Chilli tech camera, bad quality or can it be improved?

So i have a chilli tech camera (the latest one just released) and the quality seems poor to me

Ive had a Drift ghost XL and a go pro before and they were set to 1080p and had much better quality recordings than the chilli cam

For example see the close miss today, the driver was using his windscreen mounted phone but you cant really see that in the video

Also the Chilli cam seems to have an issue with the time and says 03:48 when infact it was 13:48 (time was set correct when the camera was last connected to the pc)

As you can see the nearby signs cant be read, nor can any of the nearby car number plates, the van’s number plate can be seen in the video

It’s not the best quality but mines has had the reg plate visible of every close pass I’ve had. It won’t pick up stuff going on inside cars etc.
If you set the time stamp correctly it shouldn’t need touching again unless the battery goes completely dead or you take it out.

Cheers

Everytime i connect mine to the pc and check the date it reverts to the same time & date everytime (2020.09.01 23:59:59 Y3)

The camera is meant to be 1080p but to me the quality seems lower, even when standing still and filming stationary objects nothing really is clearly defined

I took a screen shot of the video you posted above of a van overtaking and pulling back in, the camera is right behind the van yet you cannot read the badge on the right rear door, even to towbar is blurry

My Go Pro is much clearer when set at 1080p

May go back to using the Go Pro on the commute (can get to work and back on one battery) and save the Chilli cam for longer rides

As a general comment, camera resolution is driven by lens quality as much as how many pixels on the sensors. I could well believe a GoPro has a better lens than a cheaper, lower volume alternative.

If you can turn off sharpening or turn up bit rate a bit that might help, otherwise not a lot to be done.

I can’t tel from the pics / videos but is the focus completely right?

It’s fixed focus but you can adjust it by screwing off the “camera” end (which is just a cover) and the the lens itself is mounted to the sensor board by a screw thread so you can adjust.

You can connect it to a PC and it recognises it as an external camera (webcam) which you’d need to do to adjust it correctly.

As above, it’s the lense which usually determines the image quality. You can take a 2mp image from a 4k lense, but you can’t get a 2mp image from a SD lense.

There’s also all the in camera processing. Sony make a lot of senors Inc the ones in Chilli cameras(Iirc, I had a trawl through the specs when they came out but it was a while ago) , the difference between the off coloured junk from a £100 Chinese smartphone and a Samsung/Apple/Motorola/Sony phone is largely down to the processing. And Chilli will be compromising processing power in favour of battery life.

It’s fixed focus but you can adjust it by screwing off the “camera” end (which is just a cover) and the the lens itself is mounted to the sensor board by a screw thread so you can adjust.

If this is the case it’s likely a standard M14 lense. In which case there are aftermarket options. None are however particularly cheap relative to the image quality (they’re tiny after all).

I took a screen shot of the video you posted above of a van overtaking and pulling back in, the camera is right behind the van yet you cannot read the badge on the right rear door, even to towbar is blurry

The original footage is better than that uploaded to YouTube, but crucially I couldn’t give a monkeys about the badge or towbar, I just want the reg number. It was good enough for the police to phone and warn the driver that’s all I want. ( Well assuming they can hang the idiot by his bollocks)

My Go Pro is much clearer

Is that a surprise?

I can’t tel from the pics / videos but is the focus completely right?

It’s fixed focus but you can adjust it by screwing off the “camera” end (which is just a cover) and the the lens itself is mounted to the sensor board by a screw thread so you can adjust.

Cheers ill give that a go and see what happens

The original footage is better than that uploaded to YouTube, but crucially I couldn’t give a monkeys about the badge or towbar

My point was the camera cant pick out a car badge or even a towbar clearly when your right behind it, my near miss the driver was using a dash mounted phone whilst driving, my chilli cam dosent show this clearly, ideally if i submitted the footage to the police i would want them to proscute the driver for using a phone whilst driving but the footage just isnt clear enough for that

Obviously the Gopro will always be better due to the technlogy involved but even my old Ghost XL camera was clearer than the chilli cam

As ive already said the chilli cam will be reserved for longer rides from now on and ill use the GoPro for commuting duities

my near miss the driver was using a dash mounted phone whilst driving, my chilli cam dosent show this clearly, ideally if i submitted the footage to the police i would want them to proscute the driver for using a phone whilst driving but the footage just isnt clear enough for that

I think you have bought the wrong thing then.

I think you have bought the wrong thing then.

Hence why i have said ill go back to the GoPro for commuting and save the Chilli cam for longer rides due to the 4 hour battery life

Will deffo have a go at adjusting the focus on the Chilli cam and see if can be improved