HD Cameras

[kandrey89]

Hi,
I was wondering what kind of options there are for dedicated camera installs where the camera is:
CS lens mount
1/2" or larger sensor
small and discrete format

I was thinking about using this for recording my drives. I drive at night and need a large image sensor, large aperture, low f number lens and higher quality image that M12 lenses just cannot provide from the dashcams.
Think of it as a police dashcam, more than a consumer dashcam.

Anyone know where I can find more info?

FYI, don't even suggest dashcams, I got 2 dual channel ones. I need a dedicated camera system with a recorder for high fidelity, high light gathering capability and high resolution (including the lens) camera/system. If a dashcam can barely make out stationary license plates 6 feet on a 30 degree off axis (12ft ahead at night and that's generous due to contrast issues), then what I need is a camera sensor/lens solution that will do 30-60ft at 30 degrees off axis, and up to 100ft on axis/ahead.
I might be interested in installing forward tight beam IR illuminators to help with night illumination.

Both monochrome and color options are considered.

 

[thancam]

You should post your thread in here:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/forums/what-should-i-buy.71/

 

[c4rc4m]

Replied here as he hasn't transferred the post across. Please feel free to move this if necessary.

A lot of the issues with reading number plates at distance is in my opinion due to the focal point of dashcams. They often use a trick that I believe can be found in GoPros and fixed focus cameras down the ages. Take a look at GoPro footage and what you'll generally find in my experience is the image looks sharp. However, look closely and in my opinion, objects close up ie a few inches away are very sharp and objects in the background appear sharp but on close inspection are actually not very sharp at all when it comes to smaller detail eg reading text etc. The reason for this I believe is these small cameras used a fixed focus lens and combine that with a small aperture to give a deep depth of field. That means objects at or around the focus point are truly sharp and those further away look sharp due to the DOF effect but are actually not as sharp as they first appear.

A good example is here from this googled GoPro review by photographer Phillip Bloom:

The bonnet is sharp, there's a little drop off onto the 4x4 at the left hand side and a little more at the edge of the lenses on the car on the right (probably lens rather than focus). However, looking down the road ignoring the plates, the image looks reasonably sharp for a screen capture. However, looking at the 2nd car on the right, only maybe 20-30 feet in front, and you can't even see proper lettering, never mind read the number plate.

There are only 2 ways I know of to overcome this:

1. Get a dashcam that you can adjust the fixed focal point on (this may be harder than it seems as most are designed not to be adjustable and are fixed and some can have issues if adjusted eg. the Mobius 1 can leak light in and need shimming). This doesn't cure the issue but allows you to shift the focal point further away, thereby trading sharpness close up for sharpness further away. eg if it was focused to the distance of the 2nd car on the left, you may find all the plates of the 1st 4 cars readable albeit only the 2nd car would be sharp, but you'd probably have quite an unsharp bonnet / dash. You might be able to get some help on here from 1 of the smaller manufacturers who might be willing to supply you with a camera with the focal point adjusted further away. However, I think you'll struggle to find anything that can keep images sharp for 100 feet of range. I think that's probably beyond even a professional camera.

2. Get a proper video camera with autofocus (although then you have issues of size and also relying on the autofocus to focus on what you're looking at!). At least that way with luck with the autofocus, it will be focusing on the objects you want it to focus on.

This is a professional police video system:

http://provisionusa.com/law-enforcement/police-in-car-camera-systems.php

I can't say I see any advantage over the consumer systems advertised on here for the average motorist as the quality doesn't look any better to my eyes.

 

[kamkar]

In my experience with my IP cameras additional IR illumination and plenty of it still dont matter much in regard to the exposure timing the camera decide to use.
The camera i have on my car ( okay it is a camera with older hardware ) it have plenty of build in IR light and the picture is nice and bright, but when a cat run by then its still blurred out as the camera still use a 1:30 second exposure.
And i think this will be the same with a camera using the newer and much more light sensitive IMX185 sensor.

The IMX 185 is a 1/2" sensor as i recall and with "massive" pixels, but its still not a camera wonder in my eyes.

