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Pic one: Shows the LCD turned on inside my garage using the lower camera.
Pic two: Shows the LCD turned on with the brightness turned down slightly and my rear lights turned on, on a dark country road, using the upper camera. (so far I’ve only used it at night)
Conclusion so far….
At night, especially with the aid of street lights, the visibility to the rear is just staggering. Far better than without. On a dark road, turning on my (not so bright) rear lights and I can see as if I were looking down the road using headlights.
As far as driving at night with traffic headlights behind you, I prefer to leave the LCD off and just use the mirror, because the lights end up being too bright on dark roads. Not so bad in the city.
Backing up using the camera is much easier now. Especially when combined with the side mirrors. I could literally drive backwards without ever turning my head. The whole point of the system for me is backing up on a trail or old road and here is where it will shine the most. You still need to use the side mirrors to judge the sides of the road/trail. The wide angle of the camera and the essentially 2D view give a false depth perception, so the camera can't be used on its own to back up, but it sure makes things a lot easier and safer.
The screen and camera resolution are only OK. There are better cameras and better LCDs out there. Not sure if any of them use this mirror style or not. So far, I'm pretty happy with this set up. Its simple. Not a lot of frills, but it works. And whoever came up with the idea to mount a rear view camera LCD into the rearview mirror deserves major kudos, because it just makes perfect sense.
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