Review on 🚗 Enhanced Visibility: 170° Reversing Vehicle-Specific Integrated License Plate Rear View Backup Camera - Honda Accord / Acura TSX / Pilot / Civic / Odyssey by John May

Installed on a 2004 Honda Pilot EX-L. Fitting the camera into a standard license plate light was easy. It snaps firmly into place and its position makes for a very clean, understated look, which I really appreciate. The viewing angle is wide and covers a very wide area, allowing you to see the surroundings clearly. Some notes and observations: Rainwater collects on the lens, causing severe image distortion and defocusing. Treat the camera lens with Rain-X or similar to prevent water from collecting on the lens and rendering the camera unusable when wet. The video quality is on par with most older car backup cameras and I really have no issues with the overall build quality for the price paid. However, despite the seller's heavy advertising of the 'Sony video sensor' quality on this product, I do feel that the picture quality is a bit lacking despite being advertised as an 'HD' sensor. INSTALLATION NOTES: The license plate light is the part that deflects the light downwards and dims about 15-20% of the image (as installed in my car. Your experience may vary), and light reflecting off the inside creates glare at night. So if you want full vision/visibility you'll either have to come up with some sort of shim or cut off a small piece of fairing around the camera lens to avoid these issues. However, they didn't impact the overall functionality enough to be able to do these things and it was left as it is. Hooking up the license plate light circuit is a potential problem for some people as they only have bare wires and need to either modify the stock wiring harness which I do NOT recommend or make an adapter like an equivalent LED bulb. This is the route I took so that if it fails or becomes damaged in any way, it can be quickly and easily returned to a stock light without tools or downtime. The same applies to the cable for the reversing light sensor. To do this, I tinned the sensor cable and was able to solder it relatively easily to the contact of the factory reversing light connector, because. the lid pops off quickly. The cover can accommodate extra cables and snaps easily into place to protect your wiring. To remove, simply unsolder the voltage sensor wire and replace the protective cover. The camera also requires an additional 12V power line to operate. The 12V power supply was taken from the accessory socket located on the back of the cargo bay where I soldered a wire directly to the positive (middle) pin of the socket have. Be extremely careful to avoid shorting the two terminals and blowing the fuses. I'm not sure if that extra power is even needed, or if you just want to use the camera without the car reversing. For example, if your rearview mirror is blocked by cargo or people, the reversing camera can be used as a rearview mirror. The video signal cable was about 6 feet shorter for my application, but that's not a fault. kit. The Pilot is a large vehicle and the length was necessary to properly route and hide the wiring to avoid unnecessary work or potential damage to fairings and/or camera or factory wiring. The included signal cable should be long enough for most coupes, sedans or maybe the smaller CR-V. I routed my wiring up through the tailgate, through the rubber cable boot, and back down the driver's side under the door sill panels. I used a female to female adapter to connect another RCA video cable and also used heat shrink tubing to secure and secure the connection. I soldered an extra piece of wire to the 12v reverse light signal and routed it through the dash to my Pioneer DVD in the same way.