And what i have found on youtube of really low light cameras also seem to indicate they too also still rely on a slow exposure timing.

Perhaps if you use some really massive IR emitters you can make the camera use a faster exposure timing, but then you have to go way past the 10 W ones that seem to be the norm for strong IR light for CCTV use.

 

[kandrey89]

In my experience with my IP cameras additional IR illumination and plenty of it still dont matter much in regard to the exposure timing the camera decide to use.
The camera i have on my car ( okay it is a camera with older hardware ) it have plenty of build in IR light and the picture is nice and bright, but when a cat run by then its still blurred out as the camera still use a 1:30 second exposure.
And i think this will be the same with a camera using the newer and much more light sensitive IMX185 sensor.

The IMX 185 is a 1/2" sensor as i recall and with "massive" pixels, but its still not a camera wonder in my eyes.

And what i have found on youtube of really low light cameras also seem to indicate they too also still rely on a slow exposure timing.

Perhaps if you use some really massive IR emitters you can make the camera use a faster exposure timing, but then you have to go way past the 10 W ones that seem to be the norm for strong IR light for CCTV use.

I added IR illumination into my post at the last second an actually, it won't make much of a difference because while driving, there's not a lot of surface area to reflect the light to alter the integration time. The camera has to be properly tuned for certain regions, and I think it's just not possible today, nor does a sensor exist that would be able to have enough full well to set integration time based on surroundings and still see the bright retroreflective license plates.
I did a brief search and realized there might not be many or any 1/2"+ sensors with high enough resolution and pixel size for the job.

That police solution uses a CCD with a small resolution, VGA I think. It looks similar to what I'm looking for but the sensor resolution is poor.

My company is working on a high resolution IR sensor, but it's not in production yet. Our 940nm quantum efficiency is 6 times better than typical silicon sensors which makes it very useful for IR narrow bandpass applications due to increased sun rejection compared to other IR solutions at 850nm. The problem I find is that there almost isn't any high resolution IR capable lenses on the market, it's either IR with 1Mpix resolution, that means having a 12Mpix sensor doesn't do any good because the lens washes out the colors, or it's a high resolution 5MPix lens but it's not made for the IR. Even there the 5Mpix is not quite enough. It's amazing how much better the image looks when you go from a 3.0um pixel VGA IR sensor to a 1.1um 12M resolution.

 

[kamkar]

The IMX185 is used a lot in CCTV cameras and with its large pixels upwards of 5um it do capture a lot of light.
But that is still not enough i feel.
In a car and with IR backup light i assume you will be able to see a lot more of the surroundings driving on a rural back road, but if you freeze frame and look closer on the image then its not really usable for anything more than determining what you drive on and what is near the road.

Its funny when you look at 1080/30 low light footage some times it actually look pretty darn good, until you pause the footage and then notice the massive motion blur in the footage.

940 nm is where its at, 850 you can see so thats no good here as light on the front of a car have to be white or yellow thats still allowed for some strange reason but only 1 : 10.000 use.

My friend have the old analog CCTV system, and sure for detection of intruder and run out with a bat in one hand and a sawed off in the other its fine, but for anything else its useless to a degree burglars dont even have to wear a hoodie.

I am hoping we will soon see cheaper night vision goggles on the market, i always wanted a pair of those but have been deterred by price as i cant make do with a gen 1 or 2 equipment.
Some of the new stuff in that market is pretty darn sweet, and thats putting it lightly to not get myself too exited.

 

[Dashmellow]

Replied here as he hasn't transferred the post across. Please feel free to move this if necessary.

A lot of the issues with reading number plates at distance is in my opinion due to the focal point of dashcams. They often use a trick that I believe can be found in GoPros and fixed focus cameras down the ages. Take a look at GoPro footage and what you'll generally find in my experience is the image looks sharp. However, look closely and in my opinion, objects close up ie a few inches away are very sharp and objects in the background appear sharp but on close inspection are actually not very sharp at all when it comes to smaller detail eg reading text etc. The reason for this I believe is these small cameras used a fixed focus lens and combine that with a small aperture to give a deep depth of field. That means objects at or around the focus point are truly sharp and those further away look sharp due to the DOF effect but are actually not as sharp as they first appear.

