UK Ford Focus - view through windscreen

[Leopold]

Paul, I think you could benefit from just tilting the lens slightly more upward. No point in recording so much dashboard and it should reduce the annoyance of the reflexes further in the overall picture.

I would expect the CPL filter to suppress reflexes a bit more in the lower center part but it could be due to a steeper angle of the windshield than I have in my car, as EJB mentioned above. The mounting of the camera behind the rear view mirror is optimal IMO, perfectly out of sight and a bit down from the top of the screen for best angle.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Paul, I think you could benefit from just tilting the lens slightly more upward. No point in recording so much dashboard and it should reduce the annoyance of the reflexes further in the overall picture.

I would expect the CPL filter to suppress reflexes a bit more in the lower center part but it could be due to a steeper angle of the windshield than I have in my car, as EJB mentioned above. The mounting of the camera behind the rear view mirror is optimal IMO, perfectly out of sight and a bit down from the top of the screen for best angle.

Cheers Leopold - I'll tilt it a bit.

My car is a RHD so opposite to your in Sweden, but the position of the cam is just out to the side of the mirror so I can (carefully) access the buttons should I need to - and so that if I want to turn the screen on, I can do so (without moving the rear view mirror).

 

[EJB]

This is the best I can get with a steeply raked windscreen.
It shows everything required so no problem

 

[Paul Iddon]

Thanks EJB.

I have tilted the lens a little more as suggested above and the results are in the screenshots from a short spin around the area, travelling in all four compass directions so as to have the sunlight ahead, from the right, from behind and from the left. You can see where the reflections increase and the tone and contrast of the view is affected by the surroundings...

Maybe it's just my photographers eye that is seeing too much into the reflection, and I will just have to get used to it...

 

[Leopold]

I think it looks great guys! Some reflections are inevitable here, worse in some light conditions of course but as long as the picture is more than good enough for the purpose - perfect!

Regarding possibilities to see the screen and the buttons this is the disadvantage with my mounting behind the rear view mirror... no way I can see the screen when mounted. But I really have no need to, I know where the alert button is and can press it by feel in the middle of the night. The sd-card is easily accessible without dismounting the cam and when I need to adjust settings I just clip it off the mount and use a cord and a cig 12V adapter

 

[gse]

Пол Иддон

и результаты находятся на скриншотах

Можете это видео скачать Dropbox и поделитесь ссылкой здесь.

 

[Paul Iddon]

и результаты находятся на скриншотах.

Translated -- "And the results are in the screenshots"

Можете это видео скачать Dropbox и поделитесь ссылкой здесь.

Translated -- "Can this video download Dropbox and share the link here?"


I don't know the answer to this... sorry gents.

 

[Paul Iddon]

My last option is to mount the camera just below and centre of the rear view mirror - though I don't know if this would legally impinge on restricting the drivers vision - having said that - I see dozens of mobile phones (and satnavs of course) mounted in lots of areas of windscreens on many vehicles, especially transit vans...

 

[gse]

I don't know the answer to this... sorry gents.

Will try uploading few RAW videos to Dropbox and will share the link here.

 

[Paul Iddon]

So now I have the camera positioned lower still which has eradicated a lot of the lowest reflections of the dash - - and the last remaining issue is the brightness....

Now I can either lower the tilt of the lens (which will bring back more of the dash but will then bring in less sky, the current position sees plenty of sky hence the dark areas (trees, bushes etc) at the lower sections of the videos, or leave the angle of the lens (which is I think the best I have so far managed) and instead increase the exposure of the camera to bring more light back into the shadowy areas, at the expense of burning out the sky more, which is what I will probably try next (the exposure increase)...


If you can be bothered to sit through the videos below you will see where the bright sunlight affects the scenes when driving into it, and the opposite - really decent video when the sun is away from the lens.... Sometimes it looks brilliant and other times less so...

Oh, and sorry if I am boring you or seem to be droning on about this...

 

[Nigel]

It would look better with the horizon at the centre point, also the auto exposure will probably work best with the horizon at the centre point.

