If youre on a tight budget, the Pyle PLCM38FRV is an adequate backup camera that you can buy for about the price of a multi-topping pizza. But if you like hands-on projects or want to try working on your car yourself, a backup-camera installation is a good weekend project. *At the time of publishing, the price was $235. Standard-definition image quality on reasonably affordable hardware just doesnt look that great. As with the cameras we tried, some of the tested displays performed better in certain conditions, and we went with the model that offered the best all-around performance. The system gets power from a battery in the license plate frame; the company says the battery should last about three years. In addition, the major installers we checked out didnt charge any more to professionally installa wired system. In each case, the process took us about three hours, employing intermediate car-mechanic skills and stopping for photos and notes along the way. The Esky display had the most-accurate color representation of any of the universal models we tried.
However, its not as seamless to use, as you must activate the camera using a remote that you mount to your cars dash or steering wheel; video appears on the phones screen within a couple seconds. In future updates to this guide, we plan to look into upgraded systems with better cameras and displays, but we dont think its worthwhile right now for most people to spend the extra money or time investing in more-expensive components. Or C? Connecting to an existing dash display: If you dont have any tools, everything here will cost $70 to $100, but youll be able to use these tools and supplies on future projects. I rolled all of that experience into detailed research and side-by-side tests of backup cameras and displays to suss out the best reasonably priced options. Its simple stand is easy to adjust to get the perfect angle, which is especially important if you share a car with other drivers. All that said, this Auto-vox display is still a usable screen in all but the brightest, most glare-inducing conditions. If you want to do it yourself: Most backup cameras come with instructions on how to connect the camera to your cars wiring and to the display (although they can be sketchy; here, for example, are the PDFinstructions for our top-pick camera). So we similarly chose displays with reliable, positive reviews, ofvarious prices and styles. That might seem obvious, but some displays have fixed mounts that can leave you stuck with a bad angle or harsh glare. 
It has a wide viewing angle with minimal glare, and it tilts to adjust for multiple drivers. We pointed our test rig at a field of grass that, in person, was a deep green.
In addition to offering convenience, backup cameras represent a huge gain in automotive and pedestrian safety, because they help prevent tragic back-over accidents, in which a driver doesnt see a personoften a childbehind the car. If you dont want a separate display on your dash or windshield, you might prefer the Auto-vox T1400 over the Esky display. In fact, we found that with backup cameras tuned to work in minimal lighting, the reverse lights could wash out images at night. Compared with the Look-It, though, the Pearl RearVision is more expensive and, in our testing, it was more difficult to activate, took longer to display video, and was more prone to glitchy connections, making it less useful overall. This cameras viewing angle was roughly the same as that of our top pickabout 170 degreesallowing us to see a wide area behind us without creating a fish-eye effect. During the day, the extra brightness helps overcome glare and contributes to good color accuracy, but at night, any noise in the image seems more noticeable, and dark spots dont get all that dark. We havent noticed the tape marring our dashboard, but if youre worried about the risk, try the adhesive on an inconspicuous section before committing to it. Its bright enough for use during the day but still has enough contrast at night for you to make out details. Most of the models youll find there are made by Crux Interfacing Solutions and are compatible with common car makes and models from the past five years, with a few stretching back further. For roughly the cost of one of these systems, you may be able to afford a professional, wired installation at a chain like Best Buy. This design makes wireless models easier to install overall, although they still need to draw power through a wire connected in the rear of the vehicle (usually to the reverse light), and you have to make sure that the camera and display have a compatible transmitter and receiver. We tested the cameras on both cloudy and sunny days, when the sun was shining into the lenses, and even at night. 
No matter what lighting we tried with the Accele camera, from direct sun to reverse lights at night, it always managed to give us a clear, useful image that we were confident in using to back up a car. After testing dozens of cameras over the years, we can say that the Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark IV is the best mirrorless camera for most people. Once its installed, you may need to bend the bracket a bit to get the cameras aim just right; the design isnt as easy to use or as accurate as the tilting lens on our top pick. *At the time of publishing, the price was $110. And unlike fixed displays, it has a tilting arm that lets you adjust the viewing angle; this feature is nice for a single driver but crucial if two people of different heights share a car. During our daytime testing, the image was clear as long as the sun wasnt on the horizon behind us and washing out the image.
