Saturation Problem? [SOLVED]

GeekOnTheHill

Active Member
Joined
Mar 10, 2018
Messages
135
Reaction score
118
Location
Upstate New York, USA
Country
United States
Dash Cam
4Sight TODC2, Street Guardian SG9663dc, Vantrue S1 Pro
I look at a lot of videos and have a pretty good eye for color problems, and my eye is telling me that there's too much green in this video. I can't say exactly when it happened, but I noticed it when I installed the hardwire kit and upgraded the firmware to support it. I can't think of a way that it would be related to the hardwire kit, so I'm guessing it's a firmware issue (though it could also be a hardware issue, or it could be that I'm wrong and it's not really over-saturated).

The greens and oranges look over-saturated to me, which would mean the green is too high. Orange is just green plus red, sometimes with a touch of blue for some shades. So if the green is high, it will also cause the orange to be over-saturated. (The red would as well, but the reds look okay in the video.)

Firmware 1.32, high-quality, exposure -1/3, low cut.


Please comment as to whether you agree that the green and orange are over-saturated and "blooming." Thanks.

Richard
 
There might be but without viewing on a calibrated/profiled monitor it really difficult to say for sure. I did notice that you have a lot of black hood in the frame which will affect the exposure which in turn could cause some of the effect you're describing. Maybe adjust the camera up a bit to show less hood and more sky and see if that mitigates the effect somewhat.
 
Last edited:
I will agree the front camera ( that i mostly look at ) are a bit heavy on the color profile.
But i think the guys just about got around to tweak in IQ, and then the HW kit sort of threw a spanner in the works.
Not the biggest of issues to me, so i have not been thinking about mentioning it.
 
The hardwire kit is slowing things down for us a bit right now when it comes to other firmware changes, stability issues always come first, once we get that sorted we'll be able to spend more time on IQ related settings
 
There might be but without viewing on a calibrated/profiled monitor it really difficult to say for sure. I did notice that you have a lot of black hood in the frame which will affect the exposure which in turn could cause some of the effect you're describing. Maybe adjust the camera up a bit to show less hood and more sky and see if that mitigates the effect somewhat.

I tried tilting the camera up. No effect at all on the saturation and it caused serious underexposure. Then when I tilted it back down I started getting overexposure. Now I have it tilted down and on low-cut to ignore the hood, but with the AE stopped down 1/3 stop. I'll probably change that back center-weighted, because none of it affects the saturation at all.

It also seems a bit more saturated on the original files. I may upload them raw to my own server once I'm sure Vimeo has finished processing them.

Richard
 
I will agree the front camera ( that i mostly look at ) are a bit heavy on the color profile.
But i think the guys just about got around to tweak in IQ, and then the HW kit sort of threw a spanner in the works.
Not the biggest of issues to me, so i have not been thinking about mentioning it.

It's really not a huge issue for me either except that the blooming affects the overall IQ, including the ability to read plate numbers at more than a relatively short distance away (probably at least partly because most NY plates are orange). Other than that, I can adjust the color in the editor if I need to.

Richard
 
We need to keep Jokiin updated, otherwise he just think everything is alright and will be on his back on a beach on Fiji in not time, and we cant have that :giggle:
 
I installed 1.32 today and just checked a couple of clips and they look fairly normal to me - nothing that raises a flag. Screen capture below the street markings and caution signs appear as they should to me.

saturation.jpg
 
Are the color settings in the firmware the same on the front and rear cameras? The saturation issue seems limited to the front camera.

Thanks,

Richard
 
Are the color settings in the firmware the same on the front and rear cameras? The saturation issue seems limited to the front camera.

Thanks,

Richard
Do you by chance have a CPL on the front and not the rear? That could explain the difference.
 
Do you by chance have a CPL on the front and not the rear? That could explain the difference.

Yes, I do. But I've had it that way since I installed the camera. This is a recent development.

On the other hand, it was still winter when I installed the camera, so there wasn't as much green.

I'll pull the filter and drive around after I finish editing work videos. Thanks.

Richard
 
Do you by chance have a CPL on the front and not the rear? That could explain the difference.

Well, that was a stroke of genius on your part, and a "DOH!" moment on mine.

Here's the comparison video with the CPL filter removed:


It's still a bit over-saturated for my taste, but it's evenly over-saturated. Also, the differences between the front and rear cameras are slight and can be explained by the darker tinting on the rear window.

That got me to wondering why a polarizing filter would throw off the color, and why it would have only started now. Then I remembered that at the same time I installed the hardwire kit, I cleaned the lens and the CPL filter. So I picked up the filter, aimed it at a reflection in the windshield, and rotated it in each direction. Sure enough, the filter was misaligned in the housing. I must have moved it when I cleaned it.

So I reoriented the filter in the housing and took another test drive:


And there you have it. Still a bit oversaturated for my personal taste, but it's even and not restricted to the green wavelengths.

I'm going to call this one "solved" and blame it on myself. I assumed that the filter was fixed in the housing, but it's actually movable; and I must have knocked it out of alignment when I cleaned it.

Thanks,

Richard
 
I thought the CPL filters was fixed too, so i also just verified mine.
CLP are a new thing for me, only just started using them.
 
I thought the CPL filters was fixed too, so i also just verified mine.
CLP are a new thing for me, only just started using them.

If you have another polarized lens or filter available, you can check it against that one. When the two are aligned, the one you're checking should look almost invisible. When they're 90 degrees off from each other, it should look dark or almost dark. Past 90 degrees, it will start to lighten again. Only that 90-degree arc matters. At zero and 180 degrees, the filter will look almost invisible. At 90 and 270, it will look dark or almost dark.

Otherwise, just aim it at a reflection in the windshield and rotate the filter until the glare disappears or is minimal. When you get there, it's properly aligned. That's what I did even though I do have other polarizing filters. I used a Beanie Baby skunk on my dashboard as a glare target.

Richard
 
Yeah no biggie to check / fix, i did have one where the CPL are very loose and was a little out of alignment.
 
If your flat screen tv or monitor is polarized 90/180 you can use this method to recalibrate. (the 45 degree ones are not as easy)

1DLnzTN.png
 
Well, that was a stroke of genius on your part,...
Definitely not genius, trust me. Just a matter of doing a lot of photography and knowing that a 'side effect' of a polarizing filter is color saturation enhancement. The 'Ah ha' moment for me was when you mentioned the difference between front/rear. Knowing the DC does not come with a CPL for the rear turned the light bulb on for me.

Just happy to help get the issue resolved.
 
I have a CPL on both DC cameras as i had a surplus one lying around.
 
Back
Top