If you want to turn the video into a perfect quality holiday movie, just crop it down to 1080 resolution, that will remove nearly all your reflections and give a more real life field of view. With the full wide angle view, distances between vehicles always look more than they really were, with a cropped 1080 field of view they will look more like how you remember them. Having the super wide FOV can be very useful if something happens near the very edge, but it is not the best for making a movie.

 

[Leopold]

Yes I'd tilt it down a bit to show a little bit of the hood, also try with adding exposure a little bit if necessary to lighten up dark areas as you said Paul. I have WDR activated and it is supposed to help with this as well (but I have not experimented with/without since I'm happy with the settings as is).

 

[Leopold]

I think the quality is very good for the A119. Here is a clip where I head back home from the shooting range, displaying some varying light conditions and I think the cam handles it very well. WDR activated, +1/3 EV if I remember correctly. Viofo CPL.

__
PS. You have to force 1440p HD playback, default could be quite a boring resolution... yet it will never approach the original quality of course but gets close enough.
__
Also got to say the sound is really good! This is without the foam mounting foil I ordered which will make it even better. I played back a few highlights to my wife of a great talkshow I heard on car radio during the last trip... great fun

 

[Paul Iddon]

Mine seems to vary greatly...

This is the same day - going to work in the morning and coming home at night - the camera set to the horizon at about 50%

Overcast:

Driving west into the evening sun:

I don't think I have a solution.,

It's either fine or it's poor...

 

[Nigel]

Mine seems to vary greatly...

This is the same day - going to work in the morning and coming home at night - the camera set to the horizon at about 50%

Overcast:

Driving west into the evening sun:

I don't think I have a solution.,

It's either fine or it's poor...

On the sunny one, we can see that the reflections are equal in intensity all over the view, so clearly the polariser is not working and either needs adjustment or reassembly.

Take it off and test it, it should work identically to polarised sunglasses if you have some, compare it with the sunglasses when looking at an LCD TV (not 3D). The glass may be mounted backwards or at the wrong angle.

 

[Leopold]

I agree it looks strange, the CPL filter should take care of much more reflexes especially towards the center of the picture. I doubt this could be attributed to a steeply raked windshield but I'm no expert.

Anyway, here is a short clip how you can verify correct alignment for the CPL filter. I forgot to show how it looks like if flipped backwards but it will be very obvious if tested with a LCD screen like in the clip.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Right - so tonight I have updated the firmware to V3.1 and I have removed and made 100% sure the CPL is as dark as it can be against the TV screen (which all but disappears).

Popped the cam back on and the the bottom corners are a lot darker, but the light is poor as evening approached so not really able to see what difference it has made.

Will let you know folks.

Thanks for staying with me.

 

[Leopold]

Please check your filter against the LCD non-3D tv screen (or laptop screen), it should look very similar to what is demonstrated in the clip. You should get almost 100% cancellation when the filter is turned 90 degrees, full visibility when the filter is in normal operating position as if mounted on the camera. Also verify that the filter is not mounted backward in its mount by viewing the screen from the wrong side of the filter, it only works one way.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Yep. That's how it was done. ☺

 

[Leopold]

Yep. That's how it was done. ☺

Ok, hope you managed to align that filter correctly, very important otherwise all potential gains are lost. You lose a few stops on aperture but the F 1.8 lens deal with it very nicely even during night trips.

Today I received no less than four (!) polarized sunglasses in different varieties in the mail... bronze, gray, even pink and yellow mirror glass

Thing is, when I reviewed the quality of the camera picture and compared to what I saw I realized something had to be done... the camera view is *way* better that I can see as a driver. Couldn't accept that.

Quite inexpensive sunglasses but they all have the polarizing effect that I see in the A119 cam with CPL filter. I kept two of them for my own use and gave the other two to wifey and our son, they were much appreciated! Like night & day in difficult light conditions I guarantee, bright light reflected in wet roads etc is cancelled out totally more or less.

I had a few of those "Polaroid" glasses many decades ago and now I found the concept again through that dashcam!