I know Mo at LR-Retrofits has been fitting digital instruments to Jaguar & Land Rover models for a while, have a look at his website & Facebook for more details:

https://lr-retrofits.co.uk

 

I was also told yesterday that our build will not have the Clearsight , the 11.4" touch screen or the 12.3" interactive driver display (that's being replaced with analog. Not cool.)
No price change except $450 for no Clearsight.
Ordered in October, accepted last week, build in April with antic. delivery date July 20.

Do those without ClearSight find the spare tire to be a nuisance to see around without the Clearsight? Just curious!

 

The spare tire does impact visibility, but if you are able to fold down the two outermost rear head rests it gets better. I do have clearsight and it absolutely helps and I would want it again, but you can get by without it. It’s just better with it.

 

Visibility isnt great. Tire, heating element, rear seat etc. all make it difficult to see. However, the clearsight isnt perfect either. It's still just a camera lens with a relatively low resolution screen. Dont get me wrong I love clearsight but it's not the end all solution. A lens that small at night will never be great, no matter how much the marketing materials tell you otherwise, and it can easily get washed out by a setting sun directly behind it.
It really depends on your specific use case. Is this going to be your daily driver which you rarely if ever take off road? If thats the case I'd hold out 6mo/12mo for a fully featured Defender. If this is going to be your weekend offroad warrior those features wont matter as much.

 

I had clearsight on every build as mandatory until I finally test drove a 110, pulled into a parking space on a clear sunny day put it in reverse and actually tried to use it. Got home and immediately put the money into some other option. Other people love it and that's great. JLR has a ton of options, I would suggest to most folks take several test drives before ordering a build to make sure what you order fits what's going to work best for you.

 

I would agree. We test drove a Defender 110 SE P400 with clearsight and then ordered one without it. Not necessary for us. Easy option to skip!

 

The value of clearsight is not for reversing at all. There are cameras for that. It’s to give you a far wider and better view on the highway, especially when the boot is full. The regular mirror leaves very large blind spots for highway driving. Nobody uses clearsight for reversing, or at least they shouldn’t. I think it should be a standard feature just for highway safety. Wouldn’t want the car without it.

 

Understood. When I tried using it on the highway it was jittery as hell, unusable. If you have smooth roads it may be a different experience because in upstate NY the roads are butchered from salt and plows. Is there image stabilization? I don't think so. That would be needed IMO. Don't get me wrong I love the idea of blind spot mitigation but this doesn't do it for me. There are plenty of cameras that stay up now since the last update, the problem (with all of the cameras) IMO is the perspective is too distant, you'll see a vehicle which appears as though it's distant enough where you could merge and in reality it's not, it's right in your back pocket, there's either several seconds of lag on the feed at highway speeds or the perspective is too distant which IMO defeats using it for that purpose. I don't find the spare problematic at all really, my seat is jacked up pretty high, in the 90 I have good visibility via the standard mirror. The 110 is a different experience though. I mean with that said both definitely have blind spots and if CS helps anyone at all for that I'd say go for it, just wasn't for me.

 

could not agree more. I’m sure that many who tried it quickly on a test drive etc would be unaware that it’s also adjustable (camera height and brightness).

 

Mine’s not jittery at all on the highway. Maybe something’s wrong with yours.