Lukas LK-7900 Ace

[DashCamMan]

The Korean manufacturer Lukas recently released a new dash cam called the Lukas LK-7900 Ace. This company seems to be coming out with some unique features in their dash cams. You can read this thread on the LK-7300G for a 1080p dash cam with a separate DVR unit that can be hidden (a feature requested by some users).

For the new LK-7900 Ace, the unique feature is the ability to accept SDXC cards (max 128GB). I know many were asking for this capability.

Standard specs for a Korean camera (1080p @ 30fps, parking mode, GPS, g-sensor). They also claim high temperature capability, the largest range I have seen. -20C to 80C operating and -30C to 90C storage.

Currently selling for $260 from apple-ct on eBay.

The eBay vendor greensum has it for $212 for 1 camera. He also has multiple qty listings for a cheaper price per unit...$572.90 for 3 ($191 per unit)

 

[DashCamMan]

Lots of videos on youtube, unfortunately mostly from Asia. Day videos seem fine. Night videos in low light could be better.

Day Video

Night videos

 

[Mtz]

In your latest video and also in this video there is a big problem with that blue "fog". Seems to be like an white balance problem which need to be fixed for sure, but when I saw that type of blue ghost on other camera was because of heat and CMOS working bad in low light condition.
Because of this I can say the actual camera is buggy.

But is nice because camera comes with two lens filter, one for polarization (nice!) and another for UV (?).

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[DashCamMan]

I'm not a photographer but perhaps someone in the know could confirm if that is considered purple fringing.

 

[jokiin]

low light performance not as good as the specs would have you believe, to their credit though at least they put true low light video samples up which is a much more honest representation instead of driving through the neon jungle of the city where any cam will shine

 

[Mtz]

All brands are doing in the same way with a lot of city lights.
This is the reason why the forums and youtube are better, because can show to the people the real thing, not just marketing.

I'm not a photographer but perhaps someone in the know could confirm if that is considered purple fringing.

No, mine is another story from some camera (not a dashcam). Only in night time and after about 15 minutes of recording, on some side of the camera appears a blue area like in the picture:


Back to Lukas, the sensor is nice, 1/2.9".

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[lkwan78]

I'm not a photographer but perhaps someone in the know could confirm if that is considered purple fringing.

Dash,

I'm not an expert but I am a photographer. That blue fog is not purple fringe. I can't explain why purple fringe occurs but I do know that is is most common in daylight pics. Especially around tree branches.

That sensor it is using is very noisy at night. Right now there is a battle within the photo world. Most consumers gauge cameras quality by the number of megapixels. It has been this way since their inception.

But for real photographers, the improvement we desire the most now is low noise at higher ISO's.

 

[lkwan78]

I also think it is funny how some companies advertise their cameras use a f/2.0 for better low light recordings.

F/2.0. Is the opposite of what we really want! ( low noise at higher ISO's).

Pro
It does increase the amount of light hitting sensor

Con
when u have a wide open aperture, you will also have a very shallow depth of field. This would make it extremely difficult to see a license plate?

What that means ie. if a dashcam is focused on a point 10 ft away, with a narrow depth of field, the only objects that would be in focus would be items within 1-2 ft in front and directly behind the point of focus.

The more ideal solution is next a dashcam with low noise so that it could use a smaller f/stop ie f/5.6 or f/8. So that it has a wider depth of field. I don't see this happening however on a <$300 dashcam

 

[DashCamMan]

Price appears to have gone down on the Lukas LK-7900 Ace. The eBay vendor greensum has it for $212 for 1 camera.

He also has multiple qty listings for a cheaper price per unit (buying 3 units gives a pretty good price).

$397.90 for 2 ($199 per unit)

$572.90 for 3 ($191 per unit)

$757.90 for 4 ($190 per unit)

$944.90 for 5 units ($189 per unit)

$1,848 for 10 units ($185 per unit)

$3,558 for 20 units ($178 per unit)

 

[Xor]

I also think it is funny how some companies advertise their cameras use a f/2.0 for better low light recordings.

F/2.0. Is the opposite of what we really want! ( low noise at higher ISO's).

Pro
It does increase the amount of light hitting sensor

Con
when u have a wide open aperture, you will also have a very shallow depth of field. This would make it extremely difficult to see a license plate?

What that means ie. if a dashcam is focused on a point 10 ft away, with a narrow depth of field, the only objects that would be in focus would be items within 1-2 ft in front and directly behind the point of focus.

