jdr1000

I thought the facelifted E would bring a backup camera integrated with the commmand unit, it did not.

Has anyone found a solution for this or an aftermarket installation of a backup camera?

J

Barry45RPM

One of the sponsors here has: http://www.tvandnav2go.com/mercedes-tv-navigation.html

jangy

Has anyone installed a backup camera in their E?
I want one, but haven't tried. The wiring may be scary?

Brian_I.

I have one on my Prius and I can say if I had to pay extra for it I wouldn't have gotten it. At first I thought it was the coolest thing. I even installed a button to turn it on whenever I wanted. The thing is, the camera has such a wide angle that it isn't very practical to use just to look behind you and I find it more of a distraction when backing out of the driveway. One thing it is good for is showing you if anything is in your path but that's about it.

jschade

Isn't that what it's for??

lig

Our new Infiniti FX has one. Very cool! Perfect for parking. For backing out into the street etc... it's clearly better to turn around and look the old fashioned way.

HELL ONA HARLEY

Yea, I was thinking, The day I need a friggin camera to back my ride.... Well, I hope someone would just shoot me and put me out of my missery....
Camera's have their place, but in your car for backing up???? Please......

lig

I'm old, but not *that* old yet.

Seriously though - I wouldn't mind cameras replacing rear-view mirrors on the doors. One wide angle backup camera for fine work (the Infiniti setup has different colors in a grid to tell you exactly how close you are to objects) and two other rearward facing cameras to give you a panoramic view of what is behind you.

Brian_I.

Yeah but I think something like Parktronic does a better job at that.

jschade

I'd agree. The whole camera thing seems like a novelty item to me. I don't have Parktronic on my 211, but I have GM's version on my SUV. It's great for backing to within 4-6" of whatever's behind you. I just wish that GM would follow MB and put it on the front bumper too. It's impossible to judge front distances over the hood when your parking behind a smaller car.

SUNILP

I have both parktronic and a camera on my lexus. The camera is definitely a novelty item. It does nothing except the "wow" factor. You cannot stare into a screen and back out. The parktronic is like extrasensory perception. You can actually judge how far something is from your car. THe bargraph is a nice added touch.

zam2000

I have one installed in my W210 (very wide angle one: Kenwood, 120 degree side to side, 90 up/down), really help with parallel parking, or when you have to back into a parking spot with wall. For backing the car out of drive way or parking lot, turning head around and look is still the safest & best.

One of the advance of the camera give you is to park into spot most people give up, especially when there're jerks who park their car right to the marked line, thinking that no one would fit/park into the spot in front of their expensive cars ( you can see these type of parking everyday in Pasadena or West LA) . Imagine their horror to see the car back an inch away from their bumper (something parktronic wouldn't be able to do). I once had a guy jump out of his seat from a restaurant, rush out to make sure I didn't bump into his 911. Just that makes the camera worth it

For those w/ kids, or kid play around in the neighborhood, camera could help to avoid accident. If your parktronic is too sensitive, so that it beep everytime you back up your car, eventually you will treat it lightly. Using a combination of looking at the camera prior to backup & turning head doing so would help better.

I still prefer camera over parktronic, due to distance judgement & benefit of seeing over hearing.

For $200-300, the camera worth the benefit. $500-800 ? Probably Nope.

PHXATC

We just got done driving a GS300 Lexus for a day and it had the backup camera. It was pretty cool. I wouldn't drive based off the image it throws up there, but it was nice to have. I haven't driven a parktronic car yet, but I'd rather see where I was going than hear it.

IMO it isn't worth it anyway as we park waaaaaaaaaay the heck away from everybody else and don't have to worry about squeezing into a spot.

CALBenzo

We have had it in our MDX for 3 years or so. At least for an SUV, its purposes surpass that of any parking sensor device. We have three small children. For that purpose alone, it is well worth it since an SUV is so high.

Although you take every precaution to make sure your children are not behind the car when backing up, you hear about it every so often in the news.

I wonder if Zam2000's system can be integrated into the Benz nav system?

krispykrme

I will totally disagree with majority of comment here.

Backup camera is more than a novelty item. It's much better than parktronic or any kind of sensor based system.

I prefer to see with my own eyes on what is behind me. I have this on my minivan and it works wonder.

Ever go to a ball game when you need to backup in a very tight spot? I can back up all the way to about an inch of the other car without hitting because I can see it. You can't do this in parktronic. Yes, it will beep and show red on the display. But you can't tell the exact room behind you. With camera i can do that.

I went to yankees and A's game a while back. The space between row are quiet small for a minivan to back out. Without exact system like a backup camera, i doubt anyone of you can back out without having your wife or some one stepping outside. Sensor has dead spots as well. Nothing beats a wide angle backup camera.

Brian_I.

As you can see from the previous pics, it is very "fish-eyed". I can tell you that it isn't very good for judging depth and distance.