A good example is here from this googled GoPro review by photographer Phillip Bloom:



The bonnet is sharp, there's a little drop off onto the 4x4 at the left hand side and a little more at the edge of the lenses on the car on the right (probably lens rather than focus). However, looking down the road ignoring the plates, the image looks reasonably sharp for a screen capture. However, looking at the 2nd car on the right, only maybe 20-30 feet in front, and you can't even see proper lettering, never mind read the number plate.

There are only 2 ways I know of to overcome this:

1. Get a dashcam that you can adjust the fixed focal point on (this may be harder than it seems as most are designed not to be adjustable and are fixed and some can have issues if adjusted eg. the Mobius 1 can leak light in and need shimming). This doesn't cure the issue but allows you to shift the focal point further away, thereby trading sharpness close up for sharpness further away. eg if it was focused to the distance of the 2nd car on the left, you may find all the plates of the 1st 4 cars readable albeit only the 2nd car would be sharp, but you'd probably have quite an unsharp bonnet / dash. You might be able to get some help on here from 1 of the smaller manufacturers who might be willing to supply you with a camera with the focal point adjusted further away. However, I think you'll struggle to find anything that can keep images sharp for 100 feet of range. I think that's probably beyond even a professional camera.

2. Get a proper video camera with autofocus (although then you have issues of size and also relying on the autofocus to focus on what you're looking at!). At least that way with luck with the autofocus, it will be focusing on the objects you want it to focus on.

This is a professional police video system:

http://provisionusa.com/law-enforcement/police-in-car-camera-systems.php

I can't say I see any advantage over the consumer systems advertised on here for the average motorist as the quality doesn't look any better to my eyes.

I agree. Dash cams often seem to be poorly focused for optimal results. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the Mobius camera as it provides for convenient refocusing of the lens via a grub screw. In some cases, depending upon the particular lens installed I've adjusted optimal focus to better capture vehicles farther out ahead of me. You can also refocus the lens for macro use if so desired. No other dash/action camera I'm aware of offers that feature.

That Provison camera, like virtually all police dash cams currently in use is unfortunately only D1 resolution (D1 = 720 x 480 pixels) and therefore not up to the task of adequately capturing most license plates regardless any low lux capabilities it may have.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah i would wish more would ditch the hot glue in favor of the grub screw, i would even pay 1 dollar more for that if need be.

 

[Dashmellow]

Hi,
I was wondering what kind of options there are for dedicated camera installs where the camera is:
CS lens mount
1/2" or larger sensor
small and discrete format

I was thinking about using this for recording my drives. I drive at night and need a large image sensor, large aperture, low f number lens and higher quality image that M12 lenses just cannot provide from the dashcams.
Think of it as a police dashcam, more than a consumer dashcam.

Anyone know where I can find more info?

FYI, don't even suggest dashcams, I got 2 dual channel ones. I need a dedicated camera system with a recorder for high fidelity, high light gathering capability and high resolution (including the lens) camera/system. If a dashcam can barely make out stationary license plates 6 feet on a 30 degree off axis (12ft ahead at night and that's generous due to contrast issues), then what I need is a camera sensor/lens solution that will do 30-60ft at 30 degrees off axis, and up to 100ft on axis/ahead.
I might be interested in installing forward tight beam IR illuminators to help with night illumination.

Both monochrome and color options are considered.

I've become increasingly intrigued with the Black Magic Micro the more I've learned about it. It features a Super 16 sensor that uses MFT lenses (Micro Four Thirds) and has a 13 stop dynamic range. It is by far the smallest professional HD cinema camera on the market and one of the only ones that can accept SD memory cards for recording without an external drive (which it is also designed to do) No camera I'm aware of in this category fits your "small and discrete format" requirement this well that might be installable as a practical dash cam alternative. It even features a built-in top mountable tripod thread hole.

