Given the fact that the automotive industry is without a doubt going through one of the worst periods in its long history, with fewer and fewer people willing to purchase a new vehicle, the various car accessory manufacturers are trying their best in order to come up with certain products that will also work on the consumers' old cars. And that's exactly the case with Alpine and its HCE-C105 rear-view camera and new KTX-C10LP license plate mounting kit, which can be easily installed into any vehicle and provide users with the necessary level of visibility in order to inform them regarding what's going on behind their cars.

First of all, it's important to mention that the HCE-C105 rear-view camera works quite fine with pretty much any in-dash screen that has a video input. However, since not that many old vehicles come with such an accessory, users can always opt for a monitor-based unit (either one from Alpine or from another manufacturer, as long as the connectivity interfaces match). The only major compatibility-related issue mentioned by Alpine is the fact that, when used with an Alpine in-dash system, the camera is automatically triggered and the rear view is displayed on-screen when the vehicle is placed in reverse.

The camera provides good quality images in any light conditions due to the built-in automatic brightness sensor and white balance feature, while offering some pretty good viewing angles, namely 138 degrees on the horizontal direction and 105 degrees on vertical. Moreover, it has a very slim form factor (1-inch thick) and can be easily mounted anywhere within the vehicle.

However, since we've reached the installation issue, we must also talk about the KTX-C10LP license plate mounting kit. This kit offers easy camera placement and optimum viewing when backing up and is manufactured from cast metal with rust-resistant coating. Additionally, the frame has built-in LED lights to illuminate the license plate in applications where the original license plate light may be blocked by the camera, and has an adjustable camera tilt angle of 45 degrees for optimal viewing angle positioning.

The people who wish to take advantage of the system provided by Alpine will be able to do so by purchasing the HCE-C105 rear-view camera for $220 and the KTX-C10LP license plate mounting kit for around 60 US dollars, the latter becoming available later on in January. However, things are a little bit more complicated for those people whose cars don't have an in-dash screen, who will be forced to cough up more money in order to get themselves one of the monitor-based units mentioned above.


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