Headlight tinting film might be useful for dashcams.

dirtymoney

Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
43
Reaction score
20
Country
United States
I have a particularly annoying situation where my drive to work consists of me basically driving into the sun that is hanging low on the horizon. As you can imagine it really affects being able to see anything on the dashcam. I cant use a polarizing film lens because my drive home is at night and my A118 dascam isnt the best at night vision

Well, About a year ago I bought some headlight tinting off ebay (about $5 for a roll of it) because I needed to lessen the brightness of my jeep's digital displays when the headlights are off. They get really bright so you can see them well in the daytime (when the headlights are off). At night when the headlights are off they get crazy bright. Killing my night vision.

Anyways I have found quite a few uses for it and now I use it with my dashcam. I should explain that the way my dashcam is mounted the lens is practically touching the near vertical windshield of my jeep. So I can put the tinting on the windshield instead of the camera lens.

I put a strip that blocks out the sky (and the low-hanging sun). Seems to be working well. It doesnt affect my night driving recording since it is only the dark sky that is blocked.

Here is a recent pic without the sun in the sky (the skies have been cloudy here as of late).

1QYfH9Z.jpg


The tinted film is like plastic and can be removed and replaced over and over. The adhesive doesnt come off on whatever you place it on (I have only put it on smooth surfaces though). I use it on a small tv mounted in my jeep and it has held up for a year now with no problems. Even in very high summer temps.

edit: I bought from this ebay seller... https://www.ebay.com/itm/370815582761 and got the dark black tinting. Seems he is out of stock of that color.
 
Last edited:
Good experiment.

Trough test n try I used my rear-view mirror sunshade as a "visor" for direct sun.
Below can see different tests.

First two pictures are from B40 / A118 wide angle lens.
3-4 pics are from SG9665GM beta narrow lens FOV where I moved device as much as possible up to get maximum shade covering top part of lens FOV.

a1.jpg


a2.jpg


a3.jpg


a4.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hehe that's what i tried too with my GS9665GC, but my dotted area are too small so i ended up putting the camera so high up i was barely able to take it off the windscreen
 
The downside of this is that you aren't capturing overhead traffic lights leaving that door wide open to "he said-she said" where you're likely to get screwed. Far better to have a cam which can either handle the 'washout' well enough or one which can be moved to a location where the 'washout' is at a minimum. That lack of mounting options is why I haven't bought a 'wedge shaped' cam and probably never will except as a secondary cam.

Phil
 
Despite the OP's claim that putting a nearly opaque film over his lens isn't having any detrimental effect on the quality of exposure that is unlikely to be the case. Any time you completely obscure over one third of a lens' FOV with an opaque dense material like that you will compromise its overall ability to gather light, day or night. The convex lens element on the front of a lens gathers light from all directions converging it to a focal point.

A much better option would be to use photographic neutral density filter gel of the desired exposure factor rather than something opaque. In fact, this technique is often used in professional photography and filmmaking to moderate the brightness of sky or change it's color such as mimicking or enhancing a sunset. Special filter holders are used that allow the camera operator to slide a filter up or down to the desired placement in the image. Graduated filters that are half clear are also used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B0089R864I

neutral_density_filters.jpg

holder.jpg graduated.jpg

My vehicle has a four inch blue tinted strip along the top of the windshield and I used to use it to good effect to achieve the same results as a neutral density filter. Since it is blue it had the effect of making skies look extra blue but that wasn't really an issue.
Unfortunately, covering a portion of the FOV of my SG9665GC using that technique only exacerbated the contrast and exposure problems inherent with that camera so anyone wishing to try a neutral density filter with their camera needs to make sure it is actually working to achieve the desired result and not making things worse before committing to it.

Using the tinted strip along the top of my windshield over approximately 1/5th of the lens' FOV worked beautifully with my old GT300W.
GT300w tinted.jpg
 
Last edited:
Ahh, one of my favorite 'benefits' to living in the north country during snow season - all the vehicles are so bright, shiny clean. :rolleyes::D

I live on a dirt road and so I get to enjoy that kind of thing all year round! :D

I should post some before and after photos of my truck after having just washed and waxed it two weeks ago. You would think I hadn't washed the vehicle in a year. It is especially bad this year as we are in a drought and there is road dust everywhere.
 
I live on a dirt road and so I get to enjoy that kind of thing all year round! :D....
So do I 'cause I live in Michigan. The difference is our dirt consists of crumbling concrete and asphalt. :(
 
So do I 'cause I live in Michigan. The difference is our dirt consists of crumbling concrete and asphalt. :(

We get a bit of that too but this year the clouds of dust on the dirt roads have been just miserable to live with.

These screen grabs don't really quite do it justice but will give you an idea.
dust.jpg

road-dust.jpg
 
BTW, we finally got a little bit of rain on top of all the road dust and now this is what the hood of my truck looks like. :(

dustyhood.jpg
 
Last edited:
Something to consider when blocking some of the sunlight is that now the camera will 'see' less brightness and not adjust as much to the conditions. I don't remember my settings but I 'tweaked' my Mobius to greatly reduce the 'washout' I'd been getting, and it helped that a lot. Driving from shade to sun among the many trees here caused a 'flash' on the viewing for 1/2 to 1 second rendering that period of time blind t the cam with the default settings. That also slightly reduced the nighttime clarity but not enough to bother me. I could set the second video mode for night use but I'd forget to switch it so I just leave it where it is now :p

A sign on the long driveway to a work associate's house says "Speed Limit: Raise no Dust". Gotta hand it to him for getting it right, since no set speed would cover every situation, but this one covered all his concerns :cool:

It's time to wash my van again, not for dust but for the leavings of the Pecan tree it's parked under and the birds who sit on it's limbs. It's only a full hours job to clean it inside and out if you work hard :rolleyes:

Phil
 
The new Mobius 2 virtually eliminates the bright lighting transition issues you are describing from your Mobius. Personally, I haven't found that to be so much a problem with my Mobi like I do with the SG9665GC.

At any rate, this four second clip is the best I can do at the moment with my crappy bandwidth at less than 768kbps upload but it will demonstrate the Mobius 2's amazing WDR and brightness transitioning capabilities traveling under an overpass on a bright sunny day using a new beta firmware version sent to me by the developer.


Edit: Interestingly, this video started out as a four second clip on my computer but appears on YT as a three second clip.
 
Last edited:
I wish that WDR was on the regular Mobius. I've seen it on other cams and it makes a BIG difference.
 
I wish that WDR was on the regular Mobius. I've seen it on other cams and it makes a BIG difference.

The Mobius 1 does indeed have WDR, however the WDR technology used in the Mobius 2 is far superior (although with some problematic algorithm issues that the developer tells me needs to be reworked for better image quality).

Mobius_003.jpg
 
Last edited:
Headlight tinting, that would be sooooo illegal here, and properly popular among the young folk's.
I know they do like to paint a little around the edges to give the headlight another shape, i am sure i would feel that is pretty stupid, even even i was young and stupid myself.
They also like to tint the glass of the rear lights, and that's also illegal.
 
The Mobius 1 does indeed have WDR, however the WDR technology used in the Mobius 2 is far superior (although with some problematic algorithm issues that the developer tells me need to be reworked for better image quality).

View attachment 26316

Oh, I just assumed it was a hardware situation. I didn't realize it was software. Thanks for the reply.
 
Back
Top