The more ideal solution is next a dashcam with low noise so that it could use a smaller f/stop ie f/5.6 or f/8. So that it has a wider depth of field. I don't see this happening however on a <$300 dashcam

I understand that this post is old, but for the sake of reality.
While you right in terms of the full frame photo cameras, you are totally wrong for the small sensors.
1. We are not really talking of the DOF (while technically we are), we are talking about hyperfocal distance, which is DOF from nearest point into infinity.
2. While in the photography for the focus plane (let's say group of people, cars, etc.) to have all of that in the focus we would have to stop hard, with the small sensor and wide lens we can achieve a lot better results in the hyperfocal.

Therefore, difference between f/2 and f/5.6 is 3 full stops, e.g. f/2 = 2xf/2.8=2x2xf/4=2x2x2f/5.6 = 6(2x3) more time of light of f/5.6 and 8 more times of f/8.
Which means that sensor will have to be 6 or 8 times more sensitive, let's assume that sensor works at 200 iso and camera have f/2.0, it will have to deliver same performance at iso 1600 with f/5.6 and iso3200 with f/8.0.
Do you really think it is realistic even with the full frame camera? What about 1/2.5'' - 1/3''. Not going to happen.

Now, let's see to the DOF, actually near point in hyperfocal.
Let's assume typical sensor i think used in the dash cams of today: 1/3''.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori ... ulator.htm
With let's say focus distance is 5 meters.
With lens 2.8mm: f/2 nearest sharpen 0.75 m, f/5.6 nearest sharpen 0.3 m, f/8 nearest sharpen 0.21m
With lens 3mm: f/2 nearest sharpen 1.13 m, f/5.6 nearest sharpen 0.47 m, f/8 nearest sharpen 0.34m

Therefore, I do not think that anyone would prefer to have advantage of the 1.13m - 0.34m = 79 cm = 31'' closer, which means sharper dashboard and hood in expense of the 200 vs 3200 iso.
But what is more important is that the quality of the lens


P.S. Germans have optical corrected f/1.8 expensive lens that I'm tempted to try in BlackVue dr500 if I can find that lens for sale somehow. Or may be f/1.6 lens...
Here is the link about that lens mounted on the gopro http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1610015

 

[Xor]

I also think it is funny how some companies advertise their cameras use a f/2.0 for better low light recordings.

F/2.0. Is the opposite of what we really want! ( low noise at higher ISO's).

Pro
It does increase the amount of light hitting sensor

Con
when u have a wide open aperture, you will also have a very shallow depth of field. This would make it extremely difficult to see a license plate?

What that means ie. if a dashcam is focused on a point 10 ft away, with a narrow depth of field, the only objects that would be in focus would be items within 1-2 ft in front and directly behind the point of focus.

The more ideal solution is next a dashcam with low noise so that it could use a smaller f/stop ie f/5.6 or f/8. So that it has a wider depth of field. I don't see this happening however on a <$300 dashcam

I understand that this post is old, but for the sake of reality.
While you right in terms of the full frame photo cameras, you are totally wrong for the small sensors.
1. We are not really talking of the DOF (while technically we are), we are talking about hyperfocal distance, which is DOF from nearest point into infinity.
2. While in the photography for the focus plane (let's say group of people, cars, etc.) to have all of that in the focus we would have to stop hard, with the small sensor and wide lens we can achieve a lot better results in the hyperfocal.

Therefore, difference between f/2 and f/5.6 is 3 full stops, e.g. f/2 = 2xf/2.8=2x2xf/4=2x2x2f/5.6 = 6(2x3) more light of f/5.6 and 8 times more for f/8.
Which means that sensor will have to be 6 or 8 times more sensitive, let's assume that sensor works at 200 iso and camera have f/2.0, it will have to deliver same performance at iso 1600 with f/5.6 and iso3200 with f/8.0.
Do you really think it is realistic even with the full frame camera? What about 1/2.5'' - 1/3''. Not going to happen.

