I agree with the other, backup cams are great!
Given the information you provided in your note, allow me to make a few suggestions when you're out there in the ether selecting a camera:
1) FIRST, talk to your technician or car install guy/gal and go over the car to ascertain where you can place a camera and what kind of camera will fit to do the job you want. It won't do you any good to find the "perfect" camera that's 1" longer than the car can accommodate, for example.
You had mentioned, for example, that you tow things with your vehicle. This means that you don't want to pickup one of the "plate cams," or the cameras that are mounted in the licence plate holders. You'll just have a perfect picture of the front of whatever you're towing the entire time.. For your situation, you want something up as high as you can get it on your vehicle.
2) Field of vision: You can get cams with all sorts of view area, called "field of view (FOV)." This number is usually reflected in degrees. The larger the number, the "wider angle" the camera, the more picture you get. The cheaper cams ($19-$29) usually have a 30-40 degree FOV. 40 degrees is 20 degrees to the left and right of dead straight behind you. A truly wide angle camera will have a FOV of between 90 - 150 degrees. Watch out for the salamanders out there selling the 30 degree "wide angle cameras."
3) Light, light and more light: As a rule of thumb, you want to get a cam that will need the least light possible to show the most picture possible. This brings up two scenarios: do you usually drive/park in areas that tend to be pitch black at night (no lights, cars, house lights, etc.). If so, you might want to consider a cam that has infrared (IR) LED's that will "light up" the background in a "Black and green" light vs. color. GOOD IR cams have an electric eye that will tell the LED's WHEN to turn on and off (or when it's dark). The other option to get light is to install something akin to foglamps in the back of your car (backup lights won't generally work well) to "light your cam's way."
Light is measured in LUX, which is a unit of illumination equal to the amount of light that falls upon a square meter of surface. One LUX = One LUMEN/square meter = 0.093 candlepower. The lower the LUX number on a camera's spec sheet should be indicative of the minimum light it needs to take a picture. A good number is two LUX or less. With IR (infrared), this is usually irrelevant, as the LED's will always give you much more than the minimum to be able to see a picture (although in black and green instead of color).
4) Iris, or "I only have pupils for you." - the IRIS of a camera is the part of the lens that actually sees out into the world. This is what you pay the $$ for. The IRIS is usually expressed in mm, with standard car cams running 2.1-8 mm or so. Bigger is better. The more iris your camera is, the sharper (in most cases) your resulting pic will be. 2.8mm is perfectly acceptable and gives a very good pic, but more is better. More is also more $$. I'm having the 2.8mm taken out of my car (it has no IR LED's and I need them), and being replaced with a 6.2mm with IR and electric eye. Cost difference? The 2.8 w/o LED was $49, the 6.2 w/LED is $79. The difference in picture quality is startling.
5) Length, or "whoever told you length didn't matter had a.." oops, nevermind. - In this case, we want smaller and smaller. The smaller cam you have, the more places that you can easily place it. Cams come (in my experience) from 1.5" to about 7". I am not counting the "needle-eye" cams they put in reporter's buttons to do investigative reporting, those don't work well in high heat or cold, and don't waterproof well. The cam you'll look for looks like a black cylinder with a few spacers screwed onto them for installation and positioning help.
6) Reverse Image - Check to see that the camera will display a reverse/mirror image (the image that you are accustomed to seeing in the mirror). Most are hardwired, some are settable. Very few do not set to reverse.
7) Waterproof - a must if the cam is going to be peeking outside the car. It's standard with most cams.
8) Budget - I save this until last, only because it's a non-starter. I found over 50-60 different model cams in my research, and with the exception of 5, all were between the prices of $11 and $139. The other 5 were $299 (Pioneer), and some RV places gouging the customers for $370 to $600, ripoff city.
RECAP:
If you haven't fallen asleep, or hit the NEXT key yet, here's the condensed version:
1) Car guy - let him show you where and how big is possible.
2) Wide angle lens - 90+ deg FOV
3) Low Light - 2 LUX or less, Infrared if you need the illumination
4) Iris - bigger is better, 2.8-7 is in the average cost cams.
5) Length - shorter is better
6) Reverse Image - standard for most
7) Waterproof - standard for most
8) Budget - $39-$139 is a good barometer
NOTE: I'm NOT this clever, I just got done making mistakes on ALL of these points because there was no one around to help. Hopefully it will save you a few $$..
I wish you luck!
musikman1
