Backup car Cam

That looks like a quality camera, I'm not too sure about how that mounting bracket is supposed to fit on the licence plate. My favorite would be the type that replaces the licence plate light for a more stealthy appearance. But those are made to fit a certain model, and may not be available for every car. This one is for the Toyota Highlander:

Amazon.com: Koolertron For Toyota HighLander Car Reverse Rearview NTSC CMOS Camera + Guard Line: Electronics

 

Most of the backup cameras that I've seen use obsolete standard definition cameras with poor dynamic range, meaning that you get a pretty poor picture much of the time. The ones that come with a half-dozen low power IR LEDs are so weak that you can't see beyond 3 feet with them. IR lighting is costly, and it takes a $700 IR light to really be useful.

If you have the money, get a respected security company to custom install a high quality, wide dynamic range camera that can see to near-darkness all by itself. You can always switch on your backup lights for more light. They can hide it in your trunk or tailgate lock hole, and places that you'd never think of, but can give you a much better perspective than down low where your plates are.

If you're handy with tools, you can make a DIY backup cam with a good webcam and an app for your phone to view it.

If you're a cheapskate, well...you get what you pay for.

 

My car has one built in but there would be no loss to me if it didn't have it. Now if I had a big giant truck it would be a different story but I wouldn't go through the trouble of installing one aftermarket.

 

At that price you get what you pay for. For a good quality camera with IR that is capable of near dark and good resolution you will be looking to spend around $200-300.00 for just the camera, and I will have to disagree with SD (who I tend to agree with, for the most part ) you do not need to go with security cameras, there are very good application specific models available and you do want it mounted at the license plate for a number of reasons, especially on a truck (or any other vehicle with a hitch, even saw a Vette with a hitch before) where it allows you to hook up to a trailer without a guide.

On Edit: My friendly jab at SD comes with a caveat, at that level of camera you are most likely getting the same "guts" as a security camera packaged for backup camera use.

 

Backup cameras made by Pioneer electronics and Kenwood are some of the best I've seen. You'll end up spending 200 for them, but the are designed to work in all weather.
We install both at my shop, only seen one defective one in the last 10 years

 

I actually have seen a Corvette with a trailer hitch before. I cried.

Seriously though, I invested a lot of time and money learning the ins and outs of miniaturized solid-state video cameras. I don't expect everyone to do the same amount of research that I did. On the contrary, I'd like to share what I learned so that the casual camera buyer doesn't have to.

Knowing what I know now, if I was shopping for a rear view camera for my truck, I'd insist on having a demo in real-world conditions that I'd be likely to encounter. And knowing what I know, my biggest worry would be with these aperture-less cameras having the picture washed out by everything from street lights to other cars' headlights. I also wouldn't plan on being able to "turn night into day" from a half-dozen IR LEDs either. IME it takes at least 100 of them to illuminate anything more than a few inches away.

I've had very good results with the Elyssa ClubCam, which goes for $150-200 depending on the housing. If I can find an auto shop that can fabricate some brackets to mount them, I'd put a couple of these in my own cars. The comparison photos in the website that I linked to illustrates quite well what I saw myself when comparing various inexpensive video cameras.

Since the license plate on my truck is recessed, I don't think that a camera hidden a license plate frame would be much help there. Too bad the original buyer of my second hand truck didn't get the optional bumper mounted proximity sensors.

 

There are some very efficient infra-red emitters out there, single chip units that can illuminate for night vision up to 100 yards away, you won't find these in backup cams (or security cams either) but their led cousins are getting pretty potent. I have seen back-up cams that can illuminate 20-30 feet behind the vehicle without any lighting from the vehicle.

 

It's been 5 years since I last looked at LED cameras. At least back then the near-IR (they glowed cherry red, not very stealthy) LEDs used in the cameras that I tried were ridiculously weak compared to those used in other applications. (And a good LED IR panel cost $750US.) The 120 LED camera that I had claimed to reach 120 feet, but in real-life the camera, which produced a beautiful and sharp picture in daytime, couldn't see anything beyond the 20-30 feet away where my cars were, even with the overhead sodium vapor parking lot lights helping. And that night image was not nearly as clear as the daytime image.

It's reasonable to believe that things have improved since then; I hope so! When I made my first post I had forgotten how long it had been. I suppose it also matters what level of image quality you find acceptable. I needed to be able to read the license plates of the cars that were hitting mine. I don't know what kind of detail you'd need for a backup camera. :dontknow:

 

I had one when I had a van ('07 VW T5 transporter) it was a combined parking sensor and camera with the screen integrated in the rear view mirror. it was a dealer-fit option and cost around