Reverse camera screen too bright

[ElliotReid]

Now the darker mornings and nights are creeping in one thing I’ve discovered is the screen is too bright when reversing. Yes it should only be an aid so look backwards but I’d still like it, like me, a bit dimmer. I have adjusted the screen brightness but this doesn’t seem to do anything to the rear view screen. Is there a way to do this?

[Blatto]

Yes the one on my St-Line is very bright if there are street lights around or the road is wet and reflecting my reversing lights. If it's just my reversing lights in the dry and no other lights about it's ok. Don't know of any way to adjust it though. I suspect it just goes into a high sensitivity mode so things get illuminated by the relatively dim reversing lights, any other lights around are just giving an  overexposed view.

 

[Guy Heaton]

Yes, I've noticed this too.  My drive is at the end of a dark cul-de-sac and so the camera goes to full brightness which means a grainy picture and makes it hard to see in the rear view mirrors as it blinds my night vision.

There is no setting to control this, it does not follow the main screen brightness settings.

It's actually so bad that I have a cloth that I use to cover it at night now.

And I wish I'd never paid the 500 quid extra to have it put in.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

I must say I find mine very good. Mine is parked on the drive in an area lit by street lights and is very clear. Our caravan site up the Dales where the car is frequently parked is unlit, and again it works well there. The reversing lights (at least you get 2 on the Fiesta, unlike many cars nowadays) also seem fine. I do find though that the camera lens quickly gets dirty from spray which can render it almost useless.

When I ordered my car, list was £200 for sensors (which I definitely wanted) or £250 for both, so it seemed worth ticking the box. I did used to think of it as a bit of a gimmick tbh but have found it surprisingly useful, except when it's wet!😀

[Seanntce]

I agree with the above comments.  I also find the reversing screen far too bright and surprised there is no option to dim it or at least turn it off.  I wonder if Ford could rectify this with a future software update.....?

[Eric Bloodaxe]

16 minutes ago, Seanntce said:

surprised there is no option to dim it or at least turn it off. 

You could always just turn off the screen while reversing if it bothers you.

[Guy Heaton]

You can't Eric.  Unless there's an option I haven't found.  Even if you have turned off the screen in normal driving, it will come again when you go into reverse.

You also cannot control the brightness - the brightness level seems to respond automatically to the outside light level.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

2 hours ago, Guy Heaton said:

You can't Eric.  Unless there's an option I haven't found. 

Yeah, you're right, Guy! Just been messing in the car out of curiosity as I'd seen something in the settings menus that I thought might turn it off, but no. It seems to be a case of if you have the option, it's gonna work, like it or not!

Don't know if individual cars differ, or if it's me, but I'm fine with the brightness on mine. The view is just a blur anyway today though, it's pouring down here!

Edit-PS: I remember now trying the screen "dark" when I first got the car and the camera still worked then. I prefer "dark screen" unless I'm actually using one of the functions, but again it's "no can do" on this car as if the screen's dark the time isn't displayed anywhere! On other cars I've had you could configure the dark screen to just display time. You could do the same in the Hyundai i30N I test drove a few months ago.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guy Heaton]

I can cycle through full display, blank, and digital clock on my screen.  Clock is tiny though

[Eric Bloodaxe]

16 minutes ago, Guy Heaton said:

I can cycle through full display, blank, and digital clock on my screen.  Clock is tiny though

Full screen or blank and that's yer lot on mine! The Focus 4 seems to have a later version of Sync, don't know if you can do that on newer Fiestas?

[Guy Heaton]

Beats me

[Nes11]

It appears to be faulty cameras, my 68 reg Fiesta ST is perfectly fine, but my wife's new 69 reg EcoSport is brighter than the sun. It initially is ok for a few seconds, then flicks to being so bright you can't see through the mirrors!

[Seanntce]

Yeah mines a 69 plate and as you say when reverse is selected the screen is brighter than the sun!  Would rather use the mirrors and not have the camera at all.  Unfortunately it's all included with the ST3 spec.  My wife has a Golf GTi and from memory the reverse screen on that will switch between bright and dark depending on what the headlights are doing.  i.e if the headlights are on it's obviously dark outside so the screen will come on dimmed.  Much better.  Think I might invest in a small thick dark cloth to throw over the screen when reversing in the dark.!

[Kaz1918]

Hi There,

Wonder If anyone can help me ?

I have last week bought a 68 plate ( Feb 2019 ) Ecosport 1.5 TDi and the cockpit screen at night when reversing is so bright that I can't see a thing in any of my mirrors or windows, we have just moved to a unlit village and its a nightmare trying to reverse in the dark. I have resorted to throwing a bag over it, not ideal.

I have tried the night / dark brightness levels and turning it off however the minute you put it in reverse it bursts into brighter than bright life !!.

I thought I was being clever by thinking that the brightness of the screen was possibly relative to the headlight setting and so I even tried pulling up and turning the lights off before putting it into reverse but to no avail, its still glaringly bright.

Does anyone know if Ford have a software upgrade to stop this happening, my local dealers don't know and I'm waiting for Ford to respond.??

Thanks

 

[Guy Heaton]

Only way I have found is that we have some lights on our garage doors, they seem to push enough light into the camera so it doesn't go brighter than the sun.

If you do get an answer from Ford let us know.  It's really quite crap.  I too have a cloth I have to chuck over the screen.

[Ready steady go]

On 11/7/2019 at 1:15 PM, Eric Bloodaxe said:

You could always just turn off the screen while reversing if it bothers you.

Turning off the screen does not work, we have tried that

[AllanB]

Have the same problem with my Edge, contacted Ford,  will let you know the outcome

[Mavroz]

Think there is another post on this topic somewhere where I upped pictures of the screen in the dark.

Never had issues with them being too bright on either of our cars, even in the rain.

Strange how they seemingly differ.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, Mavroz said:

Never had issues with them being too bright on either of our cars, even in the rain.

Like Martin, not an issue with mine. Pics of mine in daylight and night which I have posted in another thread:

 

[Betamax_man]

On 5/29/2020 at 9:32 AM, AllanB said:

Have the same problem with my Edge, contacted Ford,  will let you know the outcome

Obviously Ford haven't responded to you as you haven't updated the thread. 

I contacted Ford and was given the brush off. It would seem they are not interested - last time I buy a Ford.

[tomshepp]

It is a bit of a bodge but it is possible to put a circuit in that responds to the lights going on by reducing the video level.  It isn't perfect but clips the brightness peaks a bit.

[Betamax_man]

On 9/30/2020 at 8:19 PM, tomshepp said:

It is a bit of a bodge but it is possible to put a circuit in that responds to the lights going on by reducing the video level.  It isn't perfect but clips the brightness peaks a bit.

Please explain, we'd like to know. 

[tomshepp]

Break into the video + line in the rear boot and insert a 100 Ohm variable resistor to adjust the brightness. Take a 12 Volt relay with a normally closed contact and connect the contact across the variable resistor, shorting it out. Connect one side of the relay coil to the wire to the tail lights and the other to ground so that when the rear lights come on, the relay opens and allows the resistor to reduce the video signal voltage which will reduce the brilliance. Trim the resistor to your liking.

[Mavroz]

Not sure this is good advice, tinkering and modding the electrics if the car is still within it's 3 year warranty period.

[tomshepp]

It isn't tinkering, Mavroz. I have been doing this for a living for more than forty years and there is a very strong likelihood that you own something I have designed or that somebody you know owes their life to something else I have designed.

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