Rear Cam - Sudden change in view, now shows Licence Plate

BlkDakDave · Apr 5, 2019

sjtilney said:
Ahhh, this is still my favorite thread, and it brings a smile to my face to see it come back to life.

I'm 100% certain I've always been able to see my license plate, since the first day I bought my 2017 CX-5.
One day my partner was driving my car, and he said, "I think something is wrong with your camera, I can see your license plate now", which is why I giggle when I hear people share this same story.

Trust me, the license plate has always been in view, you just never noticed it before.

Well my friend, I'm 1000% sure the license plate was not in the view of the camera. As an individual who has been taking photographs and has involved with cinema since I was 15 (almost 50 years) I know what I see or don't see in an image.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

sjtilney · Apr 5, 2019

As someone that's involved with cinema and cameras, you will know that lenses do not magically change.

What you've experience is not explained by software or cameras, it's explained by psychology. Look up Inattentional blindness.

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object.

Scientists have done a lot of interesting studies on this, you can find a lot of cool videos on YouTube on it as well. There are cases where people completely miss a gorilla walking right past them. So the fact that people are missing license plates, while focusing on whether another car or pedestrian is behind them is not that surprising.

shadonoz · Apr 6, 2019

I checked mine tonight. When I went out, it was still light. When I parked, I checked and sure enough, I could see a corner of the plate in the corner of the screen. I'm pretty sure I never noticed it before-- at least I have no recollection of ever seeing it. Yes, because I was never looking for it.

But here's the twist. When I got home it was dark, and when I looked: NO PLATE.

The unavoidable conclusion is that lighting plays a huge part in what we see in that low definition screen, and that the visibility of the plate depends upon it.

I have no reason to think that my camera is misaligned. Perhaps others can confirm my observations.

Jonno21 · Apr 8, 2019

shadonoz said:
I checked mine tonight. When I went out, it was still light. When I parked, I checked and sure enough, I could see a corner of the plate in the corner of the screen. I'm pretty sure I never noticed it before-- at least I have no recollection of ever seeing it. Yes, because I was never looking for it.

But here's the twist. When I got home it was dark, and when I looked: NO PLATE.

The unavoidable conclusion is that lighting plays a huge part in what we see in that low definition screen, and that the visibility of the plate depends upon it.

I have no reason to think that my camera is misaligned. Perhaps others can confirm my observations.

Perhaps some people are seeing a slightly misaligned number plate and that is why it does not affect everyone?

Sig cx-5 · Apr 8, 2019

This seems to come up in every forum I've been a member of, from time to time. It's a fisheye lens and angled downward. I would be more worried if you couldn't see your license plate.

mox44ah · Apr 8, 2019

I just saw a similar post on Facebook a day or two ago. The person posted a video of their camera pointed directly to the sky and couldn't figure out what happened. Turned out they were driving around with the lift gate completely open. No wonder the camera was pointing up to the clouds! HAHA

Jonno21 · Apr 9, 2019

mox44ah said:
I just saw a similar post on Facebook a day or two ago. The person posted a video of their camera pointed directly to the sky and couldn't figure out what happened. Turned out they were driving around with the lift gate completely open. No wonder the camera was pointing up to the clouds! HAHA

If they couldn't figure THAT out perhaps they shouldn't be driving?? There would have been a liftgate warning warning light plus the increased wind noise should have been a clue(scratch)

alphadog00 · Apr 9, 2019

Jonno21 said:
Perhaps some people are seeing a slightly misaligned number plate and that is why it does not affect everyone?

The other thing to consider is that the camera is not centered on the car/license plate. This brings up the possibility of some kind of Asymmetrical lens that possibly could shift in its housing (doubtful) or maybe some software that corrects the image to show a centered view of the rear - maybe this is affected by lighting as suggested.

Rear Cam - Sudden change in view, now shows Licence Plate

BlkDakDave

sjtilney

shadonoz

SkyActiv Member

Jonno21

Sig cx-5

mox44ah

Member

Jonno21

alphadog00

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