Plus, YouTube is full of videos that can help you along. Thats key to distinguishing objects, and it helps details pop. In our testing, it showed a clear image both during the day and at night, with a good balance of contrast, color saturation, and a comfortably wide viewing angle. Because you can typically see the cars bumper on the display, anyone skittish about parallel parking can use a backup camera to confidently back into tight spots without damage, getting as close as a few inches from other cars or objects. At night, bright streetlights didnt wash out the image, and during the day we could still see what was lurking in the shadows. Novices should set aside most of a day, while people with a little auto or electronics experience may need only a couple of hours, depending on the vehicle.
A smart doorbell camera allows you to see whos on the other side of your dooreven when you arent homeso you can screen for visitors and package deliveries. Chuanganzhuo Backup Camera and Monitor Kit: At less than $30 including a display at the time of our research, this offering was the least expensive backup-camera system we tested. Soled 5-inch high-resolution display: The Soled display had the best contrast of the bunch, with good dynamic range that provided detail in darker and lighter spotsbut only during the day. This truly wireless system uses battery power and your smartphone as its display, but its pricier than our other picks and doesnt turn on automatically. Once we set up the Look-It, the cameras video feed consistently appeared on our phones display within a couple seconds of pressing the remotes button. Color accuracy matters if you want to identify objects behind you. Mobile-electronics installers should also be able to help, since theyll be the most familiar with third-party options and accessory radios, and theyll be happy to sell you anything that will work. This means that spots that are extra dark or extra bright tend to lose their detail. Even another Esky model, with a flip-up design, didnt have the same color-rich display. In addition, the cameras field of view is so wide, the effect is like looking through a fish-eye lens thats distorting and curving the images. Claims of HD quality run rampant on models that are anything but. Our favorite displays had a higher color saturation that made colors and details pop. Although its main draw is its cheap price, this Pyle model provides a usable image and fair color accuracy, while avoiding some common problems such as low-light static, weird color casts, and a blown-out image in bright sunlight. Alexander Hrabe, Rear-view cameras buying guide, Crutchfield. We dismissed some models because their image noise increased badly at night.
He has written and edited at Wirecutter since 2015, covering a range of products with a focus on computers and consumer technology. Despite its lower resolution, the Esky display looked better than any other on-dash monitor we tried.
If you find something that works, share the love and let other readers know in the comments below. If you want something thats easier to install, the Look-It Wireless Rear Vision System doesnt require any wiring: The battery-powered camera, embedded in a custom license-plate frame, transmits video via Bluetooth to any iOS or Android device (presumably sitting in a smartphone car mount). This, combined with a camera thats integrated into a license plate frame, made it one of the easiest models to install. Night vision: Every good backup camera can operate in low light down to around 0.5lux. If youre not up for doing it yourselfand if its in your budgetwe recommend spending the roughly $150 it costs to let a pro deal with the hassle. And, as with all of the wireless cameras we tried, the camera takes a moment to connect wirelessly to the GPS display. Though none of the inexpensive displays we tested blew us away, the Esky ES-15 4.3-inch on-dash display had the best overall image quality, and it avoided common dealbreakers. The camera has an adequate 130-degree field of view, but, like most of the backup cameras we tried, the video resolution is pretty mediocre by todays smartphone standards. At the time we did our research, the cameras we considered ranged in price from less than $30 for cheap models to about $500 for specialty wireless ones. You can mount the Pyle PLCM38FRV either on a small, center-mount bracket normally installed behind the top of your license plate or with the included flush-mount accessories. The image seemed slightly zoomed compared with the image from every other camera, and this model was the only camera to have a significantly narrower field of view than standard. If your car has a built-in display, the Accele camera may be able to connect to it either directly or with an adapter module. We even rigged up fake reverse lights, salvaged from a Honda Civic, to test the components night-vision and low-light capabilities. Heres the basic stuff youll need to install a wired camera. And if your car doesnt have an in-dash display to connect the camera to, wed pair it with either the Esky ES-15 4.3-inch on-dash display or, for a less cluttered dashboard, the Auto-vox T1400 rearview mirror with integrated display. The Auto-vox T1400 rearview-mirror display doesnt provide the higher image quality of the better dash displays, but it