Very dark night videos. Firmware 2.8 Bug?

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Milos7

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Does this look right to you guys? ( UPDATE FROM VIOFO BELOW)
I have only had A129 Pro Duo for short time, and I park during night in various spots on the street so Im not sure If my camera had same problem with dark videos before I upgraded it to v.2.8 or not.

You can see how footage gets suddenly brighter if car passes by and than it gets dark again.
The street is not very lit, but there are decent street lights (you can see two at least behind and in front), house lights, and in reality it is not that dark as the footage suggests. Something seems wrong with light balance.


Overall I think it is bad quality even for the night shot.
The mornings, day and evenings look normal. Settings for gain are 0 unless they change after dark. Update: look at the video in post #4 at 2:22. Extreme gain jumps.
Any ideas?

Has anyone noticed much darker night videos with 2.8 firmware.

Rear

Front
 
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Here is another two samples from last night. Same parking spot rear cam. Person approaches and sits in the car behind mine. Nothing is visible.


Any help would be appreciated.

 
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In this clip starting at 2:22 you can see how gain (camera exposure) jumps from this crazy super dark to more "normal" gain balance as the small sources of light in the back (car head lights) come and go.

Is this normal? It seems way too extreme.


Hope somebody from VIOFO can advise.
 
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Rear camera WDR ON right? This has been happening since forever. Never fixed.
 
I know WDR is ON, but not sure if rear camera has separate WDR on/off setting. Ill check later today.
I will turn WDR off for the night and check tomorrow morning with hope to see the difference. If that doesn't work, I will downgrade the firmware back to 2.7
 
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Looking at your footage, it's obvious the way the image gets suddenly brighter is not normal. Even when a car drives past in your FOV, the extra light shouldn't suddenly brighten the image the way it does. It does look like a glitch and not natural light added to the image.

FW 2.7 is very stable for me, I'd suggest you downgrade.

Here's a screenshot of my rear camera at 3am for comparison.

95InzJci1N.png
 
Arese said:
Looking at your footage, it's obvious the way the image gets suddenly brighter is not normal. Even when a car drives past in your FOV, the extra light shouldn't suddenly brighten the image the way it does. It does look like a glitch and not natural light added to the image.

FW 2.7 is very stable for me, I'd suggest you downgrade.

Here's a screenshot of my rear camera at 3am for comparison.

View attachment 60816
Click to expand...
Is wdr turned on in the image you shared? Can you also check and write the full version from the camera? Thank you.
 
Thanks for the link. Your footage looks too good to be true at night. Mine never looked that great at night even 2.7 I think. It must be type and amount of light you have present.
 
Does anyone have direct link to download v 2.7 2020117 ?

This link labeled 2.7 downloads the new 2.8 20220308 :-(
support.viofo.com

VIOFO A129 Pro Duo Dash Camera Firmware

Please click below for the A129 Pro support page. A129 Pro Support page
support.viofo.com support.viofo.com

VIOFO is messing up a lot with this 2.8

Wish they would respond with some help here.
 
Milos7 said:
Does anyone have direct link to download v 2.7 2020117 ?

This link labeled 2.7 downloads the new 2.8 20220308 :-(
support.viofo.com

VIOFO A129 Pro Duo Dash Camera Firmware

Please click below for the A129 Pro support page. A129 Pro Support page
support.viofo.com support.viofo.com

VIOFO is messing up a lot with this 2.8

Wish they would respond with some help here.
Click to expand...
www.captureyouraction.com

Viofo A129 Pro Firmware

Firmware updates for Viofo A129 PRO dash camera. This includes the A129 Pro DUO. Caution! Incorrectly installing firmware can cause your camera to become inoperable. Sometimes permanently. Firmware listed on this site comes directly from the manufacturer. Install at your own risk and only...
www.captureyouraction.com
 
I got response from VIOFO today.

"
Thank you for choosing our products.
The advantage of the WDR is during the day when light is good, not during the night.
We suggest disabling WDR at night."

Im sticking with 2.7 testing WDR ON vs OFF during the night parking.
 
I use to have WDR on in my dashcams, but i have not done that for a few years now.
My hopes are on working good HDR instead, but so far i have not seen that work as i hope for.
 
I use v2.8 with WDR on @ 1080P 60fps, I prefer the smoother frame rate to the resolution when all I am after is capturing the incident - if its rego number I'm after I call it put over the audio. I don't have dark lighting like your video.
 
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How does the night video quality of the A129 PRO compare to the night video quality of the A129 PLUS Duo?
Are night recordings similar (i.e. both have poor night quality) or is the PRO better than the PLUS for night shots?
 
S-Design19 said:
How does the night video quality of the A129 PRO compare to the night video quality of the A129 PLUS Duo?
Are night recordings similar (i.e. both have poor night quality) or is the PRO better than the PLUS for night shots?
Click to expand...
Depends on the amount of movement, if not moving then the Pro is generally better, if moving then the Plus has a small advantage. You can probably read a plate under street lights on the Pro at <10 Km/h relative speed and on the Plus at less than 15 Km/h, although it will depend on the amount of lighting. If you are trying to read the plate on the car directly in front or behind while moving at any speed then there is very little difference, possibly the Pro will do better as it has better dynamic range, but as soon as you turn a corner the Plus will do a little better.

The Pro does not have HDR though, in some circumstances it will be easily beaten by a camera with HDR, although personally I don't use HDR since it seems to cause more problems than it solves.
 
Nigel said:
Depends on the amount of movement [...]

The Pro does not have HDR though, in some circumstances it will be easily beaten by a camera with HDR, although personally I don't use HDR since it seems to cause more problems than it solves.
Click to expand...

Very informative, thanks! (y)
 
Milos7 said:
You could do 1440p 60p.
Click to expand...
Thanks, switched to 1440P 60fps and the difference to 4K isnt that noticeable and I get the smoothest framerate - awesome for fast moving vehicles.
 
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