Thread: Camera recommendation and camera placement help.

I'm interested in other people's ideas and USB cameras they have bought for back up camera and mounting. I'm looking for something that is wide lens (fish eye), flat/small (easier to mount) around license plate and IR (see in the dark). Is there a model one that someone can recommend?

from my experience, the wide angles are actually a bad idea unless youre just using the camera for fun. the wide angle screws up your depth perception and makes it impossible to use as a backup camera.

and the best spot for a rear camera is up high, angled downward. i have mine on the license plate, and its not ideal (wide angle too, its honestly completely useless)

Is yours Infrared? If you didn't have the wide angle, do you think it would it be fine on the license plate?

If I can't put it where the license plate is, the only other place is where my lock for the trunk is..... Do you know of one that is small enough to fit in the a small lock cylinder that is USB and IR?

night time with cars going by is the worst area for a camera-- there is almost nothing you can do to get amazing pictures at night with headlights around you.

i think that ir is going to be useless for rear view cameras, in most cases, a bullet camera should work fine, and would be easier to mount.

in a city area, the ir is just going to bounce of the surrounding cars, complicating the problem of not being able to see.

also, i have not been convinced that ir on a car is that best idea-- at least when there is any visible light to the naked eye (people pass you wondering why your mirrors are glowing red...distracting them from the road). if you can use higher quality ir led's that are not human eye visible, it should take care of that problem(though they're not cheap).

then there is the lens--so far, auto iris lenses do best at changing contrasts(at night, as headlights sweep across view), simply becaue they block out the light that is not needed. the problem though is that these are large and bulky compared to auto contrast cameras like what you posted above. but auto contrast cameras always have the same amount of light going into the lens, and the camera chip/software compensates. auto iris lenses physically change the amount of light going into the lens to correct the problem.

for my own car, i would go with 3/4 bullet cameras with about a 3mm lens, which is relativly wide angle, but will give great coverage.

Wide angle lens is best for surveillance, not as a backup camera because you need good depth perception for that. My incar security camera has a 3mm lens, and it works perfect. Compared to my old 6mm lens, the extra viewability is much improved. Those IR emitters dont seem very powerful if you are going to try to illuminate the surroundings. Seems to be more like for indoor use. Get a low lux camera, like 0.5 lux or below and you should be able to see just fine in the dark.

Do you recommend a website that has USB cameras that have specs that you can compare such as LUX and Focal Length?

i mounted mine by my license plate because i really dont have any other choice. if it were a normal 90deg view, it probably would be somewhat better, but i know its never really good unless you get the camera up high angled down.

Originally Posted by hehaha

I'm interested in other people's ideas and USB cameras they have bought for back up camera and mounting. I'm looking for something that is wide lens (fish eye), flat/small (easier to mount) around license plate and IR (see in the dark). Is there a model one that someone can recommend?

I am too, although I am not using USB. I am more interested in what they did for waterproofing.

Originally Posted by trader007

from my experience, the wide angles are actually a bad idea unless youre just using the camera for fun. the wide angle screws up your depth perception and makes it impossible to use as a backup camera.

and the best spot for a rear camera is up high, angled downward. i have mine on the license plate, and its not ideal (wide angle too, its honestly completely useless)

Thats what I think too.... It would also get a great view of the car behind and also the driver in the car if the camera is raised. But also, I have to keep the car looking sleek, so I do not want big bulky cameras on my roof. One thing I can maybe do is buy a pinhole camera that is very tiny, then use illuminaters maybe in the lift gate to give the pin hole night vision. As for the front, I can also use a pinhole camera too, set farther back on the roof, so I can get the front and the sides of the front all with one cam.

Originally Posted by hehaha

Is yours Infrared? If you didn't have the wide angle, do you think it would it be fine on the license plate?

If I can't put it where the license plate is, the only other place is where my lock for the trunk is..... Do you know of one that is small enough to fit in the a small lock cylinder that is USB and IR?

I have honestly never seen a USB camera for reverse. Remember most other cars do not use a PC so the ones I am finding are composite.

Originally Posted by soundman98

night time with cars going by is the worst area for a camera-- there is almost nothing you can do to get amazing pictures at night with headlights around you.

i think that ir is going to be useless for rear view cameras, in most cases, a bullet camera should work fine, and would be easier to mount.

in a city area, the ir is just going to bounce of the surrounding cars, complicating the problem of not being able to see.

also, i have not been convinced that ir on a car is that best idea-- at least when there is any visible light to the naked eye (people pass you wondering why your mirrors are glowing red...distracting them from the road). if you can use higher quality ir led's that are not human eye visible, it should take care of that problem(though they're not cheap).

then there is the lens--so far, auto iris lenses do best at changing contrasts(at night, as headlights sweep across view), simply becaue they block out the light that is not needed. the problem though is that these are large and bulky compared to auto contrast cameras like what you posted above. but auto contrast cameras always have the same amount of light going into the lens, and the camera chip/software compensates. auto iris lenses physically change the amount of light going into the lens to correct the problem.

for my own car, i would go with 3/4 bullet cameras with about a 3mm lens, which is relativly wide angle, but will give great coverage.

OH boy, you wrote a big one, lol....

I agree, but I do think mounting the camera high up like trader suggested will help because the headlight will not hit head one to the camera.

I may go with bullet cameras, in combination with IR illuminaters, although I do not think I will need the illuminaters in the city.

Well actually the I/R red glow will simply act as lighting to identify where my car is, like parking lights. They would now see the sides of my car, since the Durango does not have side parking lights. I will not have any facing forward since the headlights are on anyways.

I wonder what Honda is using on the concept I saw on their car. They had cameras instead of mirrors, and they were very small and sleek.

Originally Posted by trader007

i mounted mine by my license plate because i really dont have any other choice. if it were a normal 90deg view, it probably would be somewhat better, but i know its never really good unless you get the camera up high angled down.

Silly, mount the camera near the third tail light on your truck. If you angle it correctly, not only would you see the rear, but also the sides of the rear. Mind you anything shorter then the bed would not be seen though.