Numerous problems with SGGCX2PRO (SOLVED: the camera had no issues, I just hadn't installed it properly.)

[MayCaesar]

Hello everyone,

I bought this dashcam for recording my road trips, after reading a lot of really good reviews with regards to its image quality. Today I installed it in my car (Ford Fusion Hybrid 2015) on the windshield using the stock window mount. After some testing, I was really disappointed with the quality of the footage, and the problems seem quite numerous.

Before starting my tests, I cleaned the camera lens thoroughly, as well as the windshield. Here is what the footage looks like at late afternoon:

https://streamable.com/1bede

3 issues stand out:
1. Incredible blue tint. Almost as if the protective cover had not been removed (it has been, and the lens was cleaned afterwards).
2. Very grainy quality. I'm using the 1920x1080@60Hz resolution and the High quality setting - nonetheless, it is very hard to even read license plates of cars stopped at a red light in front of me.
3. There is constant hissing noise on the background. Inside my car everything is quiet, so this noise must be caused by the camera.

In the evening, I did a thorough cleaning of the lens and the windshield once again and went for another test drive.

https://streamable.com/ps39h

The blue tint seems to have receded somewhat, but it is still noticeable. In addition, all light sources cause wide and bright halos, as if the drive was taking place underwater.

I ordered several high rated lens and tinted window cleaning kits on Amazon, and will see if applying them makes a difference. In the meantime, is there anything that can be tried to resolve these issues by other means? Perhaps there is a way to update the firmware somehow? Or to perform color recalibration? And what can be done about the awful sound quality?

Thanks!

 

[DT MI]

If you have the CPL installed I believe it ships with a protective cover on both sides. If you didn't remove both that would explain the blue cast and possibly the graininess.

The hissing noise sounds to me like it's picking up the air flow from the vents. Try turning your climate control system for a minute to see if it goes away.

 

[MayCaesar]

I removed both covers - however, if I look at the frontal lens surface, it does look somewhat bluish. From reading other threads on these forums, it seems sometimes the residue from the cover adhesive sticks to the lens and has to be removed via very thorough cleaning. I will try doing it tomorrow.

I will also try turning the climate control off to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[DT MI]

...if I look at the frontal lens surface, it does look somewhat bluish....

Check to make sure there's not another protective cover somewhere (check on the camera lens and both sides of the CPL). That much blue would not be caused by residue but does look exactly like a protective cover is in place somewhere.

 

[kamkar]

I don't feel dashcams are the best for road trips recording, the best results i have seen of that kind of recordings have always been with larger camcorders or DSLr cameras.
The main thing IMO are the too large FOV in a dashcam, and also you really would want a higher bitrate for a more detailed and relaxed image.
I only see my dashcams as accident cameras, and idiot in traffic cameras.

Of course a dashcam are a very small footprint on the windscreen Vs a camcorder or DSLr camera.
A 4K camera so you can crop in the footage so you don't have A pillars and dashboard in the end footage would be good.

 

[DT MI]

... In addition, all light sources cause wide and bright halos, as if the drive was taking place underwater.
...

Forgot to mention but that would also be an effect of having a protective cover still in place somewhere.

 

[MayCaesar]

Check to make sure there's not another protective cover somewhere (check on the camera lens and both sides of the CPL). That much blue would not be caused by residue but does look exactly like a protective cover is in place somewhere.

Ah, I looked in the manual on the website here https://streetguardian.info/product/sggcx2pro - and, indeed, it shows a small CPL filter which I don't think I've touched. It could be located under the primary lens, I suppose? Let me see if I can get to it tomorrow and see if it has a cover on it.

I don't feel dashcams are the best for road trips recording, the best results i have seen of that kind of recordings have always been with larger camcorders or DSLr cameras.
The main thing IMO are the too large FOV in a dashcam, and also you really would want a higher bitrate for a more detailed and relaxed image.
I only see my dashcams as accident cameras, and idiot in traffic cameras.

Of course a dashcam are a very small footprint on the windscreen Vs a camcorder or DSLr camera.
A 4K camera so you can crop in the footage so you don't have A pillars and dashboard in the end footage would be good.

This is a fair notion. I mainly selected a dash cam over a camera because of how easy it is to use it, and because of the manageable bit rate. It would be perfect to have a nice 4K camera - but 4K footage takes an incredible amount of space, and hard to manage if we talk about recording road trips dozens hours long.

From what other people managed to achieve with this dash cam, it looks perfectly suitable for my needs. Ideally, I would like to have footage comparable to what youtuber Freewayjim manages to accomplish:

It does not seem impossible from what I've seen of dash cams to reach this level of image quality, or, at least, a comparable one. I do have a high quality video camera as well, and I suppose I could mount it somewhere in the car - but that would require saving all recorded data every couple of hours on an external hard drive, which I would really like to avoid.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

The CPL clips onto the lens, not under. If you have the CPL attached, remove it and make sure you have removed the protective covers from both sides.

 

[MayCaesar]

The CPL clips onto the lens, not under. If you have the CPL attached, remove it and make sure you have removed the protective covers from both sides.
View attachment 43729

Let me take a look tomorrow. When I looked at the lens, I did see a pretty obvious blue tint, that did not seem removable by cleaning, so perhaps what I was looking at was not actually the lens, but the CPL filter instead.

