[REVIEW] In-Bumper Rear-view camera

RoyN · 04-19-2005, 08:09 PM

UPDATE 3 - Jan 27 2006 - Now the Mp3Car store is stocking this item http://www.mp3car.com/store/product_...roducts_id=166

UPDATE 2 - Apr 28: I have removed the link to that other cheaper camera that supposedly has similar specs because I was contacted by the seller that sold ME the camera on E-Bay (for 175 as opposed to the 55) that the other site was selling for. Check out his e-mail and comments about the difference between products below. Its a bit long but it shows he is motivated to give good support!

Hi Guys,

as promised, here is my review on the in-bumper reverse camera I have installed.
CCD Infrared Keyhole Wide Angle Rear View Camera

Purchased on: E-Bay
Price: U$175 shipped (*ouch*)
Seller: yanlabonline (if you end up purchasing from him please state my ebay user "roynasser" as I plan on getting more from him for my dad's car and maybe friends)
Review: (these are my opinions on the item, dont blame me if they dont agree with your experience, I hope it helps)

Power - I was afraid that power would be a problem but I am running it straight from the ACC line and it hasnt twitched. A+

Mounting - My truck is black and the camera comes in black. I had it mounted in the middle of the rear bumper and it isnt obtrusive or anything. I think it looks rather good. A+

General - The camera is reversed which is useful when maneuvering in reverse. The light sensitivity is very good, and although I havent used it in pitch darkness, during night-time driving I can clearly see the rear of the truck, with some color, showing that even though the infrared illumination seems really good and strong, the camera's sensor itself is very sensitive. I havent yet used it during the day. I have noticed 2 very slight complaints... 1st, it appears that sometimes the corners of the screen are cut off, basically instead of the image covering the entire screen the 4 corners are cut-off, as if the image was circular... I'm not sure if this is something because of the way it was mounted (I suspect this is due to excess ilumination in some situations coming from the IR leds, which can only be a good thing since this isnt really a problem, and it isnt a hardware trouble in the sensor because depending on the condition the "corners" do get image...) I need to post pictures of the image generated, but I will do that in due time. Sorry I dont have my cam with me... The other slight quirp is that occasionally I can see a slight reflection of the IR leds on the center of the image. This is very slight, and not present all the time. Again I suspect this is due to the very strong leds in use. (This adds in the IR range for night vision)... A

Overall Grade:A/A+!!!!!

These are my first impressions, I wanted to leave them here ASAP, and I'll let you guys know what other impressions I get tomorrow and the days to come. I'll try to get pictures of it mounted, and also of the slight quirps I described. I am currently running it direct to my Xenarc, but I am waiting for my hauppauge to connect it straight. I will also get a way of triggering the cam automatically but I am waiting for one of the projects being developed here (input/dig input/relays). I had purchased a small USB IR (nightvision) Webcam also on ebay to test, for about 20bucks, but it is utter crap.... This is much better image-wise and mounting wise... I think this is the way to go for a sturdy, high-quality solution (This item is similar to what is available on Lexus, Cayennes and other luxury SUVs).

Here are a few more pictures from the seller. I hope he doesnt mind...

Cheers & Hope this helps!
Roy

PS: Zip-lock, this is a great item and I suggest that you sell something similar if you can get ahold of a supplier... but it is one of the most expensive single item in my setup I must admin

UPDATE:
Here you will find the quote from an e-mail that the seller of my item from EBay sent me. He is obviously looking here and seeing what we users are looking for... His explanation in brief is that per the specs of that camera, they use a much lower quality electronic sensor type (a low-quality one found in many CHEAP-O applications like 130$ radioshack CAMCORDERS)...

So you guys take your picks... I think I'm going to order my ofuture cams from the same guy I purchased...

Quote:

as one person pointed out, my camera is 110 degree wide angle, the $50 one is 30-40 degree, (keep in mind that 30-40 degree is NOT a typo), what you can see using your own eyes from standard rear view mirrors is already wider than 30-40 degree, so why does anybody needs that narrow view camera? wide angle lens is one of the most expensive parts for a camera.

and the additional information i want to give you is actually a bigger difference between our camera and the $50 one. is the image sensor. our camera uses 1/3 inch CCD image sensor, that is the same image sensor being used in all digital cameras in the world today, so it gives you the best quality picture compareable to digital cameras. the $50 camera uses CMOS image sensor (if a seller doesn't say what image sensor the camera uses, it must be CMOS, because people in this field and sell these know CCD image sensor is a big selling point, and if it is a CCD camera, the seller would definitely make it shown in the subject and everywhere in the product description). CMOS image sensor is the camera-on-chip technology, completely different from CCD image sensor technology, and a lot of plastic cheap ones such as X10 cameras use CMOS image sensor, simply because it is so cheap.

you can read some of the technology FAQ about the difference between CCD image sensor and CMOS image sensor that we have put on our web site at:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/yanlab/usa/questions.html
and you can find a lot more information on the technology on the web search engines such as google.

