[Dazzler]

Excellent first effort Alan 

You live in a delightful spot  That huge camper looked a bit out of place across the road though 

Found the mounting position of you camera a bit disconcerting.. felt like you were almost driving on / over the while line all the time 

Quite bright still for that time of night (I'm guessing the camera made it look lighter than it was?)

Interesting the way the time/date stamp was floating (I have mine turned off) but usually they are static 

I must get a decent camera mount ( velcro attached to my dash mat is a bit crude compared to you guys)  (off to search ebay ...

[AlanHo]

Excellent first effort Alan 

You live in a delightful spot  That huge camper looked a bit out of place across the road though 

Found the mounting position of you camera a bit disconcerting.. felt like you were almost driving on / over the while line all the time 

Quite bright still for that time of night (I'm guessing the camera made it look lighter than it was?)

Interesting the way the time/date stamp was floating (I have mine turned off) but usually they are static 

I must get a decent camera mount ( velcro attached to my dash mat is a bit crude compared to you guys)  (off to search ebay ...

Thanks for the kind words Dazz.

Although I am not happy about its presence, I can't complain about the motorhome opposite our house because it was there when we moved here almost 2 years ago. However, the owner won it in a competition and carried out significant work on the front of his house to be able to park it off-road. This provoked a storm of protest from other residents in the grove and official complaints being made to the Town Council - solicitors - appeals to the authorities about title deed covenants being flouted etc. I gather it went on for months but the protestors ran out of steam (and cash) and the matter was left in limbo. Hence the family with the motorhome (and their kids unfortunately) are ostricised by all the residents in the grove - bar my wife and I who are newcomers.

The camera is mounted on the right of the dash and it is an optical illusion that I am on the white line. I do tend to drive away from the kerb because our local roads have some formidable sunk drain covers and pot holes kebside - but not to the extent that I get too near the white line.

I had not noticed that the date/time stamp was floating until you mentioned it - how strange - I have just checked the original video on my computer and it is absolutely static. However - I recall when I uploaded the file to You Tube I got a message stating that You Tube had detected that some of the video was shaky and did I want it removed - I said yes. I therefore suspect that the picture has been cropped side to side and up and down to remove the shake which has caused the date/time stamp to float.

I am still battling with reflections off the windscreen. The addition of the home made lens hood has helped but even though it is painted matt black it has a degree of reflectivity and I can still see a veil cast across the picture which reduces the contrast and brightness when direct sun hits the windscreen.  I have made a couple of lens hoods of differing shapes and materials which are slightly better but the steeply raked screen is a bugger. My next effort will be to try the suggestion about using a polarising filter and I am trying to get hold of one. I tried some polaroid sunglasses but the curvature of the lens created an even worse problem. A photographer friend is having a search through his jumble in the hope he has a small diameter one off a video camera.

[Doggie 1]

Gee, there are some small-minded people around.
No one talks to them (other than you) because they have a motor home. 

[AlanHo]

Gee, there are some small-minded people around.
No one talks to them (other than you) because they have a motor home. 

The problem is that there is a covenant on all the house title deeds in our grove prohibiting the parking of vehicles on house drives other than cars or motor cycles. Hence Buses, utes, vans and caravans of all types are not allowed. The guy is flouting the covenant and the residents are concerned that it could be the thin end of the wedge, start a precedent and others might start parking large vans and scruffy caravans on their drives - thus spoiling the appearance of our little grove.  I think the residents who are complaining have a point but I won't join in because it was there before we bought our house..

[Phil №❶]

Sounds like covenant without teeth to me 

[Dazzler]

I thought the reflection was well controlled Alan  camera polarising filters are fairly cheap and readily  available over here...

[AlanHo]

I thought the reflection was well controlled Alan  camera polarising filters are fairly cheap and readily  available over here...

That may be so - but finding a polarising camera filter 24 mm dia at a sensible price in the uk is as rare as hens teeth

[Shambles]

Maybe it's time to rethink the power issue, seeing as that's what has forced your hand into its current positioning.

I've found it incredibly convenient to simply unplug the camera then detach it when I park up. Takes about 5 seconds in total.

In short, I believe your best bet is to mount it high up using the supplied bracket and take the power from the map light circuit.

[Dazzler]

It would be a lot safer from theft too..

You might have to get a 49 or 58mm filter Alan and just tape it on somehow (they are only about $5 over here) 

[AlanHo]

I decided to try using the car cam behind the rear view mirror to see whether the problem of screen reflections would be any better. As I have mentioned before, the 2012 i30 windscreen is very steeply angled which makes reflections a problem. In addition – there is a large area of the windscreen bonded with a black perforated mask which prevents the mount sucker from being applied in this area.