 

[c4rc4m]

I agree. Dash cams often seem to be poorly focused for optimal results. This is one of the reasons I enjoy the Mobius camera as it provides for convenient refocusing of the lens via a grub screw.

I adjusted my Mobius 1 B lens camera before I dropped it and broke the lens on a tiled floor. However, I had the known issue of blurring on the right hand side of the lens caused I believe by the lens no longer sitting flat on the mount after the screw has been adjusted. Although, I believe it can be fixed by shimming it with a very thin piece of metal, I had neither the knowledge or inclination to do it.

I think what is really required is a lens that's designed to be adjusted (even if it's always supplied fixed at very close focus). That way, there are no issues at re-focusing it to say 20 feet.

I've become increasingly intrigued with the Black Magic Micro the more I've learned about it. It features a Super 16 sensor that uses MFT lenses (Micro Four Thirds) and has a 13 stop dynamic range. It is by far the smallest professional HD cinema camera on the market and the ONLY one that can accept SD memory cards for recording without an external drive (which it is also designed to do) No camera I'm aware of in this category fits your "small and discrete format" requirement this well that might be installable as a practical dash cam alternative. It even features a built-in top mountable tripod thread hole.

Looks very interesting.

However, it's the best part of $1K for the body with the need to buy a professional lens on top, so probably safely approaching $2K overall.

Also, just looking at the lens options, anything other than the 8mm fisheye (which being a fisheye will probably not be so good as a dash cam lens), is essentially from the pictures a full size 35mm zoom lens, which then makes the camera huge to mount and no doubt very heavy.

Maybe you could use a canon adapter and then a fixed focus or small zoom Canon consumer lens to keep the size and weight down. However, doing that, you lose the advantages of a quality lens.

 

[Dashmellow]

I adjusted my Mobius 1 B lens camera before I dropped it and broke the lens on a tiled floor. However, I had the known issue of blurring on the right hand side of the lens caused I believe by the lens no longer sitting flat on the mount after the screw has been adjusted. Although, I believe it can be fixed by shimming it with a very thin piece of metal, I had neither the knowledge or inclination to do it.

I think what is really required is a lens that's designed to be adjusted (even if it's always supplied fixed at very close focus). That way, there are no issues at re-focusing it to say 20 feet.




Looks very interesting.

However, it's the best part of $1K for the body with the need to buy a professional lens on top, so probably safely approaching $2K overall.

Also, just looking at the lens options, anything other than the 8mm fisheye (which being a fisheye will probably not be so good as a dash cam lens), is essentially from the pictures a full size 35mm zoom lens, which then makes the camera huge to mount and no doubt very heavy.

Maybe you could use a canon adapter and then a fixed focus or small zoom Canon consumer lens to keep the size and weight down. However, doing that, you lose the advantages of a quality lens.

There was a particular batch of Mobius lenses with an out of alignment sensor plate in the rear of the module which some people adjusted with a shim but this had nothing to do with tightening the lens grub screw on the barrel. I've not heard of or experienced a Mobius lens going out of alignment because focusing the lens or tightening the set screw. The newer module base that replaced it has a thicker plate. And the Mobius lens is indeed designed to be refocused. Having had experience with many of them this feature has always worked just fine for me. I believe it is best not to make a judgement such as you have with one single sample, at any rate.

The Black Magic Micro is a highly capable professional cinema camera and I feel it is rather well priced at $995.00. It was never designed as a standard action cam or dash cam even if one chooses to use it as such. What the OP is asking for certainly doesn't come cheap. Do you have a better suggestion other than a D1 resolution police dash cam? Anyway, there are plenty of viable MFT lenses on the market that would work quite well for this purpose without having to use a fish-eye. There are currently more than 80 different lenses available in the micro 4/3 mount.

http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/lense.html

http://hazeghi.org/mft-lenses.html

 

[c4rc4m]

I believe it is best not to make a judgement such as you have with one single sample, at any rate.

