I have a 2018 C43 and am shocked at how poor night camera quality is, just terribly grainy, dark and clearly using a small and low quality image sensor. Its Hyundai entry model free reverse camera levels of bad.

My 2017 X5 and previous 16 XFS had crystal clear night vision in comparison. Is there any way to improve it or switch out the camera? My friend says his 2019 C300 has really clear night vision, so presumably they've improved it.

 

Guys, you're not going to get 8K Ultra HD quality on a backup camera? Do you see a car behind you? Good, don't hit it.

 

I've driven multiple luxury and non luxury vehicles in the last several years and the reverse camera night vision in my C43 is by far the worst I've experienced. I'm talking worse than Hyundai and Nissan entry segment night vision quality.

The one in the XFS and 5 Series/X5 positively destroy the C43's at night. The others look like a high end night vision cameras with near perfect clarity, brightness, long range visibility and very little grain, the C43's on the other hand looks like a murky, incredibly grainy, potato cam mess.

Really surprised Mercedes dropped the ball so hard on this particular component. And whatever you may think, to me the reverse camera at night can be super useful, especially when I'm manoeuvring around my apartments shared car park, avoiding all my neighbours vehicles that are parked at multiple different angles in a fairly small space.

 

Do you have the Parking Assistance Package with the 360-degree Camera or just the standard option Camera? I have the one in the Parking Assistance Package and find its quality to be fairly good even in the dark unlit areas.

 

I have 'Parking Package', but not one that came with the 360 camera unfortunately. I don't know if the 'Parking Assistance Package' comes with a better reverse camera module, but if anyone has a part number for it, I'd certainly be down for buying it.

 

So you have two W205 cars and one has much better rear visibility? I don’t see what the problem is - obviously there’s something wrong with one of the car’s cameras. They are under warranty so get it replaced.

 

There’s clearly something wrong with the camera. I had a W204 and the quality was perfectly fine, even at night.

 

Hey mate,

Not sure if you saw the date on the OP but it’s from back in 2016...

Do you drive a Mercedes?

Long explanation short, don’t own this C250 anymore.

Still have the C63S which has the Command system and all round cameras and a crystal clear reverse image.

The C250 in the OP with the bad image had a Audio 20 system from memory.

My wife has since upgraded to a new fully optioned C250 and the reverse image is clear as day.

Also in my OP I mentioned that her fully optioned W204’s reverse image was clearer then the 2016 C250 so my personal conclusion is Command image is clear, Audio 20 image not so good.

Unless you have driven a number of model ranges with the different equipment set ups you probable won’t know what’s good and what’s bad.

 

Do I drive a Mercedes?! Did you read my signature?

The camera quality is perfectly fine at night - the W204 is older than the W205 and it was fine. I wish people would stop whining and drawing these broad conclusions. Just get it replaced, especially if under warranty.

 

No didn’t bother reading your signature.

Not sure you read my posts, had 204 and 3x 205’s.

I cant replace it as I don’t own it anymore, just bought a new one instead with a better camera.

These threads are here for owners to express concerns and draw on knowledge from other owners.

If you owned a 205 with Audio 20 & Command you’d probably have an idea what this thread is about.

Clearly the poor image quality is due to the quality of the camera used, software used and screen definition of the Audio 20 system.

 

Except there is nothing wrong with the camera of the OP. That is exactly how my camera looks at night in a 2018 C300. Over the years and even within the same year with different options (perhaps different build locations) they use different cameras and they are not all the same quality. Unfortunately, the 2019's reverse camera is even worse quality, especially at night but even in bright day light the view is blurry compared to my 2018 (and I've driven 3 different 2019's that all had the same quality camera). People should expect more from Mercedes. If they're cutting corners with low cost components like a camera it really makes you wonder what else they are sacrificing quality over cost.

 

I can tell you in both of my 2019MY cars the reverse camera quality is perfectly fine at night. There is no graininess; but of course the G wagon and AMG GT are significantly more expensive. We also have a 2018 B250 and that reverse camera is perfectly fine at night too. And I am very picky as I'm a (serious) amateur photographer.

 

Do you have a C300? If not, your cameras are likely different. I've had my Service Advisor and someone in Sales tell me that a lot of people are complaining about the 2019 C300 cameras.

 

"I've had my Service Advisor and someone in Sales tell me that a lot of people are complaining about the 2019 C300 cameras" - well that's kindof odd - my guys have maybe 140 or so 2019 C-Class out the door - and I have never heard of that complaint. One of the prior posted photos - the light sensitivity for the camera was set about 50% too high = "grainy".

 

I'll be getting a service loaner when I drop mine off, I'll show pics later, but the three I drove weren't grainy, they were extremely distorted due to the stupid resolution difference in the newer shorter, but wider display. The camera itself on the 2019's is probably great, it's the way it gets displayed on the standard sized screen that makes it look horrendous. Also, all three that I had driven had a weird rainbow like bar across the top of the image (very thin, maybe 1-2mm), again likely from whatever conversion they are doing to get the image displayed on a screen too short to display the camera image without distortion.

 

yup standard non nav cars etc. have different quality than the same MY. FL cars should also be better.