Nigel
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2014
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- 16,800
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- Location
- Wales
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Dash Cam
- Gitup F1+G3ꞈꞈꞈꞈꞈ Viofo A229ꞈꞈꞈꞈꞈ Blueskysea B4K
I don't think I would want to change the lens in the F1 every day, I'd get two F1s if that was necessary, but it would be possible. Basically you unscrew your daytime lens and screw in the IR lens. The main difficulty is in focusing it, you would need to screw it in maybe 20 turns and then set it accurately against some marks you have previously drawn on it. Screw it in too far and you may damage the sensor, and do it often and you may get dust on the sensor, so a bit of care is needed.Hello again guys! After thinking a lot about your advices, it looks like the best option will be to buy the gitup F1 and remove the IR filter. You said that it will be easy to replace, right? That means that I could use a lens for day and another lens for night and easily mount the IR lights. Am I right? I never did anything like that to a camera, so I think that this will be the best choice for a newbie
The first time you do it, you will need to disassemble the camera and remove the glue that holds the lens in place (stops it unscrewing). Mine had some rather solid glue on, may be a bit more difficult than instructions you find on Youtube etc. but with a bit of care is possible. Actually I left the glue on and just used a sharp knife to cut around the join between the glue and the mount, that way when I screw it back in I just screw it in until it hits the glue and stops, then it is in focus.
I suggest a second lens for the IR, removing the IR filter from the standard lens is likely to be a one way task unless done with a lot of care and solvents. If you don't mind a bit of vignetting just get any M12 lens designed for IR, standard lenses generally don't focus IR light very well so one designed for IR should be better. Remember that the sensor is bigger than most, thus you want a lens that gives a bigger image than most or else you loose the corners. The F1 is 4K so loosing a bit of resolution in the corners probably isn't an issue for IR since you wont have best quality in low light anyway, just crop the image and resize to 1080.
P.S. When you disassemble the F1, be very careful of the wifi antenna, otherwise you can damage the antenna as the case comes apart, it can be unplugged from the main PCB to avoid damage after separating the case.