Fair comment but I read a long discussion about it somewhere, so it certainly wasn't a unique issue to me. In fact, a Youtube user actually made a video of how to correct it:

It may well have been that there was a batch of defective Mobius cameras. Pity I never knew before I dropped it or maybe I could have had an exchange!

The Black Magic Micro is a highly capable professional cinema camera and I feel it is rather well priced at $995.00. It was never designed as a standard action cam or dash cam even if one chooses to use it as such. What the OP is asking for certainly doesn't come cheap. Do you have a better suggestion other than a D1 resolution police dash cam? Anyway, there are plenty of viable MFT lenses on the market that would work quite well for this purpose without having to use a fish-eye. There are currently more than 80 different lenses available in the micro 4/3 mount.

I agree Black Magic cameras are very capable. Never in doubt. I just wondered what the OP's budget ceiling for all this was, plus the lens size and choice worried me as the Black Magic site shows it fitted with very long heavy zooms above 8mm. If however, money isn't an issue and he can find afford a professional spec small wide and very compact fixed focal length lens eg maybe 35 or 50mm, then it may not be an issue.

I think the 100ft focal range will remain an impossible issue though. Not sure why he thinks he needs 100ft. As long as the picture looks clear and the number plate becomes sharp before the other car hits you, the fact it's not sharp 100 ft away is irrelevant as you can see it's the same car that hit you as it comes closer. So long as the overall picture looks sharp, the average video watcher never notices the fact that much of the sharpness comes from DOF effect. The human eye doesn't see clearly to 100 feet. It sees objects from zero to 100 feet clearly only because it focuses on the object as it moves away or closer. You can get exactly the same with a video camera, but then you either need to be focusing it manually, or relying on it tracking accurately the object you want in focus. That's the difference between a movie where they're filming a car coming towards you - where the car is always in focus (because the camera / operator are adjusting the focus progressively as it approaches), and a fixed focus dashcam where the car is out of focus but comes more and more into focus as it approaches, but might appear quite sharp apart from the number plate due to dof. I'd hazard a guess most dashcams are fixed around f8.

At least the Black Magic gives iris control, some good news on the aperture front. However, at night, if you open the iris, he needs to be aware, he reduces the DOF. So to an extent, a fast lens becomes irrelevant because the more light you let in, the shallower the DOF and the fewer objects in focus. So even with a fast lens, if you want a good DOF, then the lens needs to be on a mid aperture (iris) setting with the chip sensitivity or electronic gain making up the difference for the low light conditions. At least that's my take on it as a video amateur.

So far as an alternative to the police cam, the best picture I'm seeing from any camera on here at the moment is coming from the Yi 4K (my opinion). If I had the budget atm, I'd definitely be testing a yi 4K in my car. Since, breaking my mobius, I currently use a GoPro (simply because I had one and it was my previous dashcam prior to dedicated dashcams becoming widely available).

Also, if size and manual controls aren't an issue, then don't rule out DSLR's as some produce excellent video and have very good low light sensitivity. They're not quite as good at video as a dedicated pro cam, but can work out cheaper.

 

[c4rc4m]

The problem I find is that there almost isn't any high resolution IR capable lenses on the market, it's either IR with 1Mpix resolution, that means having a 12Mpix sensor doesn't do any good because the lens washes out the colors, or it's a high resolution 5MPix lens but it's not made for the IR. Even there the 5Mpix is not quite enough. It's amazing how much better the image looks when you go from a 3.0um pixel VGA IR sensor to a 1.1um 12M resolution.

Just noticed you were looking for IR.

Could try these companies:

Produce customs lenses to your specs:

http://www.shanghai-optics.com/products/ir-lenses/?gclid=CLf-1IWx188CFRWNGwod_KYBdQ

Same here, custom lenses to large sensors:

http://www.universeoptics.com/high-resolution-lens-assemblies/?gclid=CJ7V-sex188CFeUV0wod4n0OoQ

One for 12mp Sensors

http://4k.com/news/theia-12mp-4k-lens-line-launched-at-ifsec-2015-7662/

 

[kandrey89]

I looked around some more, found this interesting:
http://watchguardvideo.com/in-car-video/cameras/hd-mini-zoom
https://10-8video.com/products/in-car-video/10-8-hd4-in-car-video-system/
http://www.mobile-vision.com/products/high-definition-car-video-flashbackhd/

c4rc4m: thanks, Theia might be of interest to my company, our 12M IR sensors have been lacking good lenses.

