Dashcam Review

Lawless2k12

So I recently bought a new dashcam. 3rd camera so far. First camera was a SmartcamHD2 which was very good but a bit clunky in the car. Took up a large space on the window and was awkward as I had a 3-door car so everytime the seat was put down to allow someone in the back, the headrest hit the camera and it eventually broke after my ex-gf hit her head on it when she was grabbing her handbag from the footwell. Me being a loving guy never mentioned it but silly me I guess :P

The second camera I didn't actually use. Cost very little and found out when it came it was a knock off. When looking at dashcams, buy it off a site someone recommends. I found a review by a guy called "Techmoan" on Youtube about a certain camera that was good but I found a site selling it cheaper than the link he provided so me wanting to save the €40 bought it from the cheaper site. Needless to say it was not the quality I had been looking at on Youtube.

So, I've just gotten my 3rd Dashcam today and here's the link to the site:

Dashcam

Here is some of my footage that I got driving in town. It's only 59 seconds long but you can see it's very clear. Sound isn't the greatest but for me that doesn't matter. I'm using it for video recording, not to record my bad taste in music or my bad whistling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCgNPASB--I

Other info:

For a 32GB SD card (Not included with cam - costs about €39), it can hold over 400 mins of recording at 1080p. (Each minute is between 72MB and 73MB

Cam can take screenshots during video playback mode. It can also take photographs in photo mode.

Cam is extremely small and fitted in behind my rear view mirror. I don't even see it when driving. Hard to detect outside of car too.

Has a 1.5inch LCD. 4 mega pixel cam. Seamless recording so no loss of video.

Auto-loops videos so you never need to go about deleting videos if memory is full. Also, you can save a clip instantly by pressing the "Down" button so that file will never overwrite.

OPTIONAL: (Costs about €20)

GPS tracking- tracks location, speed and G-force.

In the event of a collision detected by cam, video file is automatically saved and cannot be overwritten unless manually deleted.


Cost of cam: €79.01
Cost to ship: €13.68
Cost of GPS: ~€20 euro (Can't seem to find a price for it)

Additional note: The bracket to attach cam to windscreen is a small sticky box about 1 inch in length and width and .5 inches in height. Usually only comes with ONE bracket but if GPS version is purchased it includes a bracket with built-in GPS and a standard bracket.



For a better review, here's Techmoans video. It's over 20 mins long if you have the time but shows how cam reacts in different light:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdPHXv8Hzj8

Can replay videos on the cam itself, through HDMI cable, through USB cable or through AV cable. (All supplied with cam)

Hope I covered everything there. Any questions just fire away and I'll try answer them!

Shipping took about 7 working days from New Zealand so it wasn't too bad at all

RandomAccess

Nice camera, and the quality is good, I like the form factor of this one a lot. However I found that the other camera TechMoan recently reviewed the 'Mobius' camera, produced far better images especially when it came to capturing registration plates.
On your clip and on his I noticed if you pause the clip you can't read the number plate on cars in the other lane, so I think maybe its something to do with the focus of the lens, whereas on the Mobius camera the picture quality from paused frames was incredibly sharp so it was easy to get details such as reg plates.

I was kind of hoping the guys who make the Mobius would put the gubbins from their one into a car camera in the form factor of yours. But I have no idea when that might happen if ever.
I know sods law would mean that something will happen before I get one of course.

Just today I saw someone pull out in front of a Garda car on the North Circular in Dublin, when they were responding to a call. Close one it was, like something off the VodkaVideo dashcam channel

Voodoomelon

Funny coincidence, my one arrived today from NZ also. Have to take the Roadhawk out and get this one installed, I forgot to buy a microSD!

Lawless2k12

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Funny coincidence, my one arrived today from NZ also. Have to take the Roadhawk out and get this one installed, I forgot to buy a microSD!

So did I but I popped down to the local DID Electric shop and picked up a 32GB. Turned out the files were smaller than I thought so an 8 GