Review on Enhanced Night Vision 3.6mm Wide Angle Car Rear View Reversing Backup Camera by Geoff Cooper

I think the camera is great, deserves 5 stars, but after I had to rebuild it (hence the 4 stars) I thought I should comment on it, maybe to help some ambitious enthusiasts. Several companies sell this device and I have read various posts about the pink tint. The picture is great, especially for the price, but shows a noticeable pink cast once it gets dark enough for the IR LEDs to light up. Also, the instructions are very poor and there is no mention of an extra wire which I've read has confused some other people. I can't confirm if the device is waterproof or not as you can see in my mods, but I found a silicone sealant that bonds the two halves of the device together. I think an attempt was made to waterproof it, but that may or may not be coincidence as to whether that sealing work was really good or not. Luckily, if you have a tube of caulk and a mini Phillips screwdriver, you can disassemble and reseal them prior to installation. That aside, the picture is very good in total darkness, going back about 30 feet. You may even see reflective surfaces such as B. Street signs, several hundred meters away. The picture at dusk is fantastic. Dark enough to obscure your reflection in your traditional mirror, but the camera image is as bright and colorful as midday. I had to fix this after dropping it while trying to mount it and it fell right on the corner of the lens and cracked the clear plastic lens cover. After a bit of scolding and testing to make sure the electronics were still working, I found that it was definitely not waterproof and needed resealing. That's when I discovered why the picture has a pink glow at night. Look at the camera image and you will see a small transparent window on each side of the lens cap with IR LEDs behind it. It looks like 3 clear windows, but it's just a piece of clear plastic with a black plastic frame over it. When it gets dark enough for the LEDs to turn on, the light is caught by the clear plastic and travels over its rim to the clear part in front of the lens. Apparently, not only does the IR light come out through the small windows on the sides, but it also shines right in front of the lens, coloring everything around it pink. Here is the explanation why. My solution for the truly adventurous will end up being this one. Before you simply reseal the camera before installation, test it first to at least make sure it works. It would be foolish to repeat it only to find out that it doesn't work and you have no guarantee of it now. 4 mini Phillips screws hold the two halves together. Two of these are pretty deep, so you'll need one of those little jewelry screwdrivers to remove them. You can then pull the halves apart by breaking one of the original seals holding the halves together. All the electronics are assembled on a single circuit board mounted on the back half of the case. The clear plastic and black plastic half of the front bezel are not connected to anything internally. Simply remove all of the old sealant completely and apply a good, even coat of new sealant over the entire lip. After the halves are bolted back together, apply a bead of sealant to each bolt hole and it should now seal better than it originally got. Just don't smear the sealer over the entire surface. It doesn't take much time. An extra cable not mentioned in the manual can simply be used to turn on the camera remotely if you don't want to connect it to the reversing lights. This usually turns on the camera when you shift into reverse and turn on the fuses. Instead, connect the positive wire to this extra wire, and connect the other end of that wire to a switch at the front, where the camera connects to some sort of monitor. With the switch connected to the auxiliary power supply, you can now turn on the camera at any time. I personally did this so I can get a rear view mirror like view with the camera when the back of my car is filled with stuff and I can't see out the rear window. I had to tilt the camera a bit to get a view of the road and not just the ground directly behind. The monitor I have is mounted on the rearview mirror so it feels natural to look at it with the camera on to see what's happening behind it. Now for the fun part: a bold modification that completely eliminates the pink tint and the fact that when the camera is on at night, the image of street lamps is completely hidden and you can't see anything. If you're going to use this as a regular rear camera I wouldn't do what I'm going to suggest, it will work fine, but if you want to set it up like I did to be able to use it at all times, you may need to put this in consider this. As I wrote earlier, the transparent plastic captures the light from the LEDs and transmits it in front of the lens. Passing streetlights turn the LEDs on and off, affecting the light sensor, and the end result is an almost faded image. The only way to fix this is to block the light coming through the rim of this clear plastic shell. My solution was to remove the bezel cover over the clear plastic and cut the housing with a hacksaw, making 2 halves of the clear plastic piece so the lens cover is physically independent from the LED cover. Look at the picture of the device and you will see that the lens protrudes from the body about 3/4 inch in the middle. I cut the clear plastic right down the middle between the front of the lens cap and the back of the LED cap. The black plastic frame that is pushed over it thus completely covers the incision. I then painted the edges of the cut black to keep the light off the front of the lens. To reassemble it, I smeared the inside of the bezel with sealant and fitted the portion of the lens cap that I just cut off. Used small strips of black tape to secure it in place. Add some more sealant at the base of the bezel before inserting the second half of the clear plastic case (the part in front of the LEDs) so the 2 cut out pieces of clear plastic are fully glued and sealed into the front black bezel. Finally I added sealant to the edge of the case to finally assemble the entire block. I may have gone too far to modify this camera but it worked great and I love it. It is totally waterproof as I wore it in the rain. The pink color is no more. This is a normal full color day and night. And the most important: no night light affects the picture when I drive with my lights on. Holy shit, that's long, but I hope that was helpful!