Rear View Camera too dim while in Night Mode

[jesse03]

Hello,
Has anyone else noticed that the rear view camera is too dim to use while in Night Mode? I have bumped up the contrast and brightness, but no luck. I turned off Auto, so that the display always stays in Day mode and this works out great, unless I want to use the Navigation at night.

 

[jayally]

Mine works great, even at night. It's much better than the aftermarkert one I installed on my last car that made the sun look black.

 

[addabox]

It's easy enough to twist the odometer stalk to toggle between day/night when you need to brighten up the screen briefly (as in the case of using the backup camera). But in general I agree-- the night mode is far too dim. I don't understand why Mazda didn't provide smooth dimming from brightest to the current dimmest, instead of having that steep, unadjustable drop off between day and night, and then dimming to even more invisible levels for the night mode.

 

[dawhoo]

Can't you set the brightness in the radio or turn it to day? I think this only affects the radio and not the other interior lighting, but I may be wrong.

 

[addabox]

You can, but it's easier just to use the odometer stalk.

 

[RedBaron]

Just as a note, and this may be obvious to some, the issue is in the Mazda head unit, not the camera. I now have an aftermarket head unit (still using Mazda camera) and the nighttime adjustment allows the view to be plenty bright enough (I actually have to have it turned well down from "max").

 

[tibimakai]

RedBaron, where do you adjust that? I still haven't installed mine yet. Been busy with other things.

 

[RedBaron]

On my Kenwood, it's somewhere in the settings menus. Honestly, I'm beginning to dislike this Kenwood HU. FAR to complicated to find anything or navigate through the screens and so-on. Arrgh.

 

[tibimakai]

I'm used to Kenwood, that is all I had, but I don't remember having a setting for the camera. I may be wrong though.
In my wife's CRV, I have installed a DNX570HD model, I have to check on that for now.
My DNX6990HD it's ready to go in the car, but I need a lot of time to take the seats out, take the dash apart, install two amps, run wires, etc...

 

[RedBaron]

(Provided I remember) I'll try to find the setting tonight and post it.

 

[RedBaron]

UPDATE: OK, I checked. (For Kenwood DDX490) You put the car in reverse so the camera view is displayed, touch the screen and the settings menu appears, press Picture Settings and then you can change brightness/contrast/color etc for both dim and bright (night & day) display.

 

[tibimakai]

This adjustment, is for the display, no? Usually, I leave at the nav sync setting.

 

[RedBaron]

This adjustment, is for the display, no? Usually, I leave at the nav sync setting.

Yes, it's for the display. Obviously the camera itself is not adjustable from the head unit. (Am I misunderstanding you?)

 

[tibimakai]

I thought that the camera can be adjusted, which it's hard to believe. If the camera is not bright enough at night, then the camera is not sensitive enough. Most likely, doesn't have IR LEDs in them to compensate, or the LUX value doesn't go low enough.

 

[RedBaron]

OK, well the camera is pretty good actually. Plenty sensitive enough at night. Just the factory screen is too dim.

Like I said, my Kenwood head+factory camera, is PLENTY clear and bright at night.