does deliver a usable image without your having to add an extra screen to your dashboard. Rearview-mirror displays are all similar in that they simply attach to your cars current rearview-mirror bracket and adjust easily. If you decide you dont like them, you can turn them off by cutting a wire loop extending from the camera. This made it handy for both backing out of a space and for parallel parking, even on a busy street. Some cameras include tiny infrared lights that emit light that is invisible to the naked eye but lets the camera see in near-total darkness. Naviks offers a wider variety of adapters for older cars with built-in displays, but most of them cost nearly $200about 10 times the cost of sticking an add-on display to the top of your dashboard. The first step for any installation is to remove the negative (-) battery cable from the car batterys negative post. This Auto-vox model replaces your cars existing rearview mirror. Even a true HD model we found, with 720p resolution buried deep in the specifications, incorrectly claimed a higher 1080p resolution in its product pages title. If youre really watching your budget, the Pyle PLCM38FRV is a decent alternative to our top-pick camera. Add-on cameras generally cant do the same, because vehicles have different turning radiuses and, unlike in new-car systems, the cameras arent connected to the cars computer and steering system. By contrast, in our tests the Rydeen MINy HD Camera had better detail when evenly lit, but its image washed out easily in bright sunlight. Ive done tests and comparisons on a wide range of items, from portable jump starters to surge protectors to rechargeable AA batteries. But our picks will give you a usable image with sufficient quality to distinguish the basic details of objects, vehicles, and people behind you at night or during the day. Most of the models, though, showed a deep blue sky as pale blue, and spring grass as more yellow than it really was. Thats plenty if youre using your camera just for backing up, since the reverse lights on your car will provide enough illumination for the camera to get a clear image, and our picks dont add a distracting amount of fuzz to the picture. We didnt test this arrangement because of the variety of cars wed need to cover and the assortment of options out there. With some displays, we could see a little more detail when we looked more closely. Based on their specs, prices, and owner reviews, we then set up the top eight cameras for a hands-on, head-to-head comparison. No matter which display we hooked the Accele RVCLPMBS up to, it provided the best image across the most lighting conditions, with good color reproduction and enough contrast and dynamic range for us to see the detail of objects behind us. This limited color spectrum made us worry that a given camera wouldnt be able to accurately represent objects behind the car in some conditions. Because the Pearl model uses two cameras, it can also act as a rear-sensor system, alerting you if your car is getting too close to objects behind it, and as a rear cross-traffic-alert system that warns you if it detects a person or car moving behind your vehicle. Due to confusing instructions, setting the Look-It up to work with our phone via Bluetooth wasnt as straightforward as it should bean experience echoed by some Amazon reviewers. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Backup cameras help prevent tragic back-over accidents, in which a driver doesnt see a person behind the car. While the color of the displays varied, too, those differences tended to affect only the saturation or the intensity of the colors that the camera had already captured. Like other wireless models, the Look-It is also pricier than our top pick, though its easy installation (you can do it yourself in under an hour) means you dont have to pay for professional installation or run wires through your vehicle. Backup cameras are standard on most new cars now, and you can install add-on versions such as the models in this guide on virtually any vehicle. And backing out of a tight parking space or driveway is less stressful once you know for sure that nothing is behind the car. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, back-over accidents result in about 300 fatalities and 18,000 injuries annually. But its more expensive, and bright sunlight can create a lot of glare on the mirrored surface. The dealbreaker with this model, and all the wireless cameras we tried, was a slight lag between the camera and display. The Accele camera doesnt have a specific night-vision mode, but we still got a good image in the dark. Like the Look-It Wireless Rear Vision system, the Pearl RearVision, our previous upgrade pick, is a truly wireless backup-camera system that displays its image on your smartphone. (Many DIYers can do the install in a few hours, depending on the vehicle and the persons experience with working on cars.). It installs quickly to the top of any standard US-size license plate without blocking registration tags in the corners, and you can tilt the center-mounted camera without much effort, so dialing in just the right view is easy. After weeks of use, our Esky display was still firmly mounted to the dash with the included double-sided tape, which is a typical installation method for dash displays.
