ExDelayed
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2015
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 2
- Location
- Ogden, UT
- Country
- United States
- Dash Cam
- Blacksys CF-100
EDIT: In the post below, I could have mislead people to thinking that the Blacksys produces images comparable to the much more expensive Panorama X2. As can be seen with the images below, it is determined that I "lost in the production variance lottery" with my Panorama X2. However, in my case, the Blacksys does produce images that are superior to the much more expensive Panorama.
I had a Panorama X2 installed, and even though it was an interesting toy, I was unhappy with it. For its price, it should be a great camera, with great pictures. Instead, the front camera couldn't seem to focus, it was picky when it wanted to work, and the firmware seemed like it needed a lot more testing. Well, Halloween night, I was heading home from a party and it decided to enter a bootloop. I don't know if any of you have seen an X2 boot at night, but its LCD can be quite distracting. After the fifth boot in five minutes, I *removed* it from the windshield. Its safe in the Blacksys box, and reusable, if I can get the bootloop sorted.
Anyway, I found the CF-100, and looked through some of the threads in here. I was happy with it and got one on its way. I have a 2ch model with GPS, and I put a Lexar 32GB card into it. Last night, I installed it at my shop, drove home, and opened up the viewer (something that I either missed in the Panorama's instructions, or it didn't have). Everything from the front lens was blurry, but the rear seemed ok. This morning, I looked at it before I left for work, and realized I had left the lens protector on during install, to keep my fingerprints off of it while it was getting installed.
So far, the G-sensors are a little too touchy. My car is lowered (1", not ricer style), and it kicks on a little too easily. I need to rotate the camera a degree or two, but right now its nothing to worry about. The rear camera's images is poorer than the Panorama, but that was expected. The front camera had to be mounted in a different location than the X2. The X2 was shaded by my clean air decal, but the Blacksys would have seen it. The Blacksys sits directly in front of my rear view mirror, and it is shaded by the factory dots (?) that are embedded into the glass, it hides nicely.
If you are curious to how the Blacksys compares to a camera over three times its cost, here are pics. The images were grabbed about a week apart, but at the same time of day, with the same type of weather conditions. The Blacksys image was captured with the viewer software. The Panorama images are captured by pausing Windows Media Player and doing a print screen. The ring that is visible at the edges of the rear pics is window tint. The factory tinted glass was tinted, and it was too dark for the Panorama, now Blacksys, to see through. Both rear cameras are looking through dirty glass. The lower rear window on a CR-Z does not have a wiper, so there is some road grime on the glass.
EDIT: VLC snapshots of both cameras are in the third reply.
Blacksys:
X2:
Blacksys:
X2:
I still need to see some clear night pics from the Blacksys' front camera, but even with it being partly blinded with the lens protector, it seemed good. So far, I am quite pleased with the Blacksys.
I had a Panorama X2 installed, and even though it was an interesting toy, I was unhappy with it. For its price, it should be a great camera, with great pictures. Instead, the front camera couldn't seem to focus, it was picky when it wanted to work, and the firmware seemed like it needed a lot more testing. Well, Halloween night, I was heading home from a party and it decided to enter a bootloop. I don't know if any of you have seen an X2 boot at night, but its LCD can be quite distracting. After the fifth boot in five minutes, I *removed* it from the windshield. Its safe in the Blacksys box, and reusable, if I can get the bootloop sorted.
Anyway, I found the CF-100, and looked through some of the threads in here. I was happy with it and got one on its way. I have a 2ch model with GPS, and I put a Lexar 32GB card into it. Last night, I installed it at my shop, drove home, and opened up the viewer (something that I either missed in the Panorama's instructions, or it didn't have). Everything from the front lens was blurry, but the rear seemed ok. This morning, I looked at it before I left for work, and realized I had left the lens protector on during install, to keep my fingerprints off of it while it was getting installed.
So far, the G-sensors are a little too touchy. My car is lowered (1", not ricer style), and it kicks on a little too easily. I need to rotate the camera a degree or two, but right now its nothing to worry about. The rear camera's images is poorer than the Panorama, but that was expected. The front camera had to be mounted in a different location than the X2. The X2 was shaded by my clean air decal, but the Blacksys would have seen it. The Blacksys sits directly in front of my rear view mirror, and it is shaded by the factory dots (?) that are embedded into the glass, it hides nicely.
If you are curious to how the Blacksys compares to a camera over three times its cost, here are pics. The images were grabbed about a week apart, but at the same time of day, with the same type of weather conditions. The Blacksys image was captured with the viewer software. The Panorama images are captured by pausing Windows Media Player and doing a print screen. The ring that is visible at the edges of the rear pics is window tint. The factory tinted glass was tinted, and it was too dark for the Panorama, now Blacksys, to see through. Both rear cameras are looking through dirty glass. The lower rear window on a CR-Z does not have a wiper, so there is some road grime on the glass.
EDIT: VLC snapshots of both cameras are in the third reply.
Blacksys:
X2:
Blacksys:
X2:
I still need to see some clear night pics from the Blacksys' front camera, but even with it being partly blinded with the lens protector, it seemed good. So far, I am quite pleased with the Blacksys.
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