rear view cameras

[bobngo]

my glorius bongo has a mirrored rear window, which means despite having the downward looking rear mirror, other than the wing mirrors ,i can,t see anything directly behind me.

so i,m thinking of fitting rear view cameras, one low level, for parking and a high level for viewing the traffic situation behind me.

i,ve looked at several companies that have these, one in particular parkingcameras.com seem to have a good range.
i do,nt think i would like the rear view mirror type screen , or the small 3,5" screens i thinking 7" screen ,switchable between high and low level cameras.

does anyone know of others that might be suitable or better still had experience of ????

also i see that most of these seem to have the image reversed, (other cars appear on the wrong side of the road )
can anyone explain why this is so , or am i missing something ????

[thedogsbollox]

my glorius bongo has a mirrored rear window, which means despite having the downward looking rear mirror, other than the wing mirrors ,i can,t see anything directly behind me.

so i,m thinking of fitting rear view cameras, one low level, for parking and a high level for viewing the traffic situation behind me.

i,ve looked at several companies that have these, one in particular parkingcameras.com seem to have a good range.
i do,nt think i would like the rear view mirror type screen , or the small 3,5" screens i thinking 7" screen ,switchable between high and low level cameras.

does anyone know of others that might be suitable or better still had experience of ????

also i see that most of these seem to have the image reversed, (other cars appear on the wrong side of the road )
can anyone explain why this is so , or am i missing something ????

I have no experience of these cameras at all but i am thinking that if you mount both up high, like in or on the spoiler, one facing back for the view of the road and one facing down, surely that would be better for parking. If the parking camera is low and facing backwards it would be hard to tell distance to bumping into something but if facing down you would see the distance decreasing, hope i am making sense.
Tony

[dvisor]

As tdb says, the parking camera is best place up high, perhaps on rear spoiler and pointing downwards. I'd recommend getting one with infrared lights, so it can see in the dark too. I find a 3.5" screen fine. Any halfway decent monitor will allow you to both reverse and flip the image. Mine cost peanuts but still has these features.

[Colin H F]

Hi I have just fitted mine will post some pics tomorrow as they only work in 2 lux and above it has got a 10" screen and you can clip it to your rear veiw mirror or visor see my earlier posting, Colin





http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/C0201M-EONON-10-2 ... 56386ae565

[scanner]

Loads of choice here
http://www.chinavasion.com/advanced_sea ... &Submit=GO
Brilliant service usually delivered by DHL in 2 or 3 days.
If you keep the order value down you avoid import duty - it's possible to buy a camera for £12-15 and a good 7 inch 2 input monitor for about £40.

[dave_aber]

I fitted a wireless one I bought a while ago (a "couldn't resist it" bargain i didn't need at the time!)

findings so far:

1. Wireless is not too good. Given the choice again, I'd go for wired. I'd prefer a day of cable running to the sometimes intermittent picture I have now.
2. Main reason I fitted this was for reversing at night - black windows make this near impossible. camera is no good in low light. As mentioned above, get an IR / Night Vision one.
3. I have powered the camera from a reversing light in the tail cluster
4. I have powered the screen from the signal wire which goes to the damn beeper box.
5. Camera is mounted up next to the brake light in the spoiler - view is perfect there for reversing.

Given a bit of time and money, I'll probably upgrade this to a IR and wired one later in the year.

[scanner]

1. Wireless is not too good. Given the choice again, I'd go for wired. I'd prefer a day of cable running to the sometimes intermittent picture I have now.

That is a common complaint.

[apole]

Hi Dave,

I have one to fit soon, can you recall what colour the wire was on the beeper box?

I went for a slightly different approach, I bought a halfords in dash DVD radio single din with a 3.5" screen. This has 2 inputs for cameras, and one signal wire that I can wire into the beeper box so that when the reversing beeps come on it automatically switches the screen to the reversing camera.