In pretty much every aspect, this camera is just okay, providing a usable image with fair color accuracy. Similarly, looking for a complete system we could recommend, we researched almost 40 displays that could work with the cameras, and we tested sevenof the most promising ones. Similar toall top cameras, the Accele has a wide field of view that allows you to see a broad area behind your car, including several inches out from either corner of the bumper. Thats because the camera automatically turns on when you shift the car into reverse, and the vehicles backup lamps are more than enough to illuminate the way. At night, it can hinder your ability to see the detail of well-lit cars or people. Installing a wired backup camera means threading, shoving, and hiding the cable and power wires under trunk carpet, inside plastic doorjambs, and behind the dashboarda sometimes puzzling, but not insurmountable, task that thankfully needs to be done only once.
The wider a field of view, the farther you can see left and right directly behind the bumper, but beyond about 170 degrees, the image begins distorting into a fish-eye shape that makes it harder to recognize objects at a glance.
The most time-consuming part is running the wires from the camera to the cars taillight and to the display near the dashboard so that theyre hidden from view. Backup-camera systems arent difficult to install, but the process can be time-consuming and a little intimidating if youre not used to working on cars. And during the day, this camera had the least-saturated colors of any we tried, making a lush green field look like a dead brown desert. We repeated the exercise on both cloudy and sunny days, when the sun was low and shining into the lenses, and even at night, with and without the help of reverse lights. If your car doesnt have an in-dash display, a replacement mirror is the most inconspicuous way to add a screen to your car. So after excluding a few more models from lesser-known (read: no-reputation) companies that had untrustworthy customer reviews, we picked the eight most well-regarded models fromlow, medium, and high pricing tiers.
Dash displays are generally less expensive, but with a replacement mirror, you dont have to worry about an extra gadget that could clutter up your dash or be stolen, and you wont obstruct any portion of your view while youre driving. At the other extreme, the Garmin camera we tested had such a wide angle, the image had fish-eye distortion that made it harder for us to tell where objects were in the real world. If a factory-approved option or accessory ever existed, they should be able to point you in the right direction. You can mount the Esky display on your dash or windshield, or even upside down at the top of the windshield if you prefer. However, while backup cameras can be a great aid, you should still look around and use your mirrors to make sure there are no people or pets behind your car before you back up. The Esky EC170-09 camera, for example, made a field of green grass a few yards away look as brown as the dirt right behind it, an effect that flattened the whole image. Its a little worse than our top pick in every respectease of installation, color accuracy, contrast, dynamic rangebut it doesnt have a single, dealbreaking flaw like other cameras, even more-expensive ones. We looked at more-expensive displays with higher resolutions, but the Esky offered the best overall performance in the most scenarios. Despite its limited dynamic range (a trait generally shared among all backup cameras), the Accele offered the most balanced image of any camera we tested. The static-filled image of the Soled display, for example, made it almost unusable; we swapped cables and connections to rule out other factors, but we were unable to correct the problem on an otherwise great model.
