SG9665GC High Contrast/Dynamic Range Flaw and other Discouragements

Date stamp shows July. That's an intense mix of sun from above and hanging tree shade to the side. Try to capture a similar scene on the new August firmware with updated AE table. The raw video is more helpful than a sceeen shot as well.
 
Yikes that road is blown out horribly...

That's true but that is older firmware. To be fair, that has always been a challenging spot in the road for most dash cams that time of day, but yes that is certainly indicative of the sort of problem I've been talking about all along regarding the transition from under a shady canopy of trees into brighter conditions with the SG9665GC. Other cameras tend to handle it better and recover sooner as seen in the first post to this thread. Beta 26 is much improved over what we are seeing above however.
 
Date stamp shows July. That's an intense mix of sun from above and hanging tree shade to the side. Try to capture a similar scene on the new August firmware with updated AE table. The raw video is more helpful than a sceeen shot as well.

Those screen shots were only posted to illustrate @jokiin's remarks about daytime WDR settings.

Even with the improved firmware my statement that WDR seems to have little effect on bright upper tonal range areas on the SG9665GC still applies, BTW.
 
Those screen shots were only posted to illustrate @jokiin's remarks about daytime WDR settings.

Even with the improved firmware my statement that WDR seems to have little effect on bright upper tonal range areas on the SG9665GC still applies, BTW.

yeah I mentioned it due to the dark areas in the daytime footage that @Feitelijk posted, as your pics show even when it's bright the WDR still has an effect on those darker areas off to the side
 
you must have fast internet access there

I remember when i was a happy little PC gamer, the Dutch members of our clan mostly had the good connections, of if speeds was equal then they for sure had the lowest price for the connection.

When i got on fiber i dident even turn off my file sharing stuff when i gamed, there was no difference in my ping and games ran just as good.

Freaked out many gamers i played with, cuz as a player on the other team you really had to keep your head down and be careful when i was on the server :)
 
Starting to come back lurking on the forum and notice this thread hasn't been updated since September 2016!

I haven't updated my firmware since that time and see from the release notes of the latest posted today that there are a lot of changes.

Are these issues now resolved, and what are the recommended settings?
 
Starting to come back lurking on the forum and notice this thread hasn't been updated since September 2016!

I haven't updated my firmware since that time and see from the release notes of the latest posted today that there are a lot of changes.

Are these issues now resolved, and what are the recommended settings?

Yes, this issue is much improved, finally! Definitely worth updating. There are also a few new features and menu changes.
 
Cool, glad I asked, and coming from you I know it must be good! (thats a compliment, referring to your persistence with the issue).

Proves the earlier post regarding that highlighting issues leads to better products and of course, kudos to the designers and engineers for resolving it....in fact, everyone that played part.

Looking forward to installing it in my new car (well, I'm looking forward to the point when its installed, I'm not looking forward to feeding the cables to fusebox!).
 
Cool, glad I asked, and coming from you I know it must be good! (thats a compliment, referring to your persistence with the issue).

Proves the earlier post regarding that highlighting issues leads to better products and of course, kudos to the designers and engineers for resolving it....in fact, everyone that played part.

Looking forward to installing it in my new car (well, I'm looking forward to the point when its installed, I'm not looking forward to feeding the cables to fusebox!).

It was frustrating that it took so quite long for the problem to even be acknowledged and that it then took so many, many months for it to finally be addressed. But all's well that ends well and StreetGuardian did a good job of it in the end. I would have ditched the camera long ago if that hadn't been the case. Despite all the previous issues I had with this camera, requiring several replacements for various reasons such as the lens going out of focus on more than one unit (another long term shortcoming of the GC that finally got needed attention) the GC has proven itself to be one of the most reliable cameras I've owned and with the new exposure tables it received as a result of this thread it performs very well now in most conditions, producing excellent footage. Using it with my Mobius cameras I now have a set-&-forget camera system I can always rely on to capture decent footage even at those times when I am less vigilant about checking that the cameras are doing what they are supposed to do. That was certainly the case this winter when it was often too damned cold, dark and miserable to be messing around with memory cards in my truck when I got home. Still, every time I pull the card from the GC, the footage is all there as it should be (just like the Mobius). Unlike most manufacturers who take a short term approach to their products I credit jokiin for continuing to refine and polish the GC for performance and reliability even several years after its introduction.
 
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Dashmallow, do you run your SG with the default settings or do you alter some of them?
If you alter some of the settings, would you mind listing them so I can try them out on my SG V2 to see how they look, I am not as technically experienced as yourself and other members here.
 
Dashmallow, do you run your SG with the default settings or do you alter some of them?
If you alter some of the settings, would you mind listing them so I can try them out on my SG V2 to see how they look, I am not as technically experienced as yourself and other members here.
Just so you will know for the future if you prefix a user name with an "@" they will get a notification you've addressed them directly - like this: @Dashmellow
 
Dashmallow, do you run your SG with the default settings or do you alter some of them?
If you alter some of the settings, would you mind listing them so I can try them out on my SG V2 to see how they look, I am not as technically experienced as yourself and other members here.

Before the firmware was updated with new AE tables I did all kinds of experimental menu adjustments in an attempt to ameliorate the high contrast/dynamic range issues with the SG9665GC to no avail. Since the problem has been addressed I basically use the default settings. I have WDR on, use center weighted exposure metering and have the G-sensor at its lowest setting as I live on a bumpy rural road. That's about it.

Even with the new AE tables on the SG9665GC, the camera still has some difficulty in high contrast situations such as capturing adequate detail on white cars on a bright sunny day and when the lighting changes quickly. I believe this is due to the inherent characteristics of the sensor and is perhaps the price one pays with this sensor for the good low light performance. This issue can be exacerbated by the color of one's car's hood. In my case, I have a very dark blue vehicle which can contribute to high contrast problems in very bright situations or when transitioning from shadows to bright areas such as driving out of a tunnel or canopy of trees. So, one of the primary "adjustments" I make is in taking care when aiming the lens up and down to achieve a good balance between the amount of sky, road and vehicle hood that is in the FOV.
 
@DT MI, Thanks for that tip on the @ before the users name, I was unaware of that.
 
Before the firmware was updated with new AE tables I did all kinds of experimental menu adjustments in an attempt to ameliorate the high contrast/dynamic range issues with the SG9665GC to no avail. Since the problem has been addressed I basically use the default settings. I have WDR on, use center weighted exposure metering and have the G-sensor at its lowest setting as I live on a bumpy rural road. That's about it.

Even with the new AE tables on the SG9665GC, the camera still has some difficulty in high contrast situations such as capturing adequate detail on white cars on a bright sunny day and when the lighting changes quickly. I believe this is due to the inherent characteristics of the sensor and is perhaps the price one pays with this sensor for the good low light performance. This issue can be exacerbated by the color of one's car's hood. In my case, I have a very dark blue vehicle which can contribute to high contrast problems in very bright situations or when transitioning from shadows to bright areas such as driving out of a tunnel or canopy of trees. So, one of the primary "adjustments" I make is in taking care when aiming the lens up and down to achieve a good balance between the amount of sky, road and vehicle hood that is in the FOV.

I am waiting for a replacement CPL for my SG9665GC V2 as the current one has gone all fuzzy, it's like it has a smearing of vaseline on it. I have used eyeglass cleaner on the filter when it was dusty, I have also used 50/50 Vinegar and Water to clean the inside of my windscreen. Now whether one of those 2 have affected the filter I don't know, I didn't think they would but who knows.

I might attempt to play with the settings on mine, I don't know. I use the adage "if it isn't broken, then don't fix it". :D
 

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