The WDR-1 is a newly developed camera specifically for in car use. This is something we have been working on for some time to solve some important issues with in car filming.
The Problem:
You mount a normal in car camera system to your roll bar or rear window and you want to use a wide angle lens so you get a nice shot of the driver as well as the action on the outside. The camera adjusts itself to the lighting conditions inside the car and over exposes the contrasting bright outside. This is because the camera does not have the dynamic range to be able to cope with such a large contrast ratio. You can fit a bigger lens to your camera so it sets itself to the outside rather than the inside but then you lose the wide angle shot. We've seen half-moon filters on the market but these rarely help to fix the problem.
The Answer:
The WDR-1 uses a Sony SuperHADII CCD and a DSP (digital signal processor) previously unseen in these types of camera. This DSP gives full control over contrast and brightness settings. This DSP has a WDR (wide dynamic range) setting which allows the camera to see very bright and very dark images at the same time. By increasing the dynamic range and boosting or lowering brightness levels it's easy to introduce digital noise. Digital noise looks like small coloured spots flickering on the screen most often seen on cheap webcams in low light.
The WDR-1 has 3D noise reduction built-in to it's DSP which eliminates this altogether.
The result of using this camera with a bit of tweaking for in car filming is better than we have seen from any other bullet camera on the market. The DSP has further settings that can help enhance your video such as sharpness, BLC (back light compensation) and auto gain controls.
Programming the WDR-1 is very easy. A small joystick on the back of the camera navigates around the menu system which is output as an on-screen display on the video output.
The CCD resolves 600tvl internally but will be limited to 576tvl using the PAL system. The camera is powered from any 12v source and outputs standard composite video via a phono connection on a 3m cable.
The really good news about this is that it is compatible with just about any existing in car recorder currently available; HQR2, Chasecam PDR100, Racelogic Video Vbox, XM-DVR Pro, DV500 and any other system accepting a standard PAL 1v P-P signal such as older camcorders with a/v inputs(ask us if you're not sure).
The WDR-1 has been fitted with a standard tripod mount on the rear panel to allow for easy mounting. We recommend the Ultra Clamp for mounting to bars up to 40mm or the Super Clamp with ball and socket for larger diameter bars.
The lens fitted as standard is a wide angle 4.3mm lens and can be changed with any other lens listed below. Lens filters will not be required!
