My brand new SG9665GC V3 is not performing as expected!

[thancam]

So is it possible that my car window's clarity properties change with heat?,, and that my front windshield becomes blurry under heat load?...because that would have to be what your possibly suggesting....
Does not seem feasible.
CRS

there are many factor effect to image quality. Example: in my city, the image quality has been effected by air pollution. I didn't know that for a very long time until someday, i took a footage after it's rain and it's good and clear as many footages i had seen on internet.

 

[Harsh]

These are from today, was 43° C till around 5 - 5:30 PM.

 

[flip9]

So is it possible that my car window's clarity properties change with heat?,, and that my front windshield becomes blurry under heat load?...because that would have to be what your possibly suggesting....
Does not seem feasible.
CRS

Its a long shot but it is possible. Glass does expands and contract. Not noticeable by the human eye but massive in terms of wavelengths of light.

It might not necessarily be from high heat but a temperature differential between the inside of the car and the outside. Even a $200,000 telescope needs to cool down to ambient before its optically usable.

Also theres poor quality replacement windscreens (non-OEM) with awful distortions. Google XYG windscreens, they have a bad reputation for supplying sub standard glass all over the world.

Again, its a long shot thats why test it outside the car first.

 

[CRS 123]

These are from today, was 43° C till around 5 - 5:30 PM.

View attachment 30337

Was the camera exposed to direct sunlight, or are you stating outside ambient temperature? It looks relative shaded in these screen grabs.
CRS

 

[Harsh]

Was the camera exposed to direct sunlight, or are you stating outside ambient temperature? It looks relative shaded in these screen grabs.
CRS

The camera was exposed to direct sunlight while driving for over 3 hours and also when parked twice for over 30 minutes. The screen grabs are from a little later, the temperature had still not let. Screen shots correspond to the time I photographed the MID.

 

[CRS 123]

The camera was exposed to direct sunlight while driving for over 3 hours and also when parked twice for over 30 minutes. The screen grabs are from a little later, the temperature had still not let. Screen shots correspond to the time I photographed the MID.

Interesting. Your shots look clear. My camera would blur in direct sun heat, even with mild outside ambient temps, so not a blazing hot day. After parking in the shade for 15 or 20 minutes, it would be clear, until it was again exposed to sun heat. The effect is not to be confused with sun flare or ghosting. I'm wondering is some faulty internal components degrade the bit depth or something under heat load. My 2 guardian V 3 units are going in the mail tomorrow, I'm hopeful the engineers can recreate the issue and find a cause. Most likely, since there are so many happy end users with this camera, I perhaps got a couple bad sample. If it can happen with $4000 DSLR cameras, it can happen with dash cams
CRS

 

[jokiin]

could be sensor fault, hard to say until we get them back and can have a look

 

[Q-BiC]

Could you show us the whole video, or short, like 30 seconds, is good enough.
Or could you turn you velocity display on ?
Cant judge shift focus by a few single frames.
the statis frames are:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/gn8pe2vvk6mp2xw/normal2.jpg
and
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xv7qbtqiiq00ulp/soft2.jpg
are fine. which coner has more light, then more clearly. Totally nomal.

No it's not "normal". Yes, the left hand side is normal (as opposed to my original SG which was affected across the frame, admittedly at higher outside temperatures than today). And yes the sun has shifted left to right, but if that's what's causing the softness, than you are saying any sun in the frame would cause softness, which wouldn't exactly be a great selling point for any dashcam, but which is also obviously not the case or the "normal" frame above would be blurry on the left, where the sun is. It isn't.

Or when I left that parking spot and turned left, the sun would be out of the frame, then sharpness should return. It didn't. (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/65rw5xjrqzif67b/normal1.jpg vs https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/vy51bp545vidrov/soft1.jpg )

I'm not sure I want to go grab a hairdryer and put it on full blast on the cam for a few minutes, with the cam detached from the car and on a cloudy day, just to prove the point it's exclusively temp related, but I will if I have to

Actually to judge sharpness, stills are easier to compare than video, but I've extracted some samples using Registrator Viewer.

Normal 1: (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/65rw5xjrqzif67b/normal1.jpg & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/gn8pe2vvk6mp2xw/normal2.jpg were taken from here)
=> https://dl.dropbox.com/s/b9sgtxnqb1lyu7s/normal1.MOV

Soft 1: (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xv7qbtqiiq00ulp/soft2.jpg & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/vy51bp545vidrov/soft1.jpg were taken from here)
=> https://dl.dropbox.com/s/brgotkugbch7xo5/soft1.MOV

Normal 2: (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/kafogy8y0ow24v4/normal3.jpg & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/q2zydl3i9x4vqhh/normal4.jpg were taken from here)
=> https://dl.dropbox.com/s/yvvafjosnwspzkg/normal2.MOV
You can see when driving along the fence that the extreme right hand side isn't 100% sharp either (less sharp than the left hand side), but it's acceptable and not as worse as the following sample, which was taken on a cloudless day (higher inside temperature as I just left the parking lot). Still at only 12°C outside, I can only imagine how it will look like in July at 30°C.

Soft 2: (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/l5w7cow6dmcj4dp/soft3.jpg & https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/s93iqyin26wq2g9/soft4.jpg were taken from here)
=> https://dl.dropbox.com/s/q6ys96y2fnql347/soft2.MOV

 

[Q-BiC]

Its a long shot but it is possible. Glass does expands and contract. Not noticeable by the human eye but massive in terms of wavelengths of light.

