SG9665GC firmware updates and pre release access

[Feitelijk]

But yeah, as the direct low sun shined in and out of field of view, sky remained blue. (no more exposure blow outs)

Well...

 

[Street Guardian USA]

I may have not have described my test accurately. Low for me was 5pm so the sun was not quite that low on the horizon nearly setting bright orange color. It was still well above the horizon not setting.

I wouldn't be able to see into that example above let alone a DashCam. I'm talking more about post noon driving not driving in directly into a sunset.

 

[Feitelijk]

Yeah, I had trouble with the duplex Mk1 Eyeball system here as well, still looks fine to me on the dashcam though.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

say what you like about us but we've never stop trying to improve things, even if it takes longer than what we would like, it's not for the lack of effort I can assure you

Efforts and results speak for themselves. One of many reasons why Street Guardian has such a great reputation.

 

[jokiin]

Efforts and results speak for themselves. One of many reasons why Street Guardian has such a great reputation.

we're trying our best and always looking for things we can improve, have never seen a product yet that couldn't be improved in some way

 

[kamkar]

It is slightly challenging keeping 444 HP, in a slow 5 MPH tight circle.

But yeah, as the direct low sun shined in and out of field of view, sky remained blue. (no more exposure blow outs)

The only 444 i have personal experience with is the flyfishing line from cortland.

As a dane you learn to settle for the little things in life.

 

[Gary D]

I'm not sure if this can really be "fixed." Even with HDR, there are still limits..

beta 19 - transition from shade to sunlight (NOT directly into sunrise or sunset) witrh CPL attached (starts around 5 seconds in):

 

[alexp999]

I'm not sure if this can really be "fixed." Even with HDR, there are still limits..

beta 19 - transition from shade to sunlight (NOT directly into sunrise or sunset) witrh CPL attached (starts around 5 seconds in):

Looks good to me, if it adjusts too early it would darken up what is immediately in front of you.

They actually add this affect to games to make them seem more like real life.

 

[Gary D]

They actually add this affect to games to make them seem more like real life.

Please don't go there. I used to do game development at EA, and it drove me nuts how we worked so very hard to "simulate" in the game the very things that videographers would desperately try to avoid.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Looks good to me, if it adjusts too early it would darken up what is immediately in front of you.

They actually add this affect to games to make them seem more like real life.

We'll see what we can do but I would agree that cars and people should take priority over the sky. This is a DashCam to collect evidence.

Let's try Center too

selectable options for AE, Low, Center, Average (default Average)

 

[daniel_bel]

I beg to differ. A dashcam is a camera installed on the dashboard and that records what happens to be before the lens.
What you use it for is undefined and is the owner's privilege.

I certainly bought my two dashcams because sportscam do not operate automatically but I couldn't care less about traffic.
It is a logging device and it records my travels. If I could avoid the road at all I would, and aim 20° to the sky.
But then in case of mountain roads I would miss the valleyside cliffs. So I point it just above hood level instead...

I authorize you to do differently and even call me a minority member.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Well that's why we want to provide options.

selectable options for AE, Low, Center, Average (default Average)

Let's try testing with "Center"

We are continuing to test and tweak settings as needed. More feedback the better.

 

[Gary D]

We'll see what we can do but I would agree that cars and people should take priority over the sky.

I don't disagree, and I even posted that I don't think it'd be reasonable to expect much improvement in that particular situation. However, I'm also responding to the following comments (emphasis added by me):

the AE table changes have fixed a basic flaw but we still have IQ tuning to do, we'll really need a lot of source material to judge what needs to be done

it is definitely improved but we still need to look at how it handles those situations where there are lots of dark areas and small areas of really bright light, I expect we'll need to look at contrast and peak brightness levels, it's going to take a while to get the fine tuning right, getting this version stable and out to a wider audience will help so we can get more sample video to study to work out the changes

So.. I posted more material.

 

[Feitelijk]

I'm not sure if this can really be "fixed." Even with HDR, there are still limits..

To avoid confusion we should not use the term HDR. People who know what it is would be disappointed to find out the cam doesn't have anything like that.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Sony IMX322 has WDR

http://download1482.mediafire.com/pz9rqkgfjswg/vyams38l8tjkpew/Sony_IMX322.pdf

but we can only operate in the limits of the Novatek 96655 SDK

 

[Feitelijk]

WDR != HDR
Which was exactly my point.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

WDR != HDR
Which was exactly my point.

What do you mean by:

disappointed to find out the cam doesn't have anything like that.

 

[Gary D]

WDR != HDR
Which was exactly my point.

Would you be happy with "extended dynamic range compressed to 8 bit values"? No, it doesn't do "HDR" the way a person fluent in photoshop might expect (which is taking 16-20 bits of light data and reducing the contrast (compressing) it to 8 bits of light data.)

 

[arcticfire]

I would have thought technically speaking wdr is (or should be) hardware controlled and hdr is software controlled.

 

[Feitelijk]

What do you mean by:

When I got on here people told me that the SG had WDR and that it was the same as HDR. I then expected the cam to take two images with exposures a few stops apart and then recombine the images to boost the low light areas and dull the bright ones.

When I got it and tested, I heard that "WDR" has most benefits at night, I then asked what the cam was really doing and what the exposure ratios were. I got no answer other than "low light is boosted".
Which I translated into "It's not doing HDR at all". And then I was disappointed with the spin vs reality.

Just like when I found out that "can be mounted on vertical windows" meant 62 degrees.