Now, let's see to the DOF, actually near point in hyperfocal.
Let's assume typical sensor i think used in the dash cams of today: 1/3''.
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutori ... ulator.htm
With let's say focus distance is 5 meters.
With lens 2.8mm: f/2 nearest sharpen 0.75 m, f/5.6 nearest sharpen 0.3 m, f/8 nearest sharpen 0.21m
With lens 3mm: f/2 nearest sharpen 1.13 m, f/5.6 nearest sharpen 0.47 m, f/8 nearest sharpen 0.34m

Therefore, I do not think that anyone would prefer to have advantage of the 1.13m - 0.34m = 79 cm = 31'' closer, which means sharper dashboard and hood in expense of the 200 vs 3200 iso.
But what is more important is that the quality of the lens


P.S. Germans have optical corrected f/1.8 expensive lens that I'm tempted to try in BlackVue dr500 if I can find that lens for sale somehow. Or may be f/1.6 lens...
Here is the link about that lens mounted on the gopro http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1610015

 

[germany]

Is it easily possible to mount and unmount the cam from the holder? Because at night I don't want to leave the Lukas in the car!

 

[Al Drake]

Is it easily possible to mount and unmount the cam from the holder? Because at night I don't want to leave the Lukas in the car!

That is one of the best features. It comes out with ease.

 

[Mtz]

A dashcam should stay always in the windshield. Maybe just few times unmounting it when going in some strange places.
I can't imagine my dashcam every day doing this:
- morning, mount the camera
- arrive at work, unmount the camera
- going in some break, mount the camera
- arrive at some place, unmount the camera
- back to the car mount, the camera
- arrive back to work, unmount the camera
- leave the work, mount the camera
- arrive home, unmount the camera
- going in the night to some friend, mount the camera
- arrive at friend, unmount the camera
- leave from friend, mount the camera
- arrive home, unmount the camera

How much to write, but how mouch to work?
Day by day?
Please, I don't want a dashcam.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[germany]

The problem is that where I live from time to time cars get broken up and the risk is too much that some idiots see a camera and break it up just of the camera.

Plus the hard temperatures in the car in winter it has minus 10° to minus 20° in summer there are plus 30° up to plus 40° in the car. I think the temperatures are exactly the reason why my actual dash cam has some color problems.

Now I have a flat and small dash cam which lays on a non-slip surface so since two or three years I put the camera every day just on this surface and plug it in which is not a big deal:

Somebody have a pictures from the camera where its mounted behind the mirror from outside?

 

[superpat]

Hi,

I just noticed this listing:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LUKAS-LK-7900 ... 1c314bb8d6

Green sum is advertising a LK-7900 with a built in GPS

What is going on?

Is this a new version? I cannot see a definite statement on the Lukas webstate, one way or the other!

Green sum is also offering:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-LUKAS-LK- ... 1c3157c199

Inquiring minds would like this clarified

cheers

P

 

[Al Drake]

Hi,

I just noticed this listing:-


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LUKAS-LK-7900 ... 1c314bb8d6

Green sum is advertising a LK-7900 with a built in GPS

What is going on?

Is this a new version? I cannot see a definite statement on the Lukas webstate, one way or the other!

Green sum is also offering:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-LUKAS-LK- ... 1c3157c199

Inquiring minds would like this clarified

cheers

P

I'd hold off until you get verification that someone has a working camera. I am having GPS difficulties as posted in another thread.

 

[superpat]

Hi Al,

Yes I saw the posts re GPS and false locations!

It seems that other far eastern cameras have a similar problem.

There are a number of posts in the JAEWONCNC IROAD IONE-3800FU forum that mention the software reporting the GPS is in a completely wrong place.

There appears to be a known problem with the PC software and Google maps. Perhaps a number of the vendors share base PC software, or maybe Google maps is not doing the right thing!

cheers

Patrick

 

[sundash]

Hi Al,

Yes I saw the posts re GPS and false locations!

It seems that other far eastern cameras have a similar problem.

There are a number of posts in the JAEWONCNC IROAD IONE-3800FU forum that mention the software reporting the GPS is in a completely wrong place.

There appears to be a known problem with the PC software and Google maps. Perhaps a number of the vendors share base PC software, or maybe Google maps is not doing the right thing!

cheers

Patrick

I know two sytems "u-blox 6" and "Sirf III". vielleich there are always the same?

 

[Al Drake]

Hi Al,

Yes I saw the posts re GPS and false locations!

It seems that other far eastern cameras have a similar problem.

There are a number of posts in the JAEWONCNC IROAD IONE-3800FU forum that mention the software reporting the GPS is in a completely wrong place.

There appears to be a known problem with the PC software and Google maps. Perhaps a number of the vendors share base PC software, or maybe Google maps is not doing the right thing!

cheers

Patrick

I have no such problems with my ITB-100HD SP. I was waiting to see if others have the same issue with their LUKAS.