If your car has an in-dash screen, you may be able to install the camera so that the image shows there. A DIYer should be able to install a wired system in most vehicles in a few hours. More important, in everyday use, wireless systems are prone to minor delays when youre shifting into gear, as well as static from nearby interference and, crucially, fraction-of-a-second lags in transmission that could cause you to miss a child or pet darting behind your car while youre backing up, if youre not also looking around. In our tests the display looked great on cloudy days and at night, and it was clear enough to be useful on brighter days, despite some glare. These lines, which extend back from your car to help you judge the vehicles distance from objects shown on the screen, are different from the systems in many new cars, which have dynamic guidelines that shorten and bend to show the vehicles path as you turn the steering wheel. An outdoor security camera can alert you to prowlers, package deliveries, and visitors, as well as to animals in your trash and things that go bump in the night. We started by researching nearly 40 of the top-selling and best-reviewed add-on backup cameras at a variety of retailers. In our tests, the display looked great on cloudy days and at night, but as you might expect with a mirror, it had a lot more glare in bright sun than other displays we tried. Though only a split second, such a lag when youre backing up might mean the difference between stopping or not stopping in time to prevent hitting someone (although you shouldnt depend entirely on a backup camera when in reverse, anyway). This display was a pretty easy choice, as other models we tested had more-faded images or a distracting color cast. You can also mount the Esky display to the windshield if that works better for you (and, just as important, if its legal to do so in your area). Here are some of the key steps in installing our top-pick camera. Our favorite displays had a higher saturation that made colors and details pop. *At the time of publishing, the price was $17. Weve found it helpful to keep the guidelines turned on, but if you find them distracting, you can turn them off. We wired all the camera feeds into a switcher, and split the switchers output to show simultaneously on all of the displays. Flipping the screen up and down between uses was an extra step that added to the hassle of backing up. Learn more. Like the other cameras we tested, the Accele models image shows static guidelines that extend back from the vehicle to help you gauge the distance of objects as you back up. Flush mounting, tucked up near the handle on your trunk lid or a trucks tailgate, can provide a factory finish, but it doesnt allow for any aiming once its installed. Subscribe now for unlimited access. After spending dozens of hours researching about 80 backup cameras and displays, and then wiring and testing eight cameras and seven displays head to head, we recommend the Accele RVCLPMBS backup camera as the best value for most drivers. We also had to remove some plastic trim pieces by unscrewing the connectors and popping them off. The Auto-vox T1400 fits the rearview-mirror mount on most cars, and you can slide your old mirror off and this one on with little more than the included Allen wrenchthe mirror is relatively easy to install compared with the wires that come out of it. Its nearly impossible to judge the image quality of a backup camera based on the published specs. In person, the higher resolution helped make for one of the crispest pictures of any camera we tried, but this model also had poor color representation that made picking out objects harder.
We found that the PLCM38FRV had better color accuracy and saturation than other models we dismissed, which made its image easier to understand at a glance. If youre a DIYer, we show below how we installed the Accele RVCLPMBS, but the process is much the same for any camera. The Look-It works best for drivers who are willing to keep their phone in a car mount while driving, and the system includes a magnetic mount that you can attach to one of your vehicles dash vents. To narrow down our long list of camera models to the most promising ones for testing, we ruled out those with notably low image resolution or conflicting specifications, but we didnt give any preferential treatment to models that claimed unrealistic numbers. Despite a relatively low resolution of 480272, the Esky had the best color reproduction of any display we tried; others had too little saturation.
2022 Wirecutter, Inc., A New York Times Company. Ive covered electronics for The Wirecutter for nearly two years, and Im no stranger to devising novel ways to test items that are hard for most shoppers to compare at home. Affordable backup cameras dont have the impressive resolutions common in other devices. Our other criteria had a much bigger influence on our assessment of a models overall quality than resolution.
After interviewing three experts and testing seven apps, we think Authy is the best two-factor authentication app. The Soled display, which had the deepest blacks and brightest whites during the day, was subject to excessive image noise at night. Then we removed the license plate and had to figure out the best way to route the wire from the camera into the trunks interior. These add-ons allow the camera to transmit video wirelessly to the display. (KidsAndCars.org, a child-safety advocacy organization that was influential in making that regulation happen, has lots of detailed information on the problem and its solutions.) But overall, the cameras were too low resolution, and the 4- and 5-inch displays were too small, for the resolution to make much of an impact. While some cameras captured that hue, others showed a field that looked completely dead and brown. Display mounts: Good dash displays have an adjustable mount that you can tilt up, down, left, or right to fit the driver and the lighting conditions. The Accele camera gave us a clear, useful image that we were confident in using to back up a car. Even though you wont want to save backup camera images for posterity, better color saturation improves other aspects of the image, such as contrast, and makes picking out details easier. Doing so makes the electrical system safe to work on.
On a sunny day, a lower dynamic range makes a dark object on a washed-out concrete pad look like a blob. Still, we never had trouble seeing what was behind our car. Mark Smirniotis is a senior editor at Wirecutter. We dismissed a Pyle display for producing a cool color cast over the whole image that made it unacceptable. We removed the floor liner from the Focuss trunk to get room to access the taillight and run the wires. After testing the new Look-It Wireless Rear Vision System, weve made it a new also-great pick for drivers who want an easy-to-install backup camera and can use their smartphone as a display.