Hello everyone,

 

I know I could’ve asked this eralier, since I have the mk4 since January, but still, I was just travelling with someone else the other day and her Toyota from 2012 had a night vision on reverse camera.

 

Do our cars that eqiuped with reverse camera also have night vision? Asking this because I might be doing something wrong, since after sunset, reversing screen is “pitch black”.

 

Thank you

Hi,

 

it's not the best visibility at night, but I'm sure it's not pitch black. Did you try to play with camera settings? You can change light, contrast, etc...

Its not night vision but I've never had an issue tbh, either the street lighting is sufficient or the actual reverse and brake lights do the job on illuminating while reversing in my experience

I also have found that the image is too dark, especially compared with our other car which is a Golf Alltrack Wagon that you might think would be similar, coming from the same VAG stable.

Acting on a suggestion elsewhere on this forum I found that the image is actually better if you turn off the car's lights so there is no reversing light.

That causes the reversing camera to crank up its "night vision".

It is easy to see this effect by turning it on and off in an appropriate test situation.

But it might not be such a smart thing to do in a real situation since your car will now be less visible to other cars coming along.

 

 

You can not turn off the reverse light. You turn off the position light and the plate illumination. They are part of the camera picture (switch to wide angle view to see it on the display) and very bright (as they are illuminated and very close to the camera) so the "obscure" the rest of the image, which is much darker.

 

I had (have) the same problem. At night, the image is almost completely black, therefore useless.

 

Workaround is either:

 - switch off front lights (completely, including position) while going revers -  the rear light will stay on

 - in settings set the rear camera brightness to max (changing the contrast does not seem to help)

 

This seems like a design flaw. They missed that the license plate is in the camera view and interferes with its function.

Strange. I have never noticed such issues. I admit, it could be better picture but mine is far from completely black. 

I have a hatchback, maybe the estate/combi is different.

 

With default settings, that is contrast and brightness in the middle, I can see almost nothing at night. For example in an unilluminated (back)yard or a street with bad streetlights.

I have to add that I had a Toyota Auris for 2 years with a rear camera and it was amazing, I’ve never been in another car with as good a picture in all light conditions. I’ve not been in any luxury brand cars though. 

I'm also quite disappointed with the reversin camera. Golf mk7 and mk7.5 has a lot brighter image than Octavia.

 

At first i thought it was set to lower brightness, but no. Its just stupid dark.

 

 

Wonder if its something to fix with software or just bad sensor.

Once I saw a lady in  VW SUV that had some unbelievably strong lights when going reverse.  You can literally illuminate probably 3x3 basket court.  It did not look like some external add-on typical to Scandinavia, but who know. Not sure if it is even legal.. 

Just came back from a short trip in the dark and rain and this is how it looks on my camera. It's even a bit better in real life.

 

 

Turn off the (front) lights next time, to see how it works.

When you switch to wide view (the third icon on the top), do you see the (edges of) the license plates?

 

PS: What is the middle icon? My car does not have it.

10 minutes ago, xerces8 said:

Turn off the (front) lights next time, to see how it works.

When you switch to wide view (the third icon on the top), do you see the (edges of) the license plates?

 

PS: What is the middle icon? My car does not have it.

I'll try with lights off next time. But for me it's just fine how it is. I find the camera brightness good enough for maneuvering.

Will also check wide option.

The middle icon is trailer assist mode. 

Personal i think the image quality in the mk3.5 reverse camera was far superior then the mk4 also the parking sensors were much better in the mk3.5 might be something to do with their position in the bumper...cheers 

On 04/11/2021 at 10:03, TheUltraRunner said:

I'll try with lights off next time. But for me it's just fine how it is. I find the camera brightness good enough for maneuvering.

Will also check wide option.

The middle icon is trailer assist mode. 

Turning off the lights doesn't make any difference since reverse light and brake lights are still working.

Wide option does shows me also the edges of the license plate.

Admittedly 2018 car, not mk IV, but I get excellent illumination from my AliExpress aftermarket version.

On 05/11/2021 at 14:24, TheUltraRunner said:

Turning off the lights doesn't make any difference since reverse light and brake lights are still working.
  

For me it is almost a day and night difference. See photos. (first is with lights on, second lights off)

For example the parking space markers  are almost completely invisible on the first, while clearly present on the second. Also the drain opening on the floor has much more details visible. This is not the best example, since most objects in the picture are far away, but it shows the difference.

 

7 hours ago, xerces8 said:

For me it is almost a day and night difference. See photos. (first is with lights on, second lights off)

For example the parking space markers  are almost completely invisible on the first, while clearly present on the second. Also the drain opening on the floor has much more details visible. This is not the best example, since most objects in the picture are far away, but it shows the difference.

I have the same problem too. The issue occurs for me mainly with the long-distance items, not those near by, such as in the post just above. I want to see that there are no pedestrians, or cars moving out of driveways or parking spaces, before I reverse across the road out of my drive. With our other car, or in the Skoda with the lights off, I can see well enough to be sure of these things. With the Skoda's lights on the screen is almost black.

Really strange that for me, turning off the lights, doesn't make any obvious change.

Do you turn them off completely, including the position lights?

I'm not sure now. I think I turned them completely off. But I'm not sure how can turning off the lights makes a difference. Since reverse lights are still on and when maneuvering you use brake a lot and braking light are much stronger than regular lights. 

46 minutes ago, TheUltraRunner said:

I'm not sure now. I think I turned them completely off. But I'm not sure how can turning off the lights makes a difference. Since reverse lights are still on and when maneuvering you use brake a lot and braking light are much stronger than regular lights. 

I just went out and checked but I am unable to take pictures.

The brake lights do add a lot but there is a considerable amount of red light from the normal illumination (both at the corners and up near the rear window) and turning off all lighting eliminates that and really helps the camera's sensitivity issue.

 

11 hours ago, TheUltraRunner said:

I'm not sure now. I think I turned them completely off. But I'm not sure how can turning off the lights makes a difference. Since reverse lights are still on and when maneuvering you use brake a lot and braking light are much stronger than regular lights. 

I explained that in my first post here.

Might sound really dumb and absolutely shoot me down in flames if it is. But, does the car switch to dark mode when the lights are on? I.e. do the screens dim down once the auto lights are triggered? If so could it be something resolved via a setting elsewhere for the display rather than the camera? Appreciate the reason for the screens darkening down is so you aren't blinded at night by internal lights. Just noticed the suggestion of it maybe being brighter with the lights turned off. 

The problem is not the display brightness (that is a separate setting), but the camera "brightness" (another setting in the Park Assist settings menu, also adjusted automatically by the camera or software).