 

[Dashmellow]

Fair comment but I read a long discussion about it somewhere, so it certainly wasn't a unique issue to me. In fact, a Youtube user actually made a video of how to correct it:

It may well have been that there was a batch of defective Mobius cameras. Pity I never knew before I dropped it or maybe I could have had an exchange!

You apparently missed or disregarded the point I was making when I responded to your comments about having a Mobius camera go out of focus on one side.

You stated your speculation that the "known issue of blurring on the right hand side of the lens caused I believe by the lens no longer sitting flat on the mount after the screw has been adjusted".

While there was indeed a "known issue" of a lateral focus problem, as I also acknowledged but there were no reports it being caused by the lens going out of alignment after tightening the grub screw. I tried to explain that the problem was caused by a warped sensor plate and was remedied when new modules were produced with a thicker, more stable sensor plate.

Many people, including me repaired the issue by shimming the sensor plate but re-posting a video of the procedure doesn't support your claim that the problem has anything to do with the lens alignment.

 

[Dashmellow]

I agree Black Magic cameras are very capable. Never in doubt. I just wondered what the OP's budget ceiling for all this was, plus the lens size and choice worried me as the Black Magic site shows it fitted with very long heavy zooms above 8mm. If however, money isn't an issue and he can find afford a professional spec small wide and very compact fixed focal length lens eg maybe 35 or 50mm, then it may not be an issue.

I think the 100ft focal range will remain an impossible issue though. Not sure why he thinks he needs 100ft. As long as the picture looks clear and the number plate becomes sharp before the other car hits you, the fact it's not sharp 100 ft away is irrelevant as you can see it's the same car that hit you as it comes closer. So long as the overall picture looks sharp, the average video watcher never notices the fact that much of the sharpness comes from DOF effect. The human eye doesn't see clearly to 100 feet. It sees objects from zero to 100 feet clearly only because it focuses on the object as it moves away or closer. You can get exactly the same with a video camera, but then you either need to be focusing it manually, or relying on it tracking accurately the object you want in focus. That's the difference between a movie where they're filming a car coming towards you - where the car is always in focus (because the camera / operator are adjusting the focus progressively as it approaches), and a fixed focus dashcam where the car is out of focus but comes more and more into focus as it approaches, but might appear quite sharp apart from the number plate due to dof. I'd hazard a guess most dashcams are fixed around f8.

At least the Black Magic gives iris control, some good news on the aperture front. However, at night, if you open the iris, he needs to be aware, he reduces the DOF. So to an extent, a fast lens becomes irrelevant because the more light you let in, the shallower the DOF and the fewer objects in focus. So even with a fast lens, if you want a good DOF, then the lens needs to be on a mid aperture (iris) setting with the chip sensitivity or electronic gain making up the difference for the low light conditions. At least that's my take on it as a video amateur.

So far as an alternative to the police cam, the best picture I'm seeing from any camera on here at the moment is coming from the Yi 4K (my opinion). If I had the budget atm, I'd definitely be testing a yi 4K in my car. Since, breaking my mobius, I currently use a GoPro (simply because I had one and it was my previous dashcam prior to dedicated dashcams becoming widely available).

Also, if size and manual controls aren't an issue, then don't rule out DSLR's as some produce excellent video and have very good low light sensitivity. They're not quite as good at video as a dedicated pro cam, but can work out cheaper.

I think you make some good points here.

