Rear camera placement

[Airborne]

I have my front done and ran the wire for the rear camera. Did anyone mount there camera to the bottom of a pickup rear window. I was thinking of doing this. I guess I will not know till I power the camera up. Does the camera switch from front camera to rear camera, Maybe there is a split screen? Or must you install SD card to computer and view the filming? How does this work?
Also there was a lad on here that sent me a link for viewing the camera split screen. Some sort of program to download.

 

[kamkar]

If you put it at the bottom i fear the bed will block a lot of the view, seem bad enough when it are installed on the top of the cab rear window.
Down low stuff on your bed also stand a larger chance of blocking the view out back, at least more so than if the camera are mounted as high as possible.
I think you can choose either channel to be displayed or PIP on the camera LCD screen, PIP i think have the front camera are the large picture and the rear are a tiny little window on top of that.
I don't care much for this as really you can not see it anyway while driving, the screen are too small for that and at a angle so in the daytime you can barely see anything at all in my car, at night you can see some but not anything worth looking at or displaying.
Regrading playback i don't know if or what software viofo offer or can be used, when i review footage on the computer i just look at the front footage using the media player that come with windows 10.

It is rare i use any of the footage from the rear camera, but i did include some to the police for the guy i turned in a few weeks ago driving his motorcycle on the bicycle path and so also passing queued up cars on the right.

 

[EGS]

If you put it at the bottom i fear the bed will block a lot of the view, seem bad enough when it are installed on the top of the cab rear window.
Down low stuff on your bed also stand a larger chance of blocking the view out back, at least more so than if the camera are mounted as high as possible.
I think you can choose either channel to be displayed or PIP on the camera LCD screen, PIP i think have the front camera are the large picture and the rear are a tiny little window on top of that.
I don't care much for this as really you can not see it anyway while driving, the screen are too small for that and at a angle so in the daytime you can barely see anything at all in my car, at night you can see some but not anything worth looking at or displaying.
Regrading playback i don't know if or what software viofo offer or can be used, when i review footage on the computer i just look at the front footage using the media player that come with windows 10.

It is rare i use any of the footage from the rear camera, but i did include some to the police for the guy i turned in a few weeks ago driving his motorcycle on the bicycle path and so also passing queued up cars on the right.

I agree wit kamkar1. By placing the camera to the top of the window the better chance you have at capturing the license plate numbers from the vehicle behind you.

 

[Airborne]

Lots of good tips, you would be hard to use screen on this camera,it is too small for. My eyes, plus the camera is at 45 decrees on the front window making it worst yet. Too bad there is not a harness or device to view on my Entune radio,that would be cool. I am sure someone can make a plug and play box.
I installed a front camera that works off the Entune radio and it was plug and play. They are always out of stock for this box and for a little over a 100 bucks it is a steal. Totally plug and play. Amazon sells them but I bought mine off of eBay, and it shipped from Hong Kong and I had it in 7 days

 

[kamkar]

Yep.
It is a smaller than usual window of opportunity as with the bed of the truck + angle of camera you are already at least 1 - 2 car length out back when the camera can see the plate on the car behind, and these wide angle lenses on dashcams don't do well with larger distances and readability of a little thing like a plate.

We Danes / EU boys are fortunate in 2 ways.
1: the size of our plates and lack of graphics on them.
2: we must have a plate both front and rear.

 

[Dashmellow]

I have my front done and ran the wire for the rear camera. Did anyone mount there camera to the bottom of a pickup rear window. I was thinking of doing this. I guess I will not know till I power the camera up. Does the camera switch from front camera to rear camera, Maybe there is a split screen? Or must you install SD card to computer and view the filming? How does this work?
Also there was a lad on here that sent me a link for viewing the camera split screen. Some sort of program to download.

You want the camera as high up on your rear truck cab window as possible. I don't agree with @kamkar1 about it being "bad enough when it are installed on the top of the cab rear window". He and I have had this discussion before and in my opinion he doesn't understand what a pick-up truck driver's dash cam requirements and priorities are (assuming you don't have a cap on your truck) It requires a different approach and different logic than a typical sedan or hatchback.

Here is an old screen shot I roll out every time this subject comes up:

With the camera mounted at the top of your rear window you get very good coverage of the road behind you and importantly you get coverage of the bed and the sides of the bed. If someone impacts the side of your truck bed (or your tailgate) you will capture the incident. In addition, if you use the camera when you leave the truck parked somewhere you will have surveillance of any cargo you are carrying in the event of theft or tampering. Some people argue that you won't get coverage of a car that is close-in near your rear bumper but I never (well almost never) find that to be a problem as you pretty much always capture the license plate of any vehicle as they approach your rear bumper.

 

[kamkar]

By bad enough i also just mean you loose 1 car length where you could have seen more small stuff, in general you see plenty as your pic also demonstrate, i would personally be perfectly happy with a setup like that.
Though with my addiction i might also put a zoom camera on the rear window just to be sure.
Not least if i was a American and lived in a state where only 1 plate are needed,,,,, now i don't know if that must then be front plates or rear plates.
My common sense tell me if there are only 1 plate it must be the rear one as that's most likely what you will see if you try to identify a car on the run.

 

[Dashmellow]

Yes, that's why I have a narrower focal length lens on the rear camera. But I agree about the value of a zoom or telephoto on the rear and have been thinking of adding one.

 

[kamkar]

Using your photo as a guide line, one can also imagine that if your camera had been a foot / foot and a half lower at the bottom of your rear window, then you would barely be able to see if there was a plate on the front of that semi even further out back.
And that car well you would probably only see the windscreen and what is higher at the distance in the pic, you would not see his plate for sure with the camera that low.

 

[Dashmellow]

That's true. And these days I have the camera pointed slightly lower than in the photo above. I've discovered that I don't need quite so much sky in the image which usually gives me better exposures and better coverage of the bed and the sides. And this also helps with my overlapping four camera 360º coverage.

 

[kamkar]

Be advised i still think plates are not everything, i hope i never have to focus that much on that little thing.
Good general footage i do want, and plates don't bother me though hit and run are also massive on the up in this little country.

 

[Airborne]

Here in Pa, just plates on the back, now in New York 100 miles east they have plates in the front and rear. My reasoning, there should be plates on the front and back ,in all the states. It would keep prisoners busy also..

 

[Airborne]

I hope I get that good of a coverage on my truck. It has factory tint.

 

[Dashmellow]

I don't know the FOV provided by the rear camera on the A129. It should probably be fine even if it is a bit wider than on my truck above (116º). Maybe somebody can post an example.

 

[Airborne]

Guys, all I know, Thank god for this site. Good and bad it helps people like myself get up the confidence to do these installs. And when we get into trouble you guys are on it. I see the help this site provides for us all, and this is appreciated by me and I am sure many others, Have a great weekend guys.............Pete