After considerable faffing about I eventually found a reasonable way of mounting the camera high up on the centre of the screen with the camera LCD screen just visible below the rear view mirror. I also found a way of neatly running the USB power cable from the cabin power socket so that it is switched on and off with the ignition.

This is the drivers eye view of the installation



The adapter plugs that come with my Garmin sat-nav and the DOD F520 are both quite long and get knocked by my hand when I change into reverse, first and 5th gears. The heavy spring on the central positive connection also has a tendency to push the plug out of the socket and thus lose power to the gadget. To solve this I bought a double socket lead which has a short plug less likely to be knocked when changing gear. I was also able to secure the sat-nav and car cam adapters into the extension sockets by a liberal application of insulating tape.



I ran the car cam power lead across the car through the bottom of the dash – exiting by the drivers door. I then ran the lead up the A pillar by hiding it behind the rubber door seal.



At the top of the A Pillar I brought the lead out from the door seal where there is a joint in the interior lining and took it round to the corner of the screen where I popped it behind the roof lining at the top of the sceen





The lead emerges from the roof lining above the rear view mirror and travels down the screen to the car cam.


This are images of the camera on the mount supplied with the camera.





I feel that the camera is in a better location than when I had it at the foot of the screen because it can be angled down slightly to see more of the road close to the car. However – screen reflections are much worse in this position because it is not practical to mount a “lens hood” here – it would block too large an area of the screen and reduce the field of view for the driver.

I have ordered a 27mm diameter polarising filter (the smallest I could find) which will arrive in a few days – I am hoping that this will reduce the reflections – if not – it’s back to the drawing board.

[Shambles]

Well that's good work there.

I do think your lens is too close to the glass, though. Even taking into account the difference between our windscreens in terms of "rake", I have no such problems with glare. The black mesh does not affect the suction with my mount, and there is no interference with my vision.

[Dazzler]

You are a patient man Alan.. From your photos I am surprised that the sucker on the window is not visible in your videos now 

[Phil №❶]

Alan, In Oz I can buy A4 laminating sheets which are adhesive backed from our local stationery shop. The adhesive is quite tacky, so perhaps you might like like to consider using a circular patch on the printed sunscreen area. It may open up other possibilities for you. Your current mounting looks pretty good though 

[AlanHo]

My polarising filter arrive this morning and it has taken me at least an hour to fit it to the camera.  The reason being the filter has a 27mm female thread and the camera lens housing has a diameter of about 22 mm.

I tried various means of filling the gap to hold the filter central including O rings, numerous layers of insulating tape and rings cut from plastic hose but none were satisfactory. I rummaged through my electrical and plumbing drawers for anything of suitable size - finding nothing - but in the process working up a thirst. My drinks fridge is in the garage so I pulled out a 1 litre plastic bottle of lemonade which I downed. I was just about to put the bottle in the recycling box when I looked at the neck which looked about the right diameter. Sure enough - 5 minutes later I had cut off the thread to expose a small plain spigot which I sliced off making a ring about 4 mm thick which happened to be a perfect fit and held the filter quite firmly.

However - not trusting just friction - I taped the filter to the lens barrel making sure that the ring on the front holding the polarising lens was still free to rotate.

I then went out to try it in the car - only to find that whilst I had been busy doing all this the sun had vanished, the clouds had blown over and it was raining. So I cannot check whether it will help remove reflections on the screen.

Bugger, bugger, bugger..................

[rustynutz]

Well, it looks impressive, Alan.....Fingers crossed it now works...

[Doggie 1]

This could serve to polarise camera operators accross the world.

[AlanHo]

This could serve to polarise camera operators accross the world.

The sun came back out which enabled me to try the filter. It's back to the drawing board again Im afraid - my £8 polarising filter has made no difference no matter what distance the camera is from the windscreen or what orientation I turn the filter.  The only thing the filter does well is to show up the toughened glass in the windscreens of the older cars and enhance the patches of blue sky.

Steve - I tried mounting the camera the same as you - but the reflections were worse than with the lens close to the glass. By worse - I mean more of them - because with the lens away from the glass it sees more of the windscreen - hence more reflections.

The camera is brilliant when I driving away from the sun - but when it shines on the dash and A pillars the reflections are quite intrusive.

[Doggie 1]

That's a shame and disappointment.
I hope you can work out a solution.

[Shambles]

Might be the time to start playing with the ISO setting...

[AlanHo]

Might be the time to start playing with the ISO setting...

