[Dazzler]

That is great Alan... If a clever chap like you had trouble working it out then what hope would the rest of us have had...

Just another example of the benefits of this forum and its many  members 

[Phil №❶]

You may have saved other members a lot of perplexity too. 

[Doggie 1]

Nice word that.

flummoxed
adjective baffled, confused, puzzled, stumped, foxed, at sea, bewildered, at a loss, mystified, stymied, bamboozled (informal), nonplussed The leaders were flummoxed by the suggestion.

[AlanHo]

I have taking advantage of a rare spell of sunny intervals to try out the polarising filter on the camera. It certainly significantly reduces screen reflections – but at the price of a very slight reduction in picture definition.

Here are some comparisons of screen shots – in each case the top photo is without the filter.

Sun at front of car



Sun from side of car



Sun directly behind car

[Phil №❶]

Well worth the effort IMO 

[Dazzler]

Well worth the effort IMO 

 

Good result Alan 

[AlanHo]

Fitting Polarising Filter to DOD FS20 Camera

One of our members has seen my thread on the DOD FS20 camera and has asked me exactly how I fitted a polarising filter which has significantly reduced windscreen reflections.
Rather than PM him the information – I thought it might be as well post my method in the open forum for the information of other DOD camera owners.







I bought the polarising filter from a UK Ebay seller. It has a rotating front ring which is used to get the filter into the optimum orientation and a short fixed body with a male thread for mounting it on a video camera with a screwed lens mount. Unfortunately the DOD camera has no thread on its lens so I had to make some sort of adapter.

Ideally I need a mate with a lather who could turn one out of metal or hard plastic – but this avenue was not open so I had to resort to “codging”.
I found that the top of a soft drinks bottle provided a solution – the part where it tapers down to the neck.

I cut off the threaded section at the top of the bottle and the bore was a good fit on the DOD lens barrel, I then parted-off a section about 11mm long and found that the internal dia at the other end had increased and was a very tight screw fit onto the filter thread.  I reckon I got through half a dozen bottles before I hit on just the right section of the neck.

I then “screwed the filter into the adapter and tightly wrapped it with black insulation tape which overlapped onto the fixed section of the filter body. This stops it from “unscrewing” and gives it a better appearance.

I then pushed the adapter onto the camera lens barrel with a very fine smear of glue to keep it in place.

This is very “Heath Robinson” as a solution – but it works.

[xreyuk]

Thanks Alan,

I'm looking for a filter myself, and remembered you mentioned you thought the lens was 22mm.

Would something like this be suitable?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110426020989?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

If that isn't good enough, I've managed to find the same seller still selling the exact same lens above, so can always get one of those and try your mod.

Thanks again

[AlanHo]

I'm not sure about the lens you have found. Whether the polariser is in a rotating mount is not clear. I can't remember the diameter of the DOD lens barrel and don't want to pull mine apart to check - so you will have to make your own checks.

My method works - but I will confess you have to be a bit of a hobbyist to fiddle with making the adapter. It looks easy, but needs a lot of patience and a volunteer to drink several bottles of coke or Fanta before you get it right.

Good luck - but do please let us know what you decide and how you get on.

[xreyuk]

Cheers Alan,

I think you said earlier in this thread the diameter is 22mm, and as I understand it you need a 24mm lens for that, so maybe the one above isn't ideal.

I have patience and a love for coke however, so I could always try on that front

I'm a bit confused about which part of the bottle you used, is just where the top screws on?

[AlanHo]

Cut just under collar which is below the thread where the cap screws on.  You are trying to finish with a piece having a bore with the lens barrel dia at one end and the screw thread at the other.

It would be even better if you know someone who has a lathe and could turn an adapter out of metal or hard plastic with a proper female thread for the filter.

[xreyuk]

Cheers mate,

I've ordered a lens, and we'll see how this goes!

