HDR on or off during daytime driving?

[Witch]

Are you supposed to turn the HDR off during daytime driving? Leafless trees and the outlines of buildings look kind of weird with HDR on during daytime driving. I'm assuming it's because of the HDR on feature where it takes an overexposed/underexposed image to help with license plate reading.

The night time recording with the HDR is great. It's the daytime recording that looks kind of weird with HDR on.

 

[Panzer Platform]

Yes.
No.
It's complicated. lol

 

[TonyM]

Yes.
No.
It's complicated. lol

It's not easy if your camera doesn't switch HDR on and off at the appropriate times.

 

[Panzer Platform]

@Witch @TonyM

Ok, here’s the long version. lol
Generally yes, HDR is “only” for night time.
However, I’ve seen a few cases where HDR did better in daytime but the “majority” of the time HDR does worse in the daytime.
And of course every dash cam is different, so I was hoping OP would film his own test footage, review it with his own eyeballs, and do what’s best for his application.
And I’m sure this will change in the future as HDR gets refined, so I do not want him to trust me giving him an “absolute” answer.

Have a look at these two clips.
They were filmed simultaneously with two separate A229 Pro’s with identical settings.
Except one has HDR on, and the other has HDR off.
Take note of the HDR stamp in the text overlay at the bottom of the screen.
Can you spot the difference?

 

[Dimitris1976]

I took those screenshots from your daytime YouTube videos in 4K.
That Chevy licence plate is definitely more readable with HDR turned off.

/Dimitrios