My brand new SG9665GC V3 is not performing as expected!

[thancam]

Remove plastic on CPL filter too

 

[Leszek]

Lens was cleaned. It is brand new unit, but before i mounted it I had cleaned it anyway. Same with CPL, it was clean, plastic was removed. Windshield was a bit dirty/greasy, so I have cleaned it today few times with some dedicated fluids before taking test-drive No 2. I have also removed CPL filter for sample2 video.

Here is sample2:
WDR: on, CPL: off (put on at 6:45 for comparison)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m6l3cixdr0vkkyf/night sample 2.MP4?dl=0
i think the quality is better, but no spectacular change. If i hadn't seen other samples i would have said that quality is good, but comparing to other samples, well, it looks poor. Others' video looks like HD, unlike mine. Flares have not disappear also. On top of that, i found 2 pixels. See screenshot:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nz0dsj584qulrgw/pixels.jpeg?dl=0

I will try another cleaning tomorrow as well, but don't think this will help much. Any ideas what the problem could be and what to do?

 

[jokiin]

will have a look once your files finish uploading

 

[Leszek]

upload finished.

 

[jokiin]

will download as soon as I get to the office and have a look

where did you purchase from?

 

[Leszek]

I purchased from Amazon UK.

 

[jokiin]

ok thanks

 

[thancam]

im curious. It was not raining at this moment but there is a light streak. i havent seen it in good weather footages. @jokiin Do you know why and how ?

 

[jokiin]

im curious. It was not raining at this moment but there is a light streak. i havent seen it in good weather footages. @jokiin Do you know why and how ?

most often from dirty windows or glass that is pitted

 

[niko]

I have cleaned it today few times with some dedicated fluids

overall quality looks good, can even read license plates of other cars moving at the same speed ( screenshots below ), but yeah, there is a flare which can be caused by few factors.

- What exact dedicated fluids did you use ? Any brand, make, or link to the product ?
- have you also cleaned your car windshield from inside as well ?
- how good (bad) is your windshield for small scratches and tiny stone chips ?

For few hot pixels fix I have sent you (PM) instruction on how to fix this. Please check your PM inbox and reply me from there if assistance needed.

 

[nephilim]

I cannot watch the video at the moment but looking at the images posted above it seems the flare is curved and following the path of the wipers. Even if the windscreen is clean it might have tiny scratches, caused by e.g. fine sand. I had this on one of my cars and it was driving me crazy!

As a quick test you could attach the camera to a different window or simply stop the car in a place with streetslights like above and take the camera out of the car and let it record the same scene w/o the windscreen in between.

 

[Leszek]

- What exact dedicated fluids did you use ? Any brand, make, or link to the product ?
- have you also cleaned your car windshield from inside as well ?

brand W5:
first:
https://www.lidl.de/de/w5-multi-fett-reiniger/p183554 - to remove grease from inside
then
https://www.lidl.de/de/w5-glasreiniger/p10350 - to final cleaning from inside
That is what I had at home yesterday.
I focused mostly on inside as I saw most of the grease inside the windshield. Windshield from outside was washed with the wipers.
Do you think I should use different brand/liquids? I might want to go to the shop today and buy something dedicated for car windshields and do the cleaning again.

- how good (bad) is your windshield for small scratches and tiny stone chips ?

I have no idea how good/bad is the windshield for small scratches, but I haven't notice any for few years. Couple weeks ago a small stone hit the shield and I could not see any scratch afterwards. Maybe a stupid question, but is there a way to check how good the windshield is for that?

overall quality looks good, can even read license plates of other cars moving at the same speed ( screenshots below ), but yeah, there is a flare which can be caused by few factors.

What I am still wondering about and can't come to the reason is the overall video quality. I mean, quality looks good, like you said. License plates can be read most of the time, which is great. However, please have a look at this video posted on this forum:

and then have a look at mine. You will notice big difference in the quality. It is like comparing 720 to 1080 or something. I wouldn't have brought this if i hadn't seen this difference. StreetGuardian is known of its great quality at night and seeing this difference between my videos and other samples I am just wondering why it can differ so much.

 

[jokiin]

buy proper automotive glass cleaner, if you use cleaner with Ammonia in it can easily cause this problem, automotive glass cleaner will be marked as safe for tinted windows

 

[Leszek]

As a quick test you could attach the camera to a different window or simply stop the car in a place with streetslights like above and take the camera out of the car and let it record the same scene w/o the windscreen in between.

Sounds good, I will put video after testing.

 

[Leszek]

buy proper automotive glass cleaner, if you use cleaner with Ammonia in it can easily cause this problem, automotive glass cleaner will be marked as safe for tinted windows

Will do and perform the tests again. This should remove the flares effect to some extent.
If the flares are going to stay anyway, and probably because of me being not able to clean the windshield properly (or scratches on it), i can live with that, but what bothers me the most at the moment is the overall video quality :/

 

[jokiin]

Will do and perform the tests again. This should remove the flares effect to some extent.
If the flares are going to stay anyway, and probably because of me being not able to clean the windshield properly (or scratches on it), i can live with that, but what bothers me the most at the moment is the overall video quality :/

actually as pointed out in the screenshots @niko posted earlier the video looks quite alright aside from the flaring, a clean window can make a lot of difference though so there still may be some gains to be had

comparing to other video taken elsewhere is never going to work, different place and time will show different results always

 

[Leszek]

actually as pointed out in the screenshots @niko posted earlier the video looks quite alright aside from the flaring, a clean window can make a lot of difference though so there still may be some gains to be had
comparing to other video taken elsewhere is never going to work, different place and time will show different results always

I posted link to this particular video, but I have compared to many other samples at complete night and the perception is pretty much the same.
I agree that different place and time can have some influence. What I am trying to compare is videos in complete night, thus time should not make much difference. Most of the scenes are quite the same, road lights, traffic lights and moderate traffic. The same difference is seen between any video at night comparing to mine.
I will clean the windshield again with something better liquids and do the testing again.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

buy proper automotive glass cleaner, if you use cleaner with Ammonia in it can easily cause this problem, automotive glass cleaner will be marked as safe for tinted windows

Agree, and when I clean the windows I wipe horizontally on the inside, and vertically on the outside. That way you can see at a glance if you missed anything and whether it is on the inside or outside.

 

[jokiin]

Agree, and when I clean the windows I wipe horizontally on the inside, and vertically on the outside. That way you can see at a glance if you missed anything and whether it is on the inside or outside.

that's a real good tip

 

[Leszek]

buy proper automotive glass cleaner, if you use cleaner with Ammonia in it can easily cause this problem, automotive glass cleaner will be marked as safe for tinted windows

Do you use the same stuff for inside and outside cleaning? (can be a lame question, I know).