Purchased a camera/LCD for mirror deletion, need recs

[HydroJim]

I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. To combat glare issues, you could build a three sided box that extends from the LCD about 2 inches out on the top and sides which would block light from those angles but still allow you to clearly see the LCD through your tunnel of vision. Hopefully, you can visual what I'm struggling to describe

[blackcivic96]

No, I know exactly what you mean, since I am into pro-video I assume you mean something like this-

Vello 3.5" LCD Hood LHV-3.5 B&H Photo Video

I agree, that may work, but like I said, you may have a hard time seeing it with that size, 3.5". Can't wait to see what you come up with tho! Good luck and let us know if you need any help!

-Dave

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi Dave,

What is the angle of view on your video camera? On mine, it is well over 120 degrees, which is good for eliminating blind spots, but it shrinks the relative size of vehicles, making it harder to judge distance. I think that 90-100 degrees would be about ideal.

Is the camera 4:3 aspect ratio? I happened into an interesting tweak: the 7" monitors I'm using are 16:10 and they have a manual switch toggling between 4:3 and 16:10, and by using the wide aspect, it "re-expands" the width of the image a bit, making the fisheye / barrel distortion less pronounced on the horizontal axis, anyway. This makes the vehicle behind me slightly more to scale.

Depending on the location of the monitor, I also found that at night they are reflected on the windshield. You probably have avoided this by placing the monitor where you have. If it could be installed up at the top of the 'A' pillar, that would alleviate the need for a hood, and avoid any reflections at night. (Inexpensive LCD monitors have low contrast ratios and "leak" a fair bit of light that is visible at night. My first set were bad, and the second set are better at this.)

[HydroJim]

blackcivic96- wow, that's exactly what I was imagining. I probably won't be working on this for a while because I'm still in high school and insurance, gas, and car maintenance is enough of a strain on my wallet. I try to save up a good amount before I do mods and right now I have to make sure I'll have enough to cover my bills before I indulge in any...added expenses

[blackcivic96]

Hey Neil-
My camera is 110 degrees, and yes it is very wide. It would be nice to find a "cheap" happy medium.
As you probably have read, I got these cheap, just to see what they could do. With the screen I am able to adjust the rotation (which thankfully is retained between shut-offs) and the brightness and contrast, which is not held. And though it takes some getting used to I am almost at the point of confidence...

@HydroJim
Yea I hear ya, no worries, if I was doing this in HS I would have saved a ton of money in the long run, and yes bills come first, ugghh. You may want to just pull the mirrors? I was and still am comfortable running with only my rear view, but your neck can get a kink

For all- I ultimately got the idea after watching some TX2K12 videos on YouTube- See the below at about 0:06, I still think my install is more aero and prob a lot cheaper IMO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjLB9y4fn3Y

-Dave

[HydroJim]

Now that you have had more time using this set up, notice anything bad about? I'm really interested in the night time performance because I was thinking of using this set-up to replace all 3 of my mirrors eventually.

[blackcivic96]

@HydroJim

Unfortunately I don't do much night driving, but had the opportunity to drive at dusk tonight. This will perform very similar to how your mirrors do. If lit, like on the highway, you can see fairly well. If not lit, you see headlights (two bright dots), like with regular mirrors. I was actually surprised when driving west tonight at dusk, it was quite bright in the east.

I will happily shoot a video,time permitting, but I feel it may not be a true representation, as your eyes work much differently than a camera.
Let me know and I'll see if I can shoot what you are looking for, but I wouldn't get your hopes up

-Dave