames are at equal spacing, looking at the distance travelled by the car between each frame. Then it appears to jump forwards on the 6th frame more than it does between the previous frames. The next 5 frames are equally spaced, then frame 11 appears to be duplicated at the end. However the distance travelled between frames 11 and 13 is the same as between the other frames. :unsure:

EDIT: New beta FW received today. Duplicate frame issue is fixed. I will say that BlueSkySea are quick to turnaround FW updates (y)
 
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How do you measure it? Motion blur distance?
Yes, parked car at train crossing, train with headlights passing across the image, compare frame from B2W with frame from A129 IR, the motion blur on the train headlights is the same, I can also work out the actual shutter speeds used by overlaying adjacent frames, if they used the full 1/30th second then the motion blur would stretch from one frame to the next with no gap, since there is a gap and I can measure it relative to the movement between frames, I can see they are actually both using about 1/47th second when the B2W has dropped to 28fps.
 
I have mainly only been looking at daytime footage this far.
The missing frame i noticed was a car coming towards me, and i was going frame by frame, but in between 2 of the frames it looked as if the car made a bigger "jump" than in between other frames.
I think its more normal to have dublicate frames, which are easy to see going thru footage frame by frame.
 
Yesterday was too busy to do anything but new firmware and vids today. I'm still running 16/16Mbps but will play around with that. I do find the "cabin cam" useful for rearward coverage- it's giving me good clear pics through the glass. It won't replace a true "rear cam" but it's better than anything else I've seen in this type of cam (y)

Phil
 
yeah if the angle out back are good you will capture that idiot with his nose on the phone glass plow into your rear.
I was amazed by the night time plate capture i got of the car behind me.
 
I can also work out the actual shutter speeds used by overlaying adjacent frames, if they used the full 1/30th second then the motion blur would stretch from one frame to the next with no gap, since there is a gap and I can measure it relative to the movement between frames
Thanks for the idea!

Here is my side-by-side comparison of two cams with IMX323 and IMX307 CMOS sensors (same SoC and lens, no CPL attached).
imx323-vs-imx307.png
I'd say the IMX307 (below) is at least 1EV step better for low light shooting.
 
Thanks for the idea!

Here is my side-by-side comparison of two cams with IMX323 and IMX307 CMOS sensors (same SoC and lens, no CPL attached).
View attachment 47175
I'd say the IMX307 (below) is at least 1EV step better for low light shooting.
IMX323 used to be a great sensor,now its outdated!

You get the same difference when trying to read road signs, but it is much more difficult to measure then.
 
IMX323 is still good for budget cams but yeah- the sensor world has went far past it now.

Phil
 
IMX323 is still good for budget cams but yeah- the sensor world has went far past it now.

Phil
sensor only tells part of the story, there are cameras with IMX291 that don't do as well as the IMX323, chipset and firmware has a lot to do with the end result
 
Thats true.
 
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