Hello everyone,
I had blackvue dr-500 at first place that did not see any plates because of absence of focus overall especially on the right half of the video. I got it exchanged. The new one seemed to be significantly better, however still, the image was not clear enough. I watched tons of videos posted on YouTube and was quite hesitating whether my camera performs well enough. On one hand pretty much in a range, on the other hand way worse than best samples that I saw. So I decided that further exchange is quite useless – they are all pretty much the same poor quality & I came up with idea to do what has NOT been done by manufacturer: bring the camera to compliance. Here is what I have done:
1. Disassembled the camera as shown here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQeQ32wqxko
2. Fixed focus (similarly to
http://asz555.narod.ru/index/0-37 ) using LIVE over Wi-Fi and then tuned it up (lens 0, +1mm, +2mm, -1mm, -2mm) 1mm means minimum distinguishable rotation from referenced (0) clockwise or counterclockwise. In my case after review +1mm showed the best result. You have to make sure that the camera is hot enough. Let it work before proceeding for 30 min minimum. I was rotating the lens and speaking at the same time what I was doing. Then I assembled camera back of course.
3. Installed 30mm polarizing filter, using cup from Tylenol or some other drugs; filter is this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Zykkor-30--Circul ... ds=zykkor+
4. Installed firmware 1.1.1aE and bit rate 12Mbps.
Now I am pretty sure that my camera indeed worth about $300. One minor thing that I have to mention is license plates are very well visible pretty much only on traffic light with certain light conditions.
My advice: fix you hardware, then play with software. If hardware fails, software will not help.
Video with lens the way it came from distributor, but with firmware 1.1.1aE, 12Mbps & with polarizing filter:
Video after lens adjustment on the same road one day later also with polarizing filter :
Disassembled dash cam:
Assembled back dash cam with filter: