Wide angle is not always better

Mtz

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I will pass over the fake lens specifications like 177 degrees (maybe real 90 degrees?) found on many cheap and poor cameras.
Many people are thinking that if they will buy a camera with a larger wide angle they will record more image. This is right, if the wide angle is real, but you must not forget that using this type of lens all objects in front of the camera are zoomed out, are far away than the real situation.

The big drawback about having objects far away is for example when you want to read car license plates. The closer they are, the better is the reading of them. More than that, if the interesting area for you is on the sides, is OK to have a wide lens because you will have more chances the object to be recorded , but because on the lens sides the image is distorted your chances are even smaller to read the characters from the plate.

But why is important to have a clear image regarding car plates? Most of you know if you are going to court and want to have some evidence which will be approved by the judge, you must have the number of the car. If you are going with a nice wide picture of a common white Prius on court without showing the registration number you have big chances to have nothing against the Prius and his driver.

We are not buying dashcams to make some movies or entertainment, or to feel like a cop, we want them to protect us if some event will happen. And always the details are important.

I consider 120 degrees is enough for a dashcam. Of course angle is not everything we must not forget the quality of the lens, less distortion, CMOS size, quality of the recording, but we already know what we want regarding these features because we can watch samples.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
"Most of you know if you are going to court and want to have some evidence which will be approved by the judge, you must have the number of the car"

If the video shows you in a wreck with a car , and assuming it isn't a hit and run, will the judge still require plates? I am not sure why. For instance eye witnesses probably don't know the plate numbers. Is the judge assuming you are making a video of another crash than the one you were in etc.? Only in a hit and run could it be with another car and still be a video of the actual crash?

What about your insurance company?

I agree with your points about wide angle, it is a trade off. If the quality of the photo is good you could zoom in to make up some of the difference. But my
F500LHD does not seem that good at night so probably wouldn't want a wider angle than that, and it seemed to cover more than what is right in front of the car.
I would think if the lens starts picking up side views it would have to distort , just because it is mapping a 3D image to 2D, sort of what a fish eye lens does (I think).
 
A video about a great camera, a wide lens and great low light performance. Compared to a cheap camera which is not so great.
Please watch it on a computer to see the annotations and use the best quality.


If the video shows you in a wreck with a car , and assuming it isn't a hit and run, will the judge still require plates? I am not sure why.
Go with the video from the top to the Police and declare some things about an unknown car.
Then go with the video from the bottom and show the car is a Fiat (Albea) and the registration number are ABC-123.

I don't want to discuss too much about the importance of reading the car plates. In my country if Police or anybody, even the president don't have the number of my car in the video or picture they have nothing against me. Zero, nada. I have a national car called Dacia Logan and are thousands and thousands like mine. Nobody can accuse me because I was driving yesterday a white Dacia Logan on a highway with 150km/h if they don't have my numbers as an evidence.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
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I found on some camera description a different AOV based on FPS.



enjoy,
Mtz
 

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Mtz said:
I found on some camera description a different AOV based on FPS.



enjoy,
Mtz

haven't seen this before, AOV differing based on resolution is common though, A2S70 supports this function
 
Vico TF2+ Premium let the user to select the angle. So you can choose to be more sure to read the characters or you want to see more on the sides.


............................. 140 degrees .............................................................. 160 degrees ...............................

In this way you decide what is better for you. I wish you to make the good decision if some event will happen to you and to help you, not crying because of yours wrong wide decision.

enjoy,
Mtz
 
I think ibeing able to read license plates only is extremely important in the case of a hin 'n run. Otherwise the drivers already have filled in the collision report and you can just show the footage to police if the person at fault is contested. For me it's more important for example to tell that a bicycle has turned into me and not the other way around.

There are also many more cases of accidents where you won't be able to see the car's license plates or any of the car at all. For example cars rear-ending or side-swiping you, you will only record card hitting the front of your car.
 
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The new Blackvue DR500GW has a really wide 156° (diagonal) x 123° (horizontal) x 90° (vertical) angle lens. In comparison to Blackvue DR400G, DR400G II, the wide angle is 120° (diagonal) x 98° (horizontal) x 55° (vertical). The Itronics ITB100HD, ITB100HD-SP wide angle is 144° (diagonal) x 108.7° (horizontal) x 78.5° (vertical).

images


Blackvue DR500GW's approximately wide coverage is 160°. The recorded video is clear and amazing! I see more details captured on this new Blackvue due to the larger angel of view vs the other two DVRs. I think as long as the video recording is clear (day and night), a wider angle lens will be more useful. However, the challenge is to manufacture good wide angle lens with less fisheye effect, and this the manufacturers need to tackle.

images
 
............snip........


.......snip............

One of the things I like about this site & the regular posters, is that besides the hard facts about DCs, it's enjoyable to see the photos & videos of the different places people live. Many new & interesting sights.

Mtz, that's one heck of a photo...I can only make some guesses;
1. a nearby volcano just erupted....everyone died in this town, but u'r cam continued recording (the people in the bus r frozen)
2. the fallout is from the stacks shown, however the sky looks blue.
3. washing your car is a federal crime, punishable by a year in jail.
 
Or it's just Russia, where the roads are dirty/muddy as hell.
 
Personally, I would prefer a third option - remote lens, dual channel.
Have two good lens, each with a narrower FOV but each bringing in highest definition etc.
Much like having two headlights on a car (I noticed more & more motorbikes have twin headlights now). One light is OK to see the road ahead (motorbikes manage OK) but having the two makes things much clearer, having twice the coverage directly ahead plus additional peripheral.
 
I think ibeing able to read license plates only is extremely important in the case of a hin 'n run. Otherwise the drivers already have filled in the collision report and you can just show the footage to police if the person at fault is contested. For me it's more important for example to tell that a bicycle has turned into me and not the other way around.

There are also many more cases of accidents where you won't be able to see the car's license plates or any of the car at all. For example cars rear-ending or side-swiping you, you will only record card hitting the front of your car.

The thing is you will never know when a hit and run will happen. And...as much as I love the wide angle view my GoPro provides, the distortion is well, ewww. As the OP states everything appears zoomed out, and a wide angle may not necessarily catch a side swipe.

Overall though I agree with you. Decisions decisions! Lucky iky I can choose between narrow, medium and wide but meh, frankly I just don't know what to use. Both can be useful.
 
I think 120 degree is enuff.
I have allso brainstormed the solution to have a second camera on the windscreen with a < 100 degree lens.
Looking for NVR and IP cameras i have come across some Megapixel lenses, so i will order some of those to experiment with on IP cameras and dashcams.

There are however some problems that can pop up, for instance the lens from my G1W do not work on my mobius as it cant screw enuff into the socket.

Going completely OT , looking at gopro 4 videos on youtube im am like ?????? ppl pay mony for this, comparing to the video gopro made them self the ones from the users seem tame.
 
GoPro 4 cool and all but unless you are making pro vids and such, the 3+ is sufficient. Going back to the top, I've decided to 'solve' sludgeguts problem. I bought a Top Dawg Dual Cam to supplement my GoPro HERO 3+. My GoPro records 180 degrees while the. Top Dawg covers the 120...oh and I said dual so that means I can record 3 videos at once! More the better right? So two front cams and 1 side. I just need the other side covered now.
 
Just get a higher resolution camera and then you can have wide angle and read the plates :)

It still surprises me that people buy a Mini 0803 which does 1296 resolution and then record in 1080 throwing away some of the detail.
 
I'm thinking a Mobius with standard lens up front to maximise plate reading alongside whatever camera I do end up with up front reading at max res - best of both worlds then!

I've got it sat here but haven't recorded any footage with it yet - I've been slacking the last two weeks :)
 
Ability to read license plate number is well and good, but can be a moot issue in a major crash where both vehicles become disabled. For instance, if you cross an intersection with the green light and vehicle B broadsides your car, you don't need to show B's license number to prove that you had the green light. If B tries to get away, then having his license number becomes a valuable bit (pun intended) of information.
 
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