Anyone upgrade the backup camera on the 2014s?

mikeyk101 · January 11, 2023

Ok, just went out to check out nighttime capabilities and I am impressed. I can finally make out details. With OEM camera, I could see that there were objects but wasn't able to fully see everything and it was usually a bit blurry. Unfortunately, I didn't take a before photo of that but I think everyone with one of these cameras knows what I'm talking about. This camera shows much more visible details. One thing I had done a while ago was to change out my reverse lights to brighter white LED's and that didn't really seem to help much with OEM camera. If anything, the images got washed out more. Here is a nighttime photo from my driveway with new camera. There is very little available light here especially in this part of the driveway.

Just wanted to add one more photo with a pic of the same area from my phone camera to show the difference. Obviously, the truck camera reverses the image...

Edited January 11, 2023 by mikeyk101

midwestdenaliguy · January 11, 2023

Nice pics and write-up @mikeyk101! Can definitely see more detail in the garage door and siding in the day time before and after pics. Looks like the image is larger too, can see more of the space behind you. Dark looks good, but unless the entire camera and head unit is swapped for full HD and a better night time lens, I think this will be the easiest factory replacement that can be done. I'll be ordering mine in the near future, appreciate you posting your results!

mikeyk101 · January 11, 2023

1 hour ago, midwestdenaliguy said:

Nice pics and write-up @mikeyk101! Can definitely see more detail in the garage door and siding in the day time before and after pics. Looks like the image is larger too, can see more of the space behind you. Dark looks good, but unless the entire camera and head unit is swapped for full HD and a better night time lens, I think this will be the easiest factory replacement that can be done. I'll be ordering mine in the near future, appreciate you posting your results!

If you notice on the after pics of garage, I tried to get the first one in about the same location as original. The second one I pulled away from garage a bit so that's why it might appear that it shows a larger area. You can tell difference by the visible cracks in driveway. I just want to make sure that I didn't misrepresent the photos shown. But this new camera definitely shows more detail than the OEM one...

midwestdenaliguy · January 11, 2023

7 minutes ago, mikeyk101 said:

If you notice on the after pics of garage, I tried to get the first one in about the same location as original. The second one I pulled away from garage a bit so that's why it might appear that it shows a larger area. You can tell difference by the visible cracks in driveway. I just want to make sure that I didn't misrepresent the photos shown. But this new camera definitely shows more detail than the OEM one...

Right, I could see the 3rd photo you had moved the truck. But in the first two before/after pics it looks like you get a slightly larger field of view. Even if it's not much, I'll take the more detailed picture. Ordering one soon...

sk · January 16, 2023

Sorry - I was away from this thread for a while!

Like I said above, I really think it's worth the improvement. It's not "HD" quality, but it's a little better than factory during the day, and MUCH better at night.

Also mikeyk101 has the information about the wires in his instructions above. If you don't want the extra set of lines you snip the white wire. I wanted to try both sets of lines so just made sure I kept that loop somewhere I could get to it if I decided to snip the wire. But after using it for a few years now I LOVE having both sets of lines. From your images above it looks like you snipped the wire. I don't have pictures, but mine has the factory red/yellow lines that turn like in your image, then it also has thicker red/yellow/green lines with notches on them that stay straight at the same time (hope that makes sense).

ADDED IN EDIT:

Here is a picture of the additional lines I get (they stay still while the factory lines overlaid on them move left/right and the words in the upper left are not there, that's just copyright on the camera-source website):

Edited January 16, 2023 by sk

mikeyk101 · January 17, 2023

You are right and I snipped the white wire. I just wanted to keep it simple and the factory lines work for me. I honestly never paid much attention to the reverse camera before because I got so used to using my mirrors for backing up when I worked driving straight trucks and armored cars. And I was never thrilled with the reverse camera images before but now, I find myself actually looking at the dash besides just using the side mirrors.

We had rain today so I got a chance to see the effect on the image. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it but I can say significantly better than the OEM. I'm guessing that the lens plays a big part in this. The OEM one was rounded like a half globe where the ADC one is flat like a regular camera. As I'm sure most of you have experienced it like me, when raining, the image is a blurry mess. The ADC image seemed just as clear as it did on a regular day.

I am very satisfied with this upgrade and glad I decided to do it.