[xreyuk]

Sorry, I also forgot to ask, which way up do you have the camera? Do you have it flipped or the correct way up?

[AlanHo]

Sorry, I also forgot to ask, which way up do you have the camera? Do you have it flipped or the correct way up?

See post No 69 in this thread...................

[xreyuk]

Cheers, thanks a lot

[meehalych]

For those, whose F500's bracket got broken for some reasons (as mine is - one upper left holding rod went broken in winter, so I have to keep my camcorder in place by means of rubber band) - here is a spare one I found on  Aliexpress

[Shambles]

For those, whose F500's bracket got broken for some reasons... here is a spare one I found on  Aliexpress

Good one Misha

[xreyuk]

Didn't get chance to try this yet, but have the polarising filter here. Will post my results when I get chance to try them.
 
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way in my Seat Leon to mount it near the rear view mirror without flipping the video. The windscreen is a very shallow curve, and you can't mount it without keeping the sucker in view. I'm convinced flipping the video loses a bit of the quality, but it could just be my eyes. I might just end up doing that and putting up with it! Has anyone else found flipping the video reduces quality?

I might have a go at fixing it to the dash and see how that looks. I have a spare TomTom sticky pad around somewhere...

[AlanHo]

The problem I found with having the camera inverted was it pushes the lens further from the glass surface and it picks up more reflections. I was also unable to see the viewing screen because it was behind the mirror.

The i30 screen is steeply raked and I too had problems getting the suction mount out of the picture. I therefore added an extra "arm" in the mounting bracket which I made from a short piece of 15mm dia copper pipe partly flattened at each end, drilled for the friction bolt and filed to a half circle at each end so that it would pivot cleanly. Painted black it looks the bees knees and gives you more scope. I also added a small piece of wire from the mount which hooks over the mirror arm and kills vibrations. It also acts is a "safety rope" if the suction cup falls away from the screen - as mine does from time to time.

[rustynutz]

I run mine inverted and can't say I've ever noticed any reduced quality... 

[xreyuk]

Going to have a crack at this today.

One last thing I wanted to check.

Is everyone still using the picture settings from this post?

[xreyuk]

Had a crack at this today and seems to be working fine!

Here's the picture of my camera.



As you can see my taping job isn't quite as neat as Alan's but I'd spent so much time fashioning the mount out of my bottle I'd had enough!

Here is a quick video showing the effects. It's a pretty good example because it's into the sun and you can see the light shifting, but watch the vent reflection on the dash.



My main concern is, that when I'm driving the filter may vibrate because it's not incredibly secure, it's certainly not going to drop out, but you can pull it out with a fair tug (this is due to tape being used, something like superglue wouldn't have this). My second worry again about vibrations is that because of the front of the filter having the ability to turn, you can also pull it out slightly from the base, and because you have to be able to turn the filter you can't tape it up.

Alan, if I were to tape it up so that it coudn't turn to make it more secure, how would it look on a dull day?

Cheers for your help with this

[AlanHo]

I find that I sometimes have to adjust the filter to suit the lighting conditions - it seems that a bright sunny summer's day with the sun high in the sky requires a slightly different setting to a similar day in the winter when the sun is low.

Perhaps I was  lucky with the bottle top - but I managed to cut the bottle at just the right point for the filter thread to be such a tight fit I literally had dip the plastic in hot water to soften it slightly and  screw the filter thread in. Hence the tape stops it from unscrewing and tidies up the appearance.

[xreyuk]

Okay thanks.

I think I may have used a different portion of the bottle top/neck to you because I used a 2 litre bottle and the bottle top wouldn't fit over the lens.

I'll try adjusting my part because at the moment it's just sat in, if I cut it down a bit more and give it a shove it might fit tighter!

Seems to do the job anyway so thanks for your help. Just going to have to check my settings to make sure the video quality is as good.

[xreyuk]

I've quickly learned that there is one problem to this solution Alan. You have to remember to adjust the filter as it gets dark!