Street Guardian SGZC12SS out of focus

[DocHudson]

I have had SCZC12SS installed for a while. Last week, I noticed that the camera is out of focus.

I have not removed the camera from its location since its installed. I remove the card occasionally just to make sure that the camera is working.

This is the frame from yesterday's drive.




I will appreciate it if I can get any advice on how to focus the dashcam back.

Thanks in advance.

(P.S. - The way our mechanic has installed this dashcam, it's rather tricky to get it off its mount. If I must get it off the mount, I will appreciate the direction of using the mount release)

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Hi the OEM factory that made this model 7 years ago is no longer in business. We have a different factory now with completely different parts, so we can't service 7-10 year old products.
It's not easy at all to open these, crack the glue and turn the focus nut.
The best we can do is a discounted upgrade on one of our newer models.
Send an email, open a support ticket or you can also send a private message for details.

 

[kamkar]

You can find videos on youtube on how to change lens / focus various action and dash cameras, the lenses and procedure are more or less the same for them all.
you can probably not find this particular camera, so dismantling the housing to get into the lens you have to figure out yourself, in general it is just a few Phillips head screws, and maybe a couple of "snaps"

In simple it is:
Take the housing apart.
Get the glue on the thread that hold the lens in place off so you can turn the lens to change focus, it is generally just a few degrees you need to turn the lens to find the focus again, so a mark of some sort indicating the set off point are nice to have.
As this is a very old model your best way to check focus is to make a little change, film a little, make another little change and film a little, and then preview your footage on a PC so you can best gauge the focus.
Having the set up point marked you can then see by the recorded video of the focus was good after the first little change, or that only happened after a later change, this way you can go back to sort of the right place, and do a few more tests to make sure you are good.
Then you need to fix the lens in place again, use some mild glue, do not use stuff like CA glues as vapors from it can damage lens coating.
Then you need to reassemble the camera housing again.

It could be advantageous to screw the mount + lens off the PCB with the image sensor on it ( normally just 2 screws holding a lens mount / socket ), at least while you meddle with the glue, this way less danger of messing things off if you use a bit of force,,,, and that might some times be needed.
Heating the lens / mount to loosen can also be useful, of course not use a torch or a lighter, but a hair dryer or something like that to soften the glue a little might work wonders.
All you need to be able to do is adjust the lens a few degrees in either direction from its current location, so no need to completely unscrew the lens from the mount.

Of course this all necessitate you have some degree of DIY skill and the guts to actually do it, and not forgetting the tools, though here it are pretty basic ones needed, but some people today don't even have the most basic tools.

Mind you your camera are a oldie, a current camera will perform significant better for sure, not least in low light conditions, and this can be had in reasonable priced cameras too, the Viofo A119 V3 are a popular model for instance.

I am not familiar with this old SG camera so i cant tell about its mounting setup, or how to take the camera unit with the lens apart.
Chance are you might need to " rip" it off its mount ( dual sided sticky pad ) but those can be replaced just fine with a suited 3M dual sided tape, or other brands.


Pretty cool you still run this old camera

 

[DocHudson]

@Street Guardian USA I will try to use @kamkar's direction to see if I can get it working. If it doesn't work, I will reach out via PM. Thanks for responding.

@kamkar Thank you for the instructions. I will give it a try. About using this old dashcam, it works, so why add to the electronics landfill more than it needs to?

 

[kamkar]

Indeed, and while image sensors have improved a lot since then, they have still not solved the main problems of dashcams, which are generally little detail capture in low light.
BUT ! any camera and tour oldie too, will easy be able to log your own driving, and with that detailed you can brush off a lot of claims that might be launched against you, your old camera will log your lane holding in relation to roadside and lane markings, it will also log the color of any intersection you go thru.
Only if you have like a hit and run at night will you be in trouble as plate capture are probably not going to happen, but that issue still exist with the very newest cameras.

A plus with a new camera, maybe dual channel, is that if you live in a 1 plate state, and that plate are on the back, well then a single camera in the windscreen will not capture a plate for sure night or day, but a #2 camera in your rear window will then have a go at it as the car pass by.

Street guardian have the SG9663DR system, that is like your old system just 2 remote cameras, and the main unit are much smaller.
Here is a video i made testing it, with plate capture on both front and rear cameras ( Danish highway speed of 80 kmh / about 55 MPH )

Other camera like the Viofo A229 with two 1440p cameras also work just fine in good lighting conditions, but this system are traditional with a "larger" front main unit and a remote rear camera.

Of course we EU boys are blessed with more readable plates VS American plate / plates that seem to be smaller writing and allow things like silly background graphics ASO.

 

[kamkar]

LOL i just realized that your camera are the stand alone ZC12SS model, where i was thinking it was the ZC12RC version with a remote camera and the central unit.

Cameras like your ZC12SS that hang off the windscreen are generally less stealthy VS the wedge shaped cameras that often come off as just another sensor camera.
If you like me can mount on a shaded area on top of the windscreen, then only the bottom 1/3 part of the camera with the lens can be seen from the outside.

The ZC12SS camera you have should be able to slide sideways off its mount as indicated by the look of things on this picture.

You can browse the where did you mount your camera thread, it have lots of pictures of how people have installed different cameras in different cars, my latest pictures in there are way back on page 54

Where did you mount the camera? Post your pictures

dashcamtalk.com

If you want to take the old mount off your windscreen you can use a piece of string to "saw " thru the sticky pad, just make sure the string are flat against the glass of the windscreen as otherwise you risk sawing into the plastic the mount are made off.
The remaining residue / sticky pad on the glass you cam most often roll off with a finger, or you can cut the worse of it off with a thin sharp blade, i use Kent Speedy 500 to get the very last bits off, it is some smelly stuff but work fine on glue, other things can probably be used too just fine, as a old painter i just happened to have some speedy 500 in the house.