And indeed, I found all the displayed components in my package, except for the CPL Filter. So it has to be attached to the camera.

I'll post again tomorrow afternoon to see if that was it.

 

[jokiin]

unclip the CPL filter and remove the blue plastic from the lens

 

[Deacon]

unclip the CPL filter and remove the blue plastic from the lens

You laugh but seriously this is why I suggested the whole plastic protective film be a hi-vis color like neon yellow or orange and ideally totally opaque

 

[jokiin]

You laugh but seriously this is why I suggested the whole plastic protective film be a hi-vis color like neon yellow or orange and ideally totally opaque

we added a red pull tab on the latest production already

 

[Deacon]

It can only help!

 

[jokiin]

It can only help!

hopefully

 

[kamkar]

and hard to manage

Indeed the 9 hour road trip i recorded last year was a pain to get thru on my not that shabby computer, recorded in 1080/60, break down to 1 hour segments, upscale to 4K in post, and speed every hour up to last just 10 minutes or so.

At least i got that one day of summer in 2017 on tape.

Recorded on my SJ6 Legend.

 

[MayCaesar]

Thank you all for the help! It is embarrassing to admit, but I had missed not one, but two lens covers! One was right under the main lens, another was on the CPL filter.

After removing them both, and after the upscaling of the original video from 1080p to UHD, the quality is absolutely stunning, far better than I anticipated. Today was a snowy and rainy day, which is perfect for testing the diffraction effects, and here is the footage of a 20 minute test drive I took today:

(Apologies for the watermark; I do need to buy the full version of Filmora.)

The colors are very vibrant, the level of details is great even after the Youtube post-processing, and no serious diffraction halos are present. I think this is the level of quality that will allow for publishable road trips.

The only problem is the audio track still has that white noise. I turned off the climate control system for today's drive, so inside the car everything was perfectly quiet - yet the noise is still there. It is not a problem for my purposes, as, similar to kamkar1, I intend to speed videos up and cut off the audio track - but it still would be interesting to get at the bottom of this.

Indeed the 9 hour road trip i recorded last year was a pain to get thru on my not that shabby computer, recorded in 1080/60, break down to 1 hour segments, upscale to 4K in post, and speed every hour up to last just 10 minutes or so.

At least i got that one day of summer in 2017 on tape.

Recorded on my SJ6 Legend.

Nice! This is exactly the sort of footage I'm interested in producing. Upscaling and publishing the video takes a large amount of time: this 20 minute video took over an hour to go through the entire process. But, luckily, after the initial setup, it just takes time for it to complete, and no manual involvement is needed, so it is workable.

An action camera seems to be a better choice for this than a dash cam, even if it takes more work to edit the video. A 4K GoPro camera could be ideal, potentially.

I'm embarking on a very long road trip starting this Sunday, that will take over 3 weeks and over 5,000 miles worth of driving. Let's see how the footage compares to what people get with action cameras. I think the higher field of view of the dash cam may be a boon in certain landscapes, such as rocky mountains, as it will create the feeling of immersion - but I'm a bit concerned that the image quality will not hold up. So far it seems very good, however.

 

[TonyM]

An action camera seems to be a better choice for this than a dash cam, even if it takes more work to edit the video. A 4K GoPro camera could be ideal, potentially.

The 4K Gitup F1 with 90deg lens might be a good option to consider. It has a dashcam mode and will be less conspicuous mounted on the screen than a GoPro. The narrow FOV could crop out the dashboard at source, if that's the view you want - like the example clip you linked to.

 

[WeedeaterDM]

Glad you got it figured out, SG are great cameras. I had missed a lens cover on one of my cameras when I was in a hurry trying to get it set up for an out of state trip. It was evident in my "Getting Pulled Over?" clip. Slowly getting a clip together from the thinkware f770. Had the X2s on the sides. But ran into an issue where my editing program (Video Pad) doesn't like one of the files and locks up solid while rendering.

 

[kamkar]

Yes just have to be careful with action cameras, some overheat and last year a guy in here almost melted a SJ7 star using it as dashcam.
But they do carry a larger bitrate and so stand a chance of making better footage in so far as having less blocking which cameras do when they cant keep up processing all the info.

Good luck on your road trip, i would do the same if i ever got to the US again, but it would be at least a 4 month long road trip.

This guy use to post in here, do nice stuff and even loaded with a little INFO too
https://www.youtube.com/user/blessedhomosapiens

 

[MayCaesar]

Thank you for all the advice, guys! I will consider getting an action camera in the future and think about how to solve the overheating problems if they arise; for now let's see how the dash cam does. I will return home around January 15th and start putting the trip footage together.

Good luck on your road trip, i would do the same if i ever got to the US again, but it would be at least a 4 month long road trip.

Thanks! I'm slightly worried, as I've never done such long road trips before (the longest one was a 1800 mile trip, from Indiana to eastern Virginia and back), but also very excited. I'd love to take a 4 month trip, but the schedule doesn't allow for it. Regardless, 3.5 weeks should be more than enough to see a lot.

I'm mainly interested in the nature, such as different national parks and remote areas. Not so much attracted to large noisy cities, although I'll definitely visit a few landmark ones. Starting southbound, through Tennessee and Georgia to Florida, then to western Texas along the coast, and then back to Virginia. Will see how it goes!