For me the benefit with this is it's neater and the new radio was quite well priced and plays mp3/mp4 etc so I can have over 4Gb of tunes on a single DVD. Planning to hook up some rear screens so I can control any films my children watch as something always seems to go wrong on the M25 when you can't stop to press the relevant button !!


I have yet to buy a camera as a recommended place in London wanted too much for postage so I was waiting until I could get into town to view and pick it up.

I've also ordered some higher power reversing lights.

From what others have said it's best to have a high level camera pointing down. I'm also planning to put a camera on the roof so I can see if I'm okay under height barriers.

[hembramacho]

This is something I've been thinking of investing in. Have toyed with different options (screen sizes, screen positions, wired/wireless, etc), as I don't want to buy something and then regret it.
At the moment looking at this

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... kInfo#dtab

Looks a good price and would solve many things, including in-car entertainment. The only thing puttin me off is the size of screen -3 inches. Not too bothered about watching DVDs on it as I would probably wire up bigger screens in the back, but is it big enough to use with a reversing camera?

Andrew

[apole]

Hi Andrew,

I have the 733b, worth considering as with the extra 10% off it's not much more, and has 3.5" screen, front aux in and 2 video inputs. It also has a rear view camera trigger, ie a wire that if you supply 12v too (when the reverse is selected) it automatically switches to the rear view camera.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165743

Andy

[scanner]

The only thing puttin me off is the size of screen -3 inches.

How big is a rear view mirror?
Not long ago you were lucky if that was more than about 3".


Brightness and contrast is far more important.

[hembramacho]

Hi Andrew,

I have the 733b, worth considering as with the extra 10% off it's not much more, and has 3.5" screen, front aux in and 2 video inputs.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_165743

Andy

Hi Andy
Hmm....I did look at that one too but was swayed by saving £30! I do see the benefit of having front AUX as my current stereo has it (handy for iPod) and slightly larger screen would benefit too. Is the screen (3 or 3.5 inch) big enough do you think for a reversing camera, as the other option is one of the 7 inch jobbys that slide out from the stereo? Cool, but pricier. I want to ideally stick to single DIN without having a monitor obviously on show when the car is left unattended. That's why this Halfords one looks ideal.

Cheers

Andrew

[hembramacho]

The only thing puttin me off is the size of screen -3 inches.

How big is a rear view mirror?
Not long ago you were lucky if that was more than about 3".


Brightness and contrast is far more important.

True. I don't use the rear view mirror much anyway (2 car seats in the way) so rely on wing mirrors the most. I'm being swayed towards the 3.5 inch one from Halfords. All I need then is a camera!

Andrew

[apole]

Andrew,

Phone around, some Halfords have the 733B model for £99, if I go later I'll see if my local one does. Remember they have 10% off that model if you reserve online.

BTW with the DVD models you don't really need your ipod as much, you can burn the tunes to a data DVD that gives you 4.7GB per disk, easy to move around the albums etc with the menus.

BTW there is an alternative to this called the Beat 550, seems to have a good reputation, only 3" screen but touchsreen, has tv built in and bluetooth .....

http://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/beat-bea ... -3328.html

http://caraudiogiant.co.uk/shop/index.p ... oductId=11

[hembramacho]

Andrew,

Phone around, some Halfords have the 733B model for £99, if I go later I'll see if my local one does. Remember they have 10% off that model if you reserve online.

BTW with the DVD models you don't really need your ipod as much, you can burn the tunes to a data DVD that gives you 4.7GB per disk, easy to move around the albums etc with the menus.

BTW there is an alternative to this called the Beat 550, seems to have a good reputation, only 3" screen but touchsreen, has tv built in and bluetooth .....

http://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/beat-bea ... -3328.html

http://caraudiogiant.co.uk/shop/index.p ... oductId=11

Ooh, I like that. Pretty much everything on the halfords one, plus bluetooth and touch screen! plus the possibility of telly too!!

Decisions decisions!

Cheers Andy.

Andrew