Since the OP didn't at any time state a budget but did state that one his requirements was a "small and discrete format", I put the Black Magic out there as an option since there are few if any other choices quite that capable in such a small package with an internal SD memory slot that might be practical as a dash cam substitute. It is not clear why you are concerned that "the lens size and choice worried me as the Black Magic site shows it fitted with very long heavy zooms above 8mm" since as previously mentioned there are some 80 MFT lenses currently available in the market. There are several very compact, fast and capable lenses that would be ideal for such as application, such as this 14mm Lumix "pancake" design pictured below (about 28mm in 35mm equivalency). As for the question of aperture settings and DOF, a camera with the 13 f-stop dynamic range performance of the Black Magic make it one of the few I'm aware of that might be up to the task and certainly the only one of its size.

Anyway, the suggestion of the BM Micro was sort of academic as I thought it might be of interest and worthy of discussion rather than the ultimate recommendation for what I believe may in the end be a rather challenging goal with the current state of the art.


At any rate, I agree that a DSLR might be an option but as you point out that would only be suitable if size were not an issue, as the OP already said it was. Maybe one of the newer class of high end compact mirror-less cams might do the trick? I think that is the problem with the performance being sought here as it really does require a much larger camera with larger sensors and lenses and anything that would do the job will cost in the 4 or 5 figure range. I'm referring mainly to high end cinema production cameras. (there are some new rather small ones on the market like the Canon ME20F Multi-purpose full frame 35 camera - about 4 x 4 inches square with 4,000,000 ISO low light capability) There are also some very high end next generation CCTV surveillance cameras on the market that might work for this purpose but none of them are designed to capture stable detailed video from a moving vehicle, so capturing license plates at the distances being described while driving would be highly unlikely, I think. The same is true of the police cruiser dash camera systems that are linked above. While their claims of being able to capture a plate number of a stationary vehicle at 40 feet during a traffic stop might be plausible, I think at the 720p maximum from these cameras they are not likely to meet the "high resolution" requirement mentioned by the OP or capture plate numbers easily when the vehicle is moving.

 

[c4rc4m]

While there was indeed a "known issue" of a lateral focus problem, as I also acknowledged but there were no reports it being caused by the lens going out of alignment after tightening the grub screw. I tried to explain that the problem was caused by a warped sensor plate and was remedied when new modules were produced with a thicker, more stable sensor plate.

Many people, including me repaired the issue by shimming the sensor plate but re-posting a video of the procedure doesn't support your claim that the problem has anything to do with the lens alignment.

I think we're nit picking to be honest. If the sensor plate is warped then the lens doesn't align with it. Yep the cause might be the sensor plate, but it's still misaligned. Don't think it matters if you describe it as lens misalignment with the plate or the plate misaligned (through warping) with the lens. Same thing and result either way. Good to hear it's now been fixed though.

 

[Dashmellow]

I think we're nit picking to be honest. If the sensor plate is warped then the lens doesn't align with it. Yep the cause might be the sensor plate, but it's still misaligned. Don't think it matters if you describe it as lens misalignment with the plate or the plate misaligned (through warping) with the lens. Same thing and result either way. Good to hear it's now been fixed though.

I guess the nit being picked here is that there was a well documented problem with warped sensor plates as the cause of the lateral focus issue that was later remedied by the Mobius manufacturer with a thicker plate, whereas there is no evidence whatsoever regarding your assertion that the problem was caused by the "the lens no longer sitting flat on the mount after the screw has been adjusted". Describing it as a lens misalignment after tightening the grub screw implies that the lens mount and threaded barrel was flawed, which it wasn't and is therefore misinformation. One of the hallmarks of the Mobius has always been the unusually high quality of the optics supplied with the camera, especially considering the price.

 

[c4rc4m]

My apologies to Mobius if my explanation offends so much. All I can say is I gave a cause that was my opinion, not fact. I'm an amateur, not a video professional or engineer. I'm sure all that matters to the end user, is whether or not there's any known issue with adjusting the lens.It's good to hear it's been solved.

 

[Dashmellow]

No need to apologize to Mobius; just that your speculation/explanation of what caused the problem was not true so was not the same thing "either way".

We were all glad to see it fixed.