You need to explain that to me. I am under the impression that the ISO setting merely tells the camera what "Film Speed" it is using. In the case of a movie camera I guess that increasing the ISO setting will cause the camera to use a smaller aperture for a given scene - hence greater depth of field and the possiblity of more "grain" or noise.

I can't see how this will affect the camera picking up screen reflections.

Everyone who has posted their videos on this forum have experienced screen reflections when the camera is against the sun, some being quite strong - so I am not alone. However - being retired I have time on my hands and can afford to spend the time trying to minimise the problem.

My best results have been when using a "lens hood" to shield the windscreen reflections from the camera. This brings an added problem - it kills reflections of the dash, pillars etc - but  casts a grey veil across the picture when direct sun bounces off the inside surfaces of the lens hood and into the lens. I have tried to cure this by covering the inside faces of the lens hood with blackboard paint, matt black paint, jet black velvet cloth, black craft foam, black backing paper, black flocked paper etc - but they all have a degree of reflectivity which casts the veil. I have ordered some special material that is used to line astronomical telescopes that is claimed to be the dogs whatsits at killing reflected light - to cover my lens hood inner faces with - if this doesn't work I will give up.

[Shambles]

The reason I mentioned ISO is that in the days I used to record on paper film (remember those days?) the ISO factor determined the sensitivity of the film; in our DODs I imagined it might make some difference to how the glare is recorded.

It was just a thought.

[Dazzler]

Just had a thought Alan  (now this might be "rubbish" as Shambles would say ..) but.. can you adjust the focus of these cameras can you try and focus past the reflection and then set the focus lock?

[AlanHo]

Fixed focus lens I'm afraid. It has such a short focal length the depth of focus is from 10 cm to infinity.  As it happens my lens is so close to the (angled) glass that any dirt or rain spots are totally out of focus - but reflections are not.

Thanks for the thought anyway.

[Phil №❶]

Alan, you did a great job with the polarising filter. Might I suggest as a test only, crudely taping a plastic polaroid sunglass lens to the camera. I know from wearing them, that screen reflections are eliminated. If you can prove in principle that it works that will give you a starting point from which to rig up a solution. You said you oriented the filter Does that mean you tried at least 90 Deg which the polarising filter should be sensitive to.

Alan, you did a great job with the polarising filter. Might I suggest as a test only, crudely taping a plastic polaroid sunglass lens to the camera. I know from wearing them, that screen reflections are eliminated. If you can prove in principle that it works that will give you a starting point from which to rig up a solution. You said you oriented the filter Does that mean you tried at least 90 Deg which the polarising filter should be sensitive to.

It was my suggestion to try a polarising lens. I suggested a trial with sunglasses as well. Sunglasses are essentially the same as a proper polarising lens.

According to Alan, both failed to help. I have to admit I was surprised because like you I've found that windscreen refections are virtually eliminated with polaroid sunglasses.

I also use a similar lens on my camera and certain refections are equally controlled.

[Phil №❶]

 

[rustynutz]

As it happens my lens is so close to the (angled) glass that any dirt or rain spots are totally out of focus - but reflections are not.

Can't you move it back, Alan?

Mine is roughly 300mm from the windscreen.... 

As it happens my lens is so close to the (angled) glass that any dirt or rain spots are totally out of focus - but reflections are not.

Can't you move it back, Alan?

Mine is roughly 300mm from the windscreen.... 

I suggest the relections are much further back already than the rain drops. Moving further back would only bring them even more into focus.

But still, something to experiment with.

[rustynutz]

Another option that may be worth considering is a dash mat..... 

They are very popular in OZ, especially in the hotter States such as Queensland.

[AlanHo]

I owe you guys an apology - especially pip who came up with the idea of a polarising filter.

I took the filter off the camera and looked though it with my eye at a reflection of a map which was sitting on the dash. I turned the front ring on the filter and bingo - the reflection could be dimmed to hardly perceptible. I therefore put the filter back on the camera - did the same test but it didn't work. I was flummoxed for quite a while repeating the procedure several times before I realised that I was putting the filter on the camera backwards - because the recess at the front was deeper than the recess in the back where it would normally screw onto a camera - it made it easier to hold against the DOD lens.

I had no idea that a polarising filter was directional - it only works in one direction - so I put it back on the DOD camera the right way round and...............

(turn your sound off - my fiddling with the camera which was hand held to rotate the filter is rather noisy)

This video was shot in a blinding hurry after sun set and the light was falling fast - it will be interesting to try it tomorrow with the camera properly mounted - especially in the unlikely event that we see some sunshine.




So apologies to troubling all you guys who made so many suggestions - and thanks for stimulating me into having another go when I had all but given up.

I will now crawl back in my box..................