Dashmellow
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2013
- Messages
- 18,582
- Reaction score
- 19,192
- Location
- Uncanny Valley (●_●)
- Country
- United States
- Dash Cam
- Umpteen
BTW, here is a little update to my situation.
I keep trying different things in an attempt to improve my results. By "different things" I mean - Full Frame - Center Cut and Low Cut, -/+ EV settings and aiming the lens higher and lower.
While the current Beta 22 has come a long way in improving the camera's tendency to blow out the upper tonal range and highlights, the results (at least for me with a dark blue vehicle) have been problematic because the camera now tends to yield footage that is too dark and too contrasty. Basically, the camera's WDR performance is poor.
The best setting I've found is Full Frame, -/+ EV 0 - WDR On with the lens pointing lower with more hood.
What is interesting about my results here is that previous to the recent firmware update with the new AE tables, my results were sometimes improved by tilting the camera to have less hood in the FOV. Now it is the opposite.
Unfortunately, what seems to be happening with the Beta 22 release is that I can achieve a more balanced exposure by aiming the lens downwards to have less hood in the FOV but that exacerbates the tendency to blow out the upper tonal range in high contrast WDR situations. As I've been saying, since I live in an environment with lots of trees and hills, the blow-outs are often constant as I drive along.
Notice how dark this image is with a lot of sky and only a small portion of my vehicle's hood in the FOV.
This has been typical (Full Frame EV-0 - WDR-On)
Here, I've used the exact same exposure settings on the camera but have simply pointed the lens down to include more hood in the FOV.
A BIG improvment.
Unfortunately, tilting the lens downwards with those exposure settings that work well in the above image results in blown out upper tonal range footage in a more challenging environment.
These blow-out events are short lived and much improved over earlier firmware but in my driving environment they are constant and repeat relentlessly every few seconds or minutes and therein lies the problem I've been trying to address here.
This image was shot about twenty minutes before the above well exposed one.
Much of my driving is along roads that look like this and the result is that cars, pedestrians and objects are often lost in the glare even if the glare lasts only moments until it then appears again.
This image was shot about three minutes before the one above.
Let's hope Beta 26 makes further headway towards a remedy.
Edit: I almost forgot....
Here is an image taken on the same road under similar lighting conditions with the lens tilted upwards for less hood in the image. Notice how the blown out upper tonal range is much improved. Of course, this now yields too dark footage under more balanced lighting conditions such as in the first image in this post.
I keep trying different things in an attempt to improve my results. By "different things" I mean - Full Frame - Center Cut and Low Cut, -/+ EV settings and aiming the lens higher and lower.
While the current Beta 22 has come a long way in improving the camera's tendency to blow out the upper tonal range and highlights, the results (at least for me with a dark blue vehicle) have been problematic because the camera now tends to yield footage that is too dark and too contrasty. Basically, the camera's WDR performance is poor.
The best setting I've found is Full Frame, -/+ EV 0 - WDR On with the lens pointing lower with more hood.
What is interesting about my results here is that previous to the recent firmware update with the new AE tables, my results were sometimes improved by tilting the camera to have less hood in the FOV. Now it is the opposite.
Unfortunately, what seems to be happening with the Beta 22 release is that I can achieve a more balanced exposure by aiming the lens downwards to have less hood in the FOV but that exacerbates the tendency to blow out the upper tonal range in high contrast WDR situations. As I've been saying, since I live in an environment with lots of trees and hills, the blow-outs are often constant as I drive along.
Notice how dark this image is with a lot of sky and only a small portion of my vehicle's hood in the FOV.
This has been typical (Full Frame EV-0 - WDR-On)
Here, I've used the exact same exposure settings on the camera but have simply pointed the lens down to include more hood in the FOV.
A BIG improvment.
Unfortunately, tilting the lens downwards with those exposure settings that work well in the above image results in blown out upper tonal range footage in a more challenging environment.
These blow-out events are short lived and much improved over earlier firmware but in my driving environment they are constant and repeat relentlessly every few seconds or minutes and therein lies the problem I've been trying to address here.
This image was shot about twenty minutes before the above well exposed one.
Much of my driving is along roads that look like this and the result is that cars, pedestrians and objects are often lost in the glare even if the glare lasts only moments until it then appears again.
This image was shot about three minutes before the one above.
Let's hope Beta 26 makes further headway towards a remedy.
Edit: I almost forgot....
Here is an image taken on the same road under similar lighting conditions with the lens tilted upwards for less hood in the image. Notice how the blown out upper tonal range is much improved. Of course, this now yields too dark footage under more balanced lighting conditions such as in the first image in this post.
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