It might not necessarily be from high heat but a temperature differential between the inside of the car and the outside. Even a $200,000 telescope needs to cool down to ambient before its optically usable.

Also theres poor quality replacement windscreens (non-OEM) with awful distortions. Google XYG windscreens, they have a bad reputation for supplying sub standard glass all over the world.

Again, its a long shot thats why test it outside the car first.

No offence, but it's actually unreasonably long...
My first SG had the problem across the frame, so your argument could theoretically hold up. However, my second SG seems to have the problem limited to the right half of the frame (at lower temperatures, but it might just as well "grow" to the whole frame as weather improves, I don't know at this point). So that would mean my windshield would expand and distort only on the right...
Than there's the fact that looking through that windshield yields a sharp view no mather the sun's angle or interior car temp.
Conclusion: impossible
And Occam's Razor.

I find your argument of "not noticeable to the human eye but noticeable to a camera" kind of far fetched, but it could easily be disproved by pointing my smartphone, tablet, DSLR & compact camera at the "affected" side of the windshield to show they see no difference. Or to let the car heat up first with the SG outside, and only then attach the cam to show the image is sharp. But, temperature can't be shown on screengrabs and video's so people would still not believe me and blame variables they can see instead of feel. So probably a lot of work for nothing and I think I've already spent a more than reasonable amount of time playing unpaid beta-tester of something I already paid for... :/


It's good to hear not everyone is having this issue, but that doesn't exactly reassure me my 3rd SG9665GCV3 will be problem free. So now it seems I have the option of sending both back for testing and driving cam-less for a couple of weeks, or a refund and finding an alternative. (Which will be hard as buying the SG in the first place wasn't an impulse buy, so what cam would be equal or better (and problem free) for the same price, I don't know... (I bought it with a 64GB card and CPL for 209EUR/225USD including shipping.)

 

[thancam]

I'm not sure I want to go grab a hairdryer and put it on full blast on the cam for a few minutes, with the cam detached from the car and on a cloudy day, just to prove the point it's exclusively temp related, but I will if I have to

I think it's a good ideal. It's a good way to find what trust is.
And in order to find its out of focus or not. You dont need to bring it outside to do the test. Do in in your room with enough light and the same view.

 

[Q-BiC]

I could try it tomorrow; cam on the garden table, hairdryer pointed at the lens, recording as it happens.
(To do it properly though, I would need an infrared thermometer to match the temps, which I don't have )

 

[nephilim]

I could try it tomorrow; cam on the garden table, hairdryer pointed at the lens, recording as it happens.
(To do it properly though, I would need an infrared thermometer to match the temps, which I don't have )

Actually this was my idea for today but I was busy finishing the garden irrigation system instead. As mentioned briefly earlier in this thread, I think my sample might be affected as well (dreamy/soft look after the sun has heated up the cam). I have hairdryer and infrared thermometer at hand and certainly will do the test you mentioned. Not sure if it will happen this weekend - I might get strange looks from my wife

 

[daniel_bel]

I might get strange looks from my wife

Alas! Domestic personnel have lost respect these days...
I think Benard Palissy also had problems while burning the furniture.

 

[Leszek]

Hi guys,
I have just bought this dash cam and I was really excited about it. Reviews seemed to be great, size of it is perfect, i do not need parking mode. Looking at video samples it seems that video quality is very good... well, but not in my unit. I just drove at night. what I have noticed is that video has very high noise (in terms of video, not audio). I was comparing to many other videos uploaded here and elsewhere too, but it looks like no video has as much noise as mine.

Version: SG9665GC V.3
Firmware: November 2016

here is sample:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lijo97syy4zw6q3/night sample.MP4?dl=0
WDR: on, CPL filter: on.

At the end of the video, where gap can bee seen (with the bus) i paused recording to increase contrast by 1 to test a little bit, but this should not affect noise.
I understand that CPL filter can affect a bit the video, but i have watched samples with CPL on and off. No video is that noisy. I am not picky about glares, because this I understand can be a result of not fully clean window, but the noise... it is really high.
If this is not the right place to put this post, let me know. But i think the title says what really is happening with my cam.
Any help much appreciated.

 

[jokiin]

downloading now, will have a look

 

[jokiin]

can you make sure the lens and filter is clean and your windscreen is clean inside and out and make another video, the massive flaring from the lights is not normal at all and would indicate a problem but that is normally caused by refraction from dirty window etc, if you can clean and retest we can confirm that one way or the other

 

[DT MI]

...the massive flaring from the lights is not normal at all and would indicate a problem but that is normally caused by refraction from dirty window etc...

My thoughts as well. Looks like it could be a finger/thumb print smeared across the lens/CPL.

 

[jokiin]

My thoughts as well. Looks like it could be a finger/thumb print smeared across the lens/CPL.

can never rule out some odd hardware fault, it does happen from time to time but always need to go through the basics first to make sure it's not something as simple as a fingerprint, wouldn't be the first time

 

[DT MI]

can never rule out some odd hardware fault, it does happen from time to time but always need to go through the basics first to make sure it's not something as simple as a fingerprint, wouldn't be the first time

Just to satisfy my 'intellectual' curiosity could a finger print smear on the sensor cause this (or any) type of aberration? I know that dust on the sensors of my dSLRs can easily be seen in the images but not so sure about a finger smear. Just something I've wondered about for a while so this seems like a good time to ask.

 

[jokiin]

something on the sensor for sure could do it, very rare for that to happen but can never rule out human error