Rear view cam setups?

[m5james]

Yellow? That defies the whole point of getting LED's and their crisp white color.

[chas3]

Yellow as in the OEM license plate lights, in order to match the untouched (non-camera) light. As about LEDs, I am not a huge fan, they might look nice on E60 and friskier models, but the old E53 looks ok with OEM lights. But like everything else, it's just a matter of taste, everybody fitting on his/her car what he/she considers best.
I was just thinking of an easy fix for the new camera fit, where the camera comes with LED and you have to match the two lights (left and right) together. You can either dim the LED, or upgrade the other one to LED too.

[m5james]

I've got LED's in both sides now, and while the camera listed above had an LED built into it, I'm not sure of the color and it's clearly smaller, so the light output is going to change. I'm waiting for a reply back on dimensions of this - ≤AOOPU≥ Reverse Camera Backup Rear View for BMW X5: eBay Motors (item 270597761666 end time Oct-21-10 08:38:49 PDT)

[X5Flyboy]

I've got my backup camera in my hitch. It's hooked up to my Alpine INA-W900BT. It has a weather tight rubber seal around the end of the hitch and can easily be removed for when I tow something. View can see a person 5' back from the bumper and 10' off to the side, so it's quite a panoramic view. beats drilling into the car.

[m5james]

Who said anything about drilling into the vehicle? While the most recent one I posted will require it, all the other ones posted above it replace the license plate light, making it almost plug and play. Being inside the hitch defies the whole point, for me at least, as I want to be able to use it to back up to my hitch without having to keep getting out to see if I'm too far to the left, right, front or back.

[X5Flyboy]

I hear you, but it works for me presently. may switch it in the future, but I tow rarely.

[m5james]

Nor do I, I've got a dedicated truck for that. I'm so used to backing in my other truck, I've gotten it down pat. In the X5 I'm afraid one day I'm going to stab a hole into that plastic bumper...that'd definately ruin my day!

[X5Flyboy]

me, it was bashing the brick edge to the small garage my townhouse came with. the camera makes it alot easier to keep the bumper out of harms way.

[m5james]

fair enough. Over the years I've had vehicles that made me become very aware of the spacing on my vehicle at the time. I had an "odd" streak with lowriders in highschool and did the whole 13x7 reversed wheels with stretched tires on my car, making the wheels stick out past the fenders....you haven't seen curb rash until you misjudge your lane width on a bare aluminum rim! About 10+yrs ago myself and another guy in town were competing to see who could lift their truck the highest. Try maneuvering around this little green guy...I got good at learning my spacing within the lane. The higher I went, the worse it got...I finally stopped at over 19" of lift and 46" tires Never hit anything with it, just CONSTANT tickets for bumper height, mudflaps, etc. Between moving planes in the military and a CDL after the fact, I sometimes take longer than most as I go slow and steady when comes to limited sight distances.

Getting a backup camera for the X5 is by no means needed, I just figured for $35, I might as well fill the option on my screen and shave about 5 minutes of back and forthing the rare times that I tow with the X as well

[fullmetaljacket]

As promised here's a 'night shot' screen shot. This was shot inside my garage with the garage lights turned off. Complete darkeness in the garage!

Ofcourse I couldn't turn off the reverse lights of the X so here goes...





With the reverse lights on, I think the shot is vivid and clear and. I will be able to see any floating white lady or Freddy Krueger posing at the back during those rainy pitch-black nights hahaha!

Hope this helps