Telephoto allignment

[Ziradon]

Hi,

at the moment i finish the alligment for my dashcams. I read 50/50 sky/road should be perfect for the front camera.
But i wonder if i should allign the telephoto to point in the middle of the front camera range or lower/upper?

 

[Chuck McCoy]

But i wonder if i should allign the telephoto to point in the middle of the front camera range or lower/upper?

When Viofo sent me RTC300 for A229 Pro (May 2024) I asked them what should I adjust it too.
They said adjust “more road than sky”.
I tried 55% Road & 45% Sky.
When Viofo sent me RTC420 for A329S I tried 70% Road & 30% Sky.

 

[lufa6977]

Hi,

at the moment i finish the alligment for my dashcams. I read 50/50 sky/road should be perfect for the front camera.
But i wonder if i should allign the telephoto to point in the middle of the front camera range or lower/upper?

There are no rules for alignment of any of the lenses. You align it to what looks best for your environment and driving situations. If in heavy city traffic were you may want to capture plates and drivers, you could adjust accordingly.

Every photographer knows that no two lenses are equal in their capability, so you take test images and adjust as you need to. You may find that you will also want to angle the lens slightly to the left or right, depending on what you want to capture.

 

[kamkar]

I agree.
Today sensors have enough dynamic range that the aim of them are not as significant as in the old days, so to be this is just a general thing to get new people going.
One should always familiarise one self with the new toy, and figure out what work best for you.

This good, i am not terrible fond of rule books and only accept general rules in society to keep things moving forward.
My problem is i have a metric poop ton of other rules i am supposed to abide to too.

Example, company startups here, which is a lot easier than other places, but still a mess, so gooberment here found out some new startups are entitled to a refund, and then calculated that and was about to pay, until they figured out that they cant even comprehend their own rules and actually new startups entitled to even larger refunds.


By Odins beard how i hate pencil pushers in public jobs / a nanny state in general.

 

[LeeShadow]

I have my tele mounted so that the lens is just about mid windshield horizontally and vertically. After reviewing some footage from where I usually drive (moderate sized city with excessively heavy traffic almost every day) about a week after installation, I realized that I wanted to adjust the lens slightly downwards to capture plates of cars immediately in front of me, such as when stopped in traffic or at lights. Otherwise, I would continue to have a lot of not very interesting footage of the trunk lid and rear window of the vehicle in front of me. Doing so doesn't excessively compromise what is being captured further ahead of me when moving. I find it hilarious that when I pull into my garage, I get a really nice close-up shot of the derailieur and rear wheel spokes on my bike racked immediately in front of me--very artsy. 🤣 At ideal distance, the detail of the tele image is a bit startling.

 

[TonyM]

If you aim +/-10° from horizontal it probably will not affect the metering. Wide angle front cameras may have exposure metering that prioritises the road over the sky, but can under-expose when the sky is bright. The telephoto is less influenced by the sky so often records brighter in such instances.

I now have my main wide angle camera set to EV - 1/3, and the telephoto to - 2/3.

As @LeeShadow points out above, it's also worth considering what you want to be in view when you are close to other vehicles such as being stopped in traffic. However at close range I let the wide angle front camera record details outside the view of the telephoto.

 

[Augustus]

I have to echo the sentiments of everyone else here too, in that there's no hard and fast rule for alignment. Do whatever works best for your situation and your vehicle.