VIOFO A119 video quality (bottom corners too dark).

[Bob Black]

Hi guys,

I recently bought two A119s from Amazon UK for my and my GF's car. Plan is to run both, front and rear so I need two more. However, I am a bit disappointed with the video quality in the bottom corners. The video is too dark, making it almost unusable as proof in case of an accident. It's been reported by some other members of this forum as well.
My question to Viofo is: can this be sorted by further software upgrades on your side or is it the characteristics of the sensor and there is no fix possible? It is a shame because I really like this camera, it has nice design, build quality is good too and the video quality is very good, except for those corners. I understand it is a budget camera and I cant have it all for £63 I paid, but I am looking forward to your reply anyway.

Just for your information, I am running the latest firmware (FWBA119).

Thank you.

Reagrds,

BB

P.S.: please feel free to take part in the poll so I know how many of you have similar issues with your A119.

 

[jokiin]

screenshot?

 

[Bob Black]

I will add them tonight.

 

[Bob Black]

Hi,

thanks for your patience, finally I had a chance to take some pictures on my way home from work (time stamp is incorrect). The problem I am having is at the bottom corners, the area is very dark and it doesn't matter if it is during a sunny day or when it's raining. The only thing that's different is the colour of that dark area - it seems red when Sun is shinning and dark blue or black when it isn't so bright outside. As I mentioned I have two identical cameras and the problem is the same with both of them. Could it be improved by any settings, like EV or WDR? As I mentioned earlier I am using the latest firmware and also the microSD cards I am using in both cameras are Samsung EVO XC I Class 10 64 GB ones.







Basically it's the same situation as described in this review in "Dynamic Range Comparison" part: https://www.carcamcentral.com/review/viofo-a119-review#lightbox[gallery-10]/1/

One more thing, I would really like to purchase that polarising filter for the cameras but it doens't seem to be available yet.

Thank you.

Regards,

BB

 

[lacibaci]

Looks like some kind of reflections from the windshield. Take the camera out of the car and try to point it at a wall about 15ft away.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

Yeah, I would try it outside the car to eliminate reflection possibilities.

 

[abarth]

I can confirm that the camera does have a bit of vignetting going on and it's apparent even when pointing it at a bright wall outside of a vehicle's interior. but what you have displayed above is mostly due to a lot of dark dashboard reflection. it's normal for most cameras with a wide angle lens to exhibit this trait.

 

[Bob Black]

Thanks for your advice, I will try the camera outside my car to see what happens. I think it has something to do with that windshield & dashboard reflection camera can't cope well with. My previous camera I used in the same car didn't show this kind of behaviour (808 # 18 DR32).

 

[klatch]

Thanks for your advice, I will try the camera outside my car to see what happens. I think it has something to do with that windshield & dashboard reflection camera can't cope well with. My previous camera I used in the same car didn't show this kind of behaviour (808 # 18 DR32).

That camera is angled lower and doesn't seem to have as wide of a field of view - you can't actually see the bottom corners of the pillars in that shot, which could affect it also.

 

[Bob Black]

I will spend a bit of time on weekend trying to go through different settings but at the moment I am putting the purchase of two additional cameras on hold. Today I tried to move it a few degrees to see if there would be any difference and watched the video after coming home and wasn't pleased to see this:




I took the camera outside my car and as you can see the picture is pretty clear. What concerns me though is that red hue on a door frame. Really seems camera has some issues and it can't cope with dark colours.

 

[lacibaci]

I will spend a bit of time on weekend trying to go through different settings but at the moment I am putting the purchase of two additional cameras on hold. Today I tried to move it a few degrees to see if there would be any difference and watched the video after coming home and wasn't pleased to see this:




I took the camera outside my car and as you can see the picture is pretty clear. What concerns me though is that red hue on a door frame. Really seems camera has some issues and it can't cope with dark colours.

The first two images show what almost every camera struggles with. When auto exposure is used you either get blown highlights or dark part of an image. Sometimes this can be fixed in the firmware, try pointing camera down a little.
I can't see anything wrong with the last image...?

 

[Nigel]

I will spend a bit of time on weekend trying to go through different settings but at the moment I am putting the purchase of two additional cameras on hold. Today I tried to move it a few degrees to see if there would be any difference and watched the video after coming home and wasn't pleased to see this:




I took the camera outside my car and as you can see the picture is pretty clear. What concerns me though is that red hue on a door frame. Really seems camera has some issues and it can't cope with dark colours.

You need to point the camera below the horizon, especially when driving into a setting sun, otherwise it will expose for the sun!

As it is a dashcam, the colour will be calibrated for looking through a laminated glass windscreen which will normally filter out some red light, don't expect it to be correct when the laminated glass isn't there.

 

[Bob Black]

I can't see anything wrong with the last image...?

The whole image is of very good quality except for that part on the door frame of my car. I don't understand why camera is making it look red.

 

[Bob Black]

You need to point the camera below the horizon, especially when driving into a setting sun, otherwise it will expose for the sun!

Thank you for reply. I watched the whole footage and it looks like the camera is really struggling trying to find the balance between bright and dark areas at sunset. Taking it for a night drive now to see if there would be any difference in image quality.

 

[Bob Black]

Images taken at the same place as those I posted two hours ago at sunset. Night time video quality is good enough.

 

[lacibaci]

Is postimage.org some kind of "pron" site? I'm getting some weird ads around...

 

[Bob Black]

I doubt it, its legit site for image uploads. I use Adblocker so I don't have any weird pop-ups displaying. You usually get ads based on your browsing preferences, so if it's porn in your case I strongly suggest you disable tracking in your browser .

 

[lacibaci]

I doubt it, its legit site for image uploads. I use Adblocker so I don't have any weird pop-ups displaying. You usually get ads based on your browsing preferences, so if it's porn in your case I strongly suggest you disable tracking in your browser .

Whatever... There is no "browsing preference." I got everything turned off - besides I get the same set of suggestive images on other (fresh) machines and browsers.

 

[walexw]

I don't know if it's only because of the reflection , but in my opinion the image is bad. I can get a better one from a no name 40$ dashcam. I've bought Viofo only for the camera location , but it appears that I've made a mistake.
The cam is placed under the mirror of a Skoda Rapid.

 

[Nigel]

I don't know if it's only because of the reflection , but in my opinion the image is bad. I can get a better one from a no name 40$ dashcam. I've bought Viofo only for the camera location , but it appears that I've made a mistake.
The cam is placed under the mirror of a Skoda Rapid.

Not at 15 minutes before sunset on a cloudy day!

Some of the problem is reflections, some is low light, but near the edges and corners most is due to motion blur which is a result of low light levels.
It's managed to make the image look like daylight even though the other car has it's headlights on and it's dark enough for them to reflect off the road.