Honda Pilot backup camera becomes a concert film camera

The backup camera on a 2010 Honda Pilot exists to keep you from backing into a mailbox. Jack Skelley pointed one at a concert stage instead. The Drive reports the videographer filmed The Chainsmokers using the camera feed from the Pilot's rearview mirror and posted the output to Instagram.

Skelley made the case for the hardware in the post itself. "Everyone is out here arguing about FX5 color science, Sony autofocus, and 14 stops of dynamic range, but nobody is talking about the organic, raw pixel degradation of a 16-year-old OEM parking sensor," he wrote.

"The aggressively wide focal length bends the pyrotechnics into an immersive, hyper-distorted bubble, and the chromatic aberration is simply unmatched." Jack Skelley, in his Instagram post, as reported by The Drive.

He also gave credit to the on-screen text, calling the permanent 'Check Entire Surroundings' overlay a framing device. In a comment on the post, Skelley said he attached the setup to a Ronin RS4 gimbal.

The camera was one trim only

Not every 2010 Pilot could have done this. The in-mirror display came only on the EX-L trim level that year. The Touring got a regular screen in the dash instead, because it also had navigation. The lower trim levels had no backup camera at all.

That was normal for the era. Rearview cameras were not required by federal rules yet, and touchscreens were not yet standard equipment, so a car did not automatically have anywhere to show a camera feed.

The timing explains it. Congress passed the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act in 2007, three years before the 2010 Pilot went on sale in the second year of the model's second generation. The rule itself did not arrive until 2018, by which point most new cars already had a backup camera anyway.

Not the first time

Someone made a short film in 2016 using only the backup camera on a Toyota Prius, according to an Inverse post from the time. It was meant as a spoof of the way auteur filmmakers reach for obscure formats. That one was shot with the camera still bolted into the car.

What it means for your driveway

If you own a car from the early 2010s, the camera in your mirror or your dash is low resolution by phone standards, and that is exactly the appeal here. Nothing about the Pilot setup was expensive. It was a feature somebody already paid for, used for something it was never designed to do.

The practical half of this is worth remembering when you shop used. On cars of that age, a backup camera was often tied to a trim level or an option package, so two examples of the same model and year can differ on whether they have one. Check the trim, and check the screen or mirror, before you assume it is there.

• backup cameras
• Honda Pilot
• Jack Skelley
• The Chainsmokers
• used cars