i can get you some very cheap CMOS cameras too although we set ourself to sell high quality cameras. they would look exactly the same when it is not turned on. once you have used a cheap CMOS one and a CCD high quality one, you would be able to tell the difference right at the second you turn the camera on. i don't mind people do not understand the technology and think i riped them off on the price, however, i would like to provide the information to them and don't want anybody be fooled with cheap toys. there is no free lunch, everybody gets what he or she paid for, for $50, he or she would get the cheap toy and might think why this camera is not very clear or why it has color distortions from time to time and never know there is a completely different technology that provide best quality pictures available.

nappyjim · 04-19-2005, 08:27 PM

Damn,. 175 is a lot. Some action shots would be great

thanatos106 · 04-25-2005, 06:38 PM

see my post here......
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/show...896#post463896

RoyN · 04-25-2005, 07:27 PM

Damn, I didnt know they could be obtained for such a smaller price on mp3playerstore.com or whatever the other link is...

I wish I had known that.... I did search around on froogle, pricewatch etc, but didnt find one that had everything I wanted (in-bumper, wide angle, reversed, IR)... oh well I'll order from there for the next car...

EsKALad · 04-25-2005, 07:41 PM

Just bought a waterproof nightvision cam from ebay looks exactly like this..they got them on sale for 39.95 and 19.95 shipping check them out. Seller is mp3player or something like that

RoyN · 04-25-2005, 11:04 PM

Man, I looked for them last month and that was the same value from multiple sellers... oh well, too late to cry over the spilt milk (spilt money in this case... :/)

theheel · 04-25-2005, 11:19 PM

any chance of seeing a pic of the camera in action?

kuo · 04-25-2005, 11:36 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

Man, I looked for them last month and that was the same value from multiple sellers... oh well, too late to cry over the spilt milk (spilt money in this case... :/)

hey royn, thanks for the review. the one you bought is a wide angle camera, ~110 deg viewing angle. the one linked above advertises 30-40 deg. it's a big price difference but i would still rather have a wide angle reverse camera... i gonna order from yanlabs except i'm getting the non-keyhole versions since my cars don't have keyholes in the trunk and they're a little cheaper.

you got any action shots yet? do you have ur camera power tapped into the reverse lights? if you do, how is the response time for the xenarc's autoswitching when you put it in reverse?

thanatos106 · 04-26-2005, 03:31 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by kuo

hey royn, thanks for the review. the one you bought is a wide angle camera, ~110 deg viewing angle. the one linked above advertises 30-40 deg. it's a big price difference but i would still rather have a wide angle reverse camera... i gonna order from yanlabs except i'm getting the non-keyhole versions since my cars don't have keyholes in the trunk and they're a little cheaper.

you got any action shots yet? do you have ur camera power tapped into the reverse lights? if you do, how is the response time for the xenarc's autoswitching when you put it in reverse?

Well 30-40 degress still wide angle......

I really don't use..... is really for my girlfriend... since she scrashed all the rear bumper of my truck (girsl and big cars

)

RoyN · 04-26-2005, 08:08 AM

Thats what I'm unsure about... the one I got is MUCH more than 30-40 degrees.... for sur over 100

shotgunefx · 04-26-2005, 08:21 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

Thats what I'm unsure about... the one I got is MUCH more than 30-40 degrees.... for sur over 100

I've got a savv backup cam. It's got a 150 degree fov.

RoyN · 04-26-2005, 08:29 AM

Yea, but this savv cam isnt the same style in-bumper...

shotgunefx · 04-26-2005, 08:39 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

Yea, but this savv cam isnt the same style in-bumper...

Meant to reply to thanatos106. Not trying to get into a "who's angle is bigger" argument

30 or 40 degrees on the other hand isn't sufficient imho.

edit Now I'm real confused. Must have read the thread wrong (was reading it reversed in the post preview). I was replying to you. The big difference between the cameras are going to be the lens. Does your housing open? You might be able to replace it with a wider one later if it suites your taste. I needed something wider as I wanted to be able to componsate for my very limited visibility in the rear. I also got it really cheap on ebay.

RoyN · 04-26-2005, 09:13 AM

My visibility is pretty bad too.... and the cam I have has a good angle... very good.... I think the one on the other site, that is 50 bucks and looks exactly the same is probably just a typo.... 30/40 deg angle is ridiculous I think...

maybe thanatos can tell us about the angle on his cam?

shotgunefx · 04-26-2005, 09:24 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by RoyN

My visibility is pretty bad too.... and the cam I have has a good angle... very good.... I think the one on the other site, that is 50 bucks and looks exactly the same is probably just a typo.... 30/40 deg angle is ridiculous I think...

maybe thanatos can tell us about the angle on his cam?

Not positive, but I think most cheap ones are closer to 60 degrees, but I might be mistaken.

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