Hey, all. Simple problem, maybe a simple solution but I can't find it anywhere.
When I'm driving at night, which seems to be going to and from work this time of year, I keep the dashboard lights pretty dim. The problem is, when I put the truck in reverse to back into the driveway, the center screen where the backup camera appears (sync 3) gets brighter. So bright, in fact, that it makes it hard to see the passenger side mirror.
The camera is not very useful in the dark (kind of sucks really), and we have no streetlighting in our neighborhood so it is very dark here. So all it really does is put this bright, glaring light on in the middle of my dashboard.
The question is, how do I dim it, or get it to stay as dim as the dashboard is normally? The master dimmer by the headlight switch doesn't bring it down low enough, and I can't find a setting in the vehicle anywhere. The manual doesn't seem to address this issue either.

Thanks in advance.

 

Get some good LED reverse light replacements and you'll never look back!


LOL Improved rear lighting wakes up the camera. It's brightness will be a good imagine and you won't use the mirrors as much.

My advise is based on my experience with my Halogen tails.






Pecked out on my iPhone.

 

 

Did you add additional lighting, or replace the factory lights? I have the BLIS system, and I don’t think the backup lights can be replaced.

 

I agree - I keep my dash at minimum brightness, and the screen blows me away when reverse is selected. Short of a Forscan mod (maybe @Livnitup might know of something) you're probably SOL.

 

There should be a setting for screen brightness; I haven't messed with it, but would be surprised if there's no such setting. Now, have you replaced the license plate lights with bright LED ones, like I did? THAT made my screen very bright, and basically useless. As somebody mentioned, with full LED/BLIS tails, I don't think we can do anything about the reverse lights. But I did the license plate llight mod of taping a bit more than half with black duct tape, and that solved the issue of washing out the rear camera, and also hides the LED bulbs, which looked bad (as not stock) IMO. One or both fixes should make your issue go away. Good luck. By the way, another way to deal with the license plate lights is to install the F250 ones, but that requires messing with the bumper cover, and I didn't want to do that. After cutting the duct tape with a blade, it looks factory, so will leave it like that for now, and see if it doesn't come off over time. If it does, might spend the $100 or so and install the F250 LED ones. Hope this helps.

 

There is a brightness screen, but it's ignored when you go into reverse. The screen goes to full brightness. That's the problem.

 

Exactly - it's like someone is shining a flashlight in your face. Maybe not directly, but a bright enough light that you can't see anything else.

 

If you don't get a remedy, one thing you could do is roll down the window so the screen won't be throwing glare on it. Like you, I usually use the mirrors out of habit.

 

elptxjc, it's not that the camera is being blinded or washed out by the license plate lights - the screen just goes to full or nearly full brightness whenever I put it in reverse. Not a problem in the daytime, but not good at night.

I have factory lighting in the back. Only thing I've upgraded are the fog lights.

EDIT - I went downstairs and took a look at the settings. No way to fix it that I can find, but I did notice, as you mentioned, that the license plate lights do indeed interfere with the camera. It's not terrible, but they shine some light directly on the camera and that isn't really helpful.