[Freelancer]

I have noticed and reported to the dealership that there's is a considerable decrease in the quality of the picture displayed by my back up camera at night. It gets real grainy and almost snowy. Dealership says that nothing's wrong and that they can't replicate the problem. I guess not...they only get the car during the day light hours

It's a little like, but not as bad as, the older TVs that needed fine tuning. It’s certainly distorted, degraded, and harder to tell what's in the picture. Only happens at night, during the day all is good.

Now maybe the rear lighting is just not adequate enough to illuminate the surrounding area, thus causing the distortion or maybe something in the electrical system is different at night.

<O
It also could be, that my salesman planted the thought in my head that I was going to have an HD quality display/image:bsflag:

What's the quality of your backup image at night

Should I just lower my expectations

 

[OBnube]

That's normal. Your salesman is FOS, it's not HD day or night. I've had an '11 and now have a '13 and both are the same quality, weather in the mirror or on the dash.

 

[hongthan]

Do you have digital camera? you will understand it better if you do. The camera needs to use high ISO to capture the image at night. That is why it is grainy. It is normal.

I have noticed and reported to the dealership that there's is a considerable decrease in the quality of the picture displayed by my back up camera at night. It gets real grainy and almost snowy. Dealership says that nothing's wrong and that they can't replicate the problem. I guess not...they only get the car during the day light hours

It's a little like, but not as bad as, the older TVs that needed fine tuning. It’s certainly distorted, degraded, and harder to tell what's in the picture. Only happens at night, during the day all is good.

Now maybe the rear lighting is just not adequate enough to illuminate the surrounding area, thus causing the distortion or maybe something in the electrical system is different at night.


It also could be, that my salesman planted the thought in my head that I was going to have an HD quality display/image:bsflag:

What's the quality of your backup image at night

Should I just lower my expectations

 

[fun2drive]

You have either a CMOS (most likely) or a CCD camera and the CMOS isn't the best quality at night. CCD is better but no camera unless it works at 1 lux or lower will be that good. One of the reasons I put the 12 light LED back up bulb in my Outback. I always have sufficient light for the camera...

 

[Freelancer]

Do you have digital camera? you will understand it better if you do. The camera needs to use high ISO to capture the image at night. That is why it is grainy. It is normal.

Sometimes I have to do the car shuffle in the driveway at night. When I back up the wife's Elantra with the full screen display, the image is much clearer.

I suppose it's better in some, more so than others.

 

[hongthan]

I have to correct you here: CMOS is better in terms of noise control, that's why all the high end digital SLRs are using CMOS (Canon, Nikon and Sony) not CCD.

You have either a CMOS (most likely) or a CCD camera and the CMOS isn't the best quality at night. CCD is better but no camera unless it works at 1 lux or lower will be that good. One of the reasons I put the 12 light LED back up bulb in my Outback. I always have sufficient light for the camera...

 

[hongthan]

Sometimes I have to do the car shuffle in the driveway at night. When I back up the wife's Elantra with the full screen display, the image is much clearer.

I suppose it's better in some, more so than others.

Yes, it depends upon what kind of sensor the camera is using and the size of the camera sensor.

 

[fun2drive]

CMOS is cheaper than CCD it is not performance but cost that counts. In all of our high end skyballs we use CCD exclusively and I am talkiing $1M per system where performance comes first not cost.

Again it all depends on your application

CCD drawbacks are they comsume a lot more power than a CMOS and are usually larger.

I bet for our Outbacks Subaru uses a CMOS since the cost, power comsumption is much less.
If we knew the power comsumption we could tell which one they use.