Odd colour cast on video with a BlackVue DR500GW ?

[Estoril Sport]

I have two cameras a Roadhawk HD and a BlackVue DR500GW I have been comparing the two. One major thing I have noticed with the BlackVue DR500GW that it has a strong yellow cast which is very noticeable on brick houses. I first thought it was the low sun position however I don't get this with the Roadhawk HD. I have tried to corrected the problem in Adobe Premiere with limited success, however I feel that should not need to do this correction.

The photos are below have no colour correction.

Have other users noticed this with their blackVue DR500GW?

 

[Estoril Sport]

I have added two direct screen grabs from the BlackVue HD software, these appear to even worse!

I emailed the retailer providing the photos and received the following reply "I don’t see a fault with the camera, different makes of camera will reproduce colour in slightly different ways depending on how the manufacture has set up the settings for the sensor." So this is normal from Pittasoft quality control?

I have not see this problem on other videos demonstrating the BlackVue DR500GW or any other video camera in fact! hence the query if other owners also get this problem with there BlackVue camera?

Surely this yellow casting can not be normal!

This abnormality appears when the sun is directly shining on to an object before dusk.

 

[Hillbilly]

Never seen that before Looks a bit odd

 

[Chris Lipscombe]

Mine does not have this color cast. As a photographer, it looks like a white balance issue, but I have seen no settings for white balance in the Blackvue configuration.

Is your brightness setting at the default setting?

Have you tried using the SD Format Tool to totally erase the MicroSD card, and then reinstall the latest firmware onto the card. If there is any sort of corruption with the Blackvue firmware or firmware settings, this could resolve the issue.

Reinstall the firmware (perhaps latest 1.011 firmware) from your computer, not just format the card in the blackvue itself.

Also ... is there any sort of tinting the Blackvue may be looking through on your windshield ... like the bottom of that blue strip on top of a lot of windows to reduce sun glare?

 

[Estoril Sport]

Mine does not have this color cast. As a photographer, it looks like a white balance issue

Yes that is what I thought, however the yellow casting only appears when the sun is directly shinning on the white object, in shadow white does appear to be OK. I have uprated to the latest firmware (1.011) Its a pity that in the software their is no option to alter the video such as contrast, Gamma, or WB. Yes my brightness is set to normal (default) settings. I have not tried to reformat the SD card yet as I am not experiencing ant other issues. May be that Pittasoft do not consider customers who live in northern climates where the sun keeps relatively low (to the horizon in the winter months.

The Reseller has agreed to exchange my existing BlackVue DR500GW to a replacement, however the Reseller is stating that this's effect normal???

 

[Chris Lipscombe]

At least you are getting a response from where you purchased yours ... I am still waiting for Blackview.ca to get back to me about my issues. I am hoping that they are just on holidays and will get back to me next week.

I am fairly far north .... London, Ontario, Canada ... and enjoying balmy -20'C temperatures ... but I have not seen that strong color cast on mine.

The only other thing I can see going wrong, aside from a defective unit, is if you have tinting on top of your windshield, and you have the BV set up looking through the bottom of the tint. That could screw up the BV trying to compensate for the white balance.

 

[Estoril Sport]

I previously forgot to mention that I do not have a tinted sun visor at the top of the windscreen however the windscreen does have a transparent sun reflector film to help and reduce heat in the car in the summer (this is factory option with BMW's called 'Climate Comfort' windscreen). If the Roadhawk were suffering the same problem then I would start to wonder if the 'Climate Comfort' windscreen was having an adverse effect on the BlackVue DR500GW.

 

[Estoril Sport]

I received my replacement BlackVue DR500GW yesterday from the "Official UK Distributer" not impressed!

The replacement appears to be used camera unit as the clear plastic wrap abound the main cylinder had already been removed. I handed over the faulty camera unit and the guy took it away and a few minutes later he came back just with a camera unit. I tested the replacement camera unit today and I am still getting the same problem in direct sunlight .

Also the having some inconsistency with the 'Park mode'. I have set the Power Magic Pro to infinity however last night it recorded between 16:00 t0 23:00 then nothing till 04:00 till 11:00 am, why did it not record between 24:00 and 03:59??? I may have misunderstood the parking mode?

Considering buying another RoadHawk HD as the picture quality is much better. Plus so call added benefits of the BlackVue DR500GW such as the Wifi feature is a nice idea but just too slow transferring the files over, its quicker to remove the camera unit and insert the SD card directly into the Computer!

 

[Chris Lipscombe]

Don't worry about parking mode. It will only record in parking mode when it detects there was movement in the scene. You can even adjust this motion sensor to be more or less sensitive in settings.

 

[Estoril Sport]

Thanks Chris, I did wounder if the motion sensor is currently set too sensitive as last night it did rain in the night and this might have set off the Parking mode! I will try and reduce the sensitivity of the Park mode to see if this helps.

 

[Chris Lipscombe]

I find that even with a setting of 1, moving leaves on trees still cause the bv to record. Doesn't really bother me though. Not sure if a setting of zero turns off the motion sensor or not.