Here is a shot from inside of my Prius. The car behind me was only about three or four feet away but in the picture (had I been backing up) I would have thought there was at least double that.

krispykrme

?????

I will disagree. It's fished eye so that you can see a wide angle. Which is by design since you need that.

How is this not effective in judging distance? As long as you have clearance between your car and the car behind you, you can still continue to backup AS YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE YOU STILL HAVE SPACE BEHIND YOU. How does sensor help you with that??

With any backup camera system, to closer you get to the object the more accurate it is. Hence you can back up the car all the way to within 1" or less by using the screen. Hence your argument makes no sense what so ever.

I will post a picture tonight and prove that your totally wrong. You have to learn to use the system correctly. Backup camera is an excellent option that is extremely valuable for you to manuver out of tight spot as well as provide you with image on items your sensor can't pick up. By design, you will get the fish eye effect but this effect is minimized when the object is extremely close to the lens, in which your sensor are totally useless in telling you if you have 1" clearance or 3" clearance.

jdr1000

Well, thank you for all the comments, the reason I wanted to see + and - of installing it aftermarket since I have a few kids at home and I thought it would help avoiding an unpleasant accident.

I thought the new S would come standard with it, but mine came without it, I would really appreciate it on my ML and I wished it would have been an option on the E. By the way latch for baby seats is still an option on european orders.

Thanks again for all your comments. And Zam, what equipment did you buy to do this? Self install? does it automatically goes on the screen when you gear reverse?

Thanks

J

Richard / E320

I've had vehicles with the audible warning but never a camera, so I can't say which is the best overall.

I will say that if I'm trying to squeeze that last 1" to 3" out of a parking space, for me, that's the wrong darn space and wouldn't park there any way. There's plenty of other asphalt out there...

steph280

We have a camera on our toyota van and it's probably the best investment we ever had, for that particular vehicle at least. since your rear bumper is in the view, you can back your vehicle really close to an object for that extra manuverbility space. Because of it, my wife has no problem backing up a big van (yet, knock on wood). But the front bumper is already covered in battle scars...

For a sedan like W211, I agree it's not much use. But if I can get a video hookup to my COMAND, I'd still love to have one installed.

Zam2000 is a fellow anteater! ZOT!

Brian_I.

I would still prefer a sensor for purposes of backing into a tight space. The sensor would complement your looking-over-your-shoulders ability much better than a camera. With the camera, you are either viewing the monitor or looking over your shoulder, can't do both simultaneously. I already have excellent parallel parking skills so the sensor would just audibly confirm what I am already judging by my own sight.

Actually, I have found that a lot of times, especially at night, the image becomes even more obscure up close mostly due to the reflection of the brake and reverse lamps from the object behind you. If you are backing in towards a wall it is even worse because it is usually light colored, which means more light bounces back.

Oh and like Richard stated earlier, if it really comes down to being only an inch or so of space, you probably shouldn't be parking there anyway.

Okay, you're scaring me a little here. I hope I didn't offend you personally in any way. *looks back through thread to verify no jokes about his mama were made* I'm just giving this guy my opinion here.

zam2000

I wish we had that luxury (of plenty parking) around here, especially when you're out w/ a woman who's in high heel, or pregnant, or both !!

I agree if there're other spot nearby available. But there're plenty of time it's matter of parking right in front, or at parking structure from far away.

I use the Kenwood CCD-900, awesome camera. Really popular in Japan (wide angle, good light enhancement, well built...). I install it myself, quite easy job.

I make a little switch so that it only turn on when I want to. I don't want to turn it on/off everytime I put in reverse gear (and have no need to use it).

It came w/ standard VGA output, there's adaptor to connect it to W211 command gateway, just as you would do w/ external DVD player, the adaptor is quite pricey though. Nice thing is it could automatically take over the GPS monitor when one of the external video source is on (i.e Camera, external DVD player, game....)

http://www.gnetcanada.com/navvideo-models.htm

If I install it on my W211, I would get this adaptor. One of our friend got it, it works very well.

Almost everyone who live in OC or West LA have excellent parallel parking skills, but that would only help if you're a foot or two from the car behind you. Less than that, either you need a person (w/ lot of gut, so that can tolerace couple inches away), or give up the space. And you don't do both simultaneously: you turn your head back and look while you're backing in, and only when your car is nearly in & close by, you switch your attention to the camera.

The difference between missing those few inches: you either get the parking spot, or insurance claim & damage to your car and other !!!

And anyone who've tried parking in Pasadena or Wilshire wouldn't say: "well, just get another spot...". THERE'S NO OTHER SPOT !!!

TheRussian818

I installed a rear cam in my E a week ago. It's right next to the license plate, we drilled through the plate that the license plate sits on and put a bullet cam in. As for the visual, i installed two new visors with 7.8" screens in them.