Rear Camera not great for license plates???

Aronis

Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2019
Messages
45
Reaction score
17
Country
United States
I tried to pull a plate from a car that passed me going the other way, I was on a side street so the car was within feet of mine. I was disappointed at the images. Perhaps I don't have my camera set up right? I think it's on the max resolution for the rear camera. So basically the rear camera appears to be useless for id'ing a car behind you??

Mike
 
As a matter of fact, as per my own experience last week, in a dark highway you won’t be able to pull a license plate neither from the front nor from rear cam for a car passing you at 90mph, while driving at 80mph

I am using max settings 4K ... etc
 
hehe i have been playing a little with this issue too, though front and rear camera have not been the same, then it do feel like getting a plate capture out of the rear window are much harder than out the front window.
Dunno why it is this way, but it is a feeling i have developed over the past years.

This was on Danish highway where both i and the car going the other way do 80 km/h, which are the fastest head to head traffic you can get here, and faster roads and you need some form of divider in between the 2 directions of traffic.
 
No low light / darkness and the speed difference between camera car and target car must be walking speed or slower, at least thats how it feel to me.
Hence when you see demos of dashcams in night time, it are often in a town that have a high ambient light level at night, and in traffic that don't move all too fast in relation to each other.

Personally i don't mind plate capture much though hit and run are on the up in Denmark ( cyclist hit by one yesterday died today )
I do use it for testing cameras though in good weather pretty much all but the most crappy cameras can capture i large EU plate, and in lesser light its a dime toss that have often perplexed me as i one day gotten plenty of plate captures and the day after seemingly in the same lighting conditions i get close to no plates captured.
I can only assume what look to be the same weather are really not the same, or dashcams are actually able to choose unfortunate settings once in a while.
 
Here are 10 frames, basically useless to ID anything. LMAO.benz 1.jpegbenz 2.jpegbenz 3.jpegbenz 4.jpegbenz 4.jpegbenz 5.jpegbenz 6.jpegbenz 7.jpegbenz 8.jpegbenz 9.jpegbenz 10.jpeg
 
front camera is pretty good for this. Or rather acceptable. LOL.
 
I have a pretty flat and vertical rear window wit the lens 1 mm from the glass so i don't have any heater elements in the footage, and i also have CPL on that camera too.
 
That's the flaw behind 1080p 30fps resolution. It's not good for picking up number plates more than like 5 metres behind you. The front dash cam does an excellent job though, since it's 4k. You can read stationary number plates up to about 7 metres away with the rear cam. With the front 4k dash cam, you can read number plates up to about 30 metres ahead of you.
 
And what was the point of cluttering up the tread with 10 virtually identical frames?
 
I tried to pull a plate from a car that passed me going the other way,
If the car passed you, did the front 4K camera get a better capture of the plate?
 
it do feel like getting a plate capture out of the rear window are much harder than out the front window
Rear screens are more often tinted than front screens. Light conditions such as the angle of the sun can play a big part in whether the front or back camera records a clearer picture.
 
If the car passed you, did the front 4K camera get a better capture of the plate?
No. I was pulling out of parking lot so my car was at an angle. I would post a photo but it would bother M8TJT. Thus the market for side cameras does exist.
 
Yes, side cameras do have some benefit if what you want to capture is beyond the view of either your front or rear cameras.
 
Here are 10 frames, basically useless to ID anything. LMAO.
Kind of a useless waste of bandwidth to share these as well
 
Thank you Ralph. That was my poi too. If someone says that can't read a number plate with their cam, we kinda believe them and don't need 10 almost identical pics to demonstrate it.
 
Thus the market for side cameras does exist.

Not quite true, actually. Although there is an interest, there is no "market" for side cameras as there are no dedicated side cams commercially available so far because of the challenge of designing one that works universally and doesn't interfere with side curtain airbags. For all of us who have been experimenting with and using lateral facing cameras over the years it has been a DIY effort.

Personally, I wouldn't be without side cams at this point, along with a good performing rear facing camera. This BlackVue is hardly worth the effort from the looks of it, especially considering the bright lighting conditions and relatively modest traffic speeds.
 
Last edited:
Outside of the primary camera on the windscreen and rear window my #1 are still my zoom camera, but i also have to admit that i would prefer to have side cameras too.
I assume the main culprit for the rear footage to be underwhelming are a low bitrate on the footage, otherwise 1080p should be adequate.

And yes side cameras are much DIY at this stage, but things are lightning up with dual remote systems, and remote cameras shrinking in size too, cuz IMO the smaller your camera is the easier it is to install on the side of your car.
And i will never go to outside installed cameras, thats simply too much to ask i feel.
 
Back
Top