Is there a better rear camera?

[dsimonl]

I just bought a new Tundra, and the backup camera is infinitely better than the one on our '13 4runner. I'm wondering if there is a Plug and play camera upgrade, or if one from a newer Toyota can be retrofitted? The old one just seems blurry and bad in low light situations.

 

[TRUSTYAXE]

My '15 is like looking at HDTV, I'm not sure if it is a different PN though..

 

[Saker]

Just looked up both cameras on Camelback Toyota.
13 SR5 4Runner = 86790-35050 / $474.73
16 SR5 Tundra = 86790-0C021 / $474.73

The bracket is different. More than likely uses the came camera.

Question: Has you HU/camera always had poor quality?

 

[4Rager]

It's probably due to the newer head unit having higher resolution display, thus the camera can show a more detailed image. Probably doesn't have anything to do with the camera.

 

[tinman831]

The picture on my backup camera looks like crap. 2016 Limited

 

[flyboysgt]

2014 Trail. During the day it looks great. At night it get very grainy.


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[SirBarton]

2014 Trail. During the day it looks great. At night it get very grainy.


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That's normal. With any video camera, noise will come in to play when it boosts the gain so you can see an image when there isn't vey much light.

The only way you can fix that is to increase the light level illuminating the camera's POV at night.

 

[dsimonl]

I didn't think of the fact it could be the HU. My Tundra has a newer version of the Entune that is in the 4Runner. That absolutely could be the cause for the grainy blurry picture.

 

[Okki]

The earlier 5th gen head units (pre entune) use a 6v camera that's powered from the head unit. The head unit also needs the ground return in order to flip the screen to the video source.

Most after market cams are 12v. If you have an aftermarket head unit, there is therfore plenty of choices. If you are still OEM, your choices suck.

I don't know about the entune units and the generations within that.

You could consider using a step down circuit to have 6v ground (and prevent 12v hot surge back), but I haven't tried that yet on mine.

I'm running a aftermarket cam on my 2010 limited with OEM head unit. It's working at 6v,but at black and white only.

Okki

 

[LandCruiser]

The camera's fine, it's the display that sucks.

 

[flyboysgt]

That's normal. With any video camera, noise will come in to play when it boosts the gain so you can see an image when there isn't vey much light.



The only way you can fix that is to increase the light level illuminating the camera's POV at night.[/

Makes sense. Question though. I put brighter bulbs in he reverse lights. Graininess got worse at night on the screen. Shouldn't it get clearer then?


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[SirBarton]

That's normal. With any video camera, noise will come in to play when it boosts the gain so you can see an image when there isn't vey much light.



The only way you can fix that is to increase the light level illuminating the camera's POV at night.[/

Makes sense. Question though. I put brighter bulbs in he reverse lights. Graininess got worse at night on the screen. Shouldn't it get clearer then?


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Good point. It's likely that the camera switches to a lowlight mode when you turn the headlights on. It probably turns up the gain so the increase in light is just adding noise and blowing out the image.

In short, it sounds like the camera has two modes - night and day. Rather than auto iris which would close the iris the more light that hits it. If that's the case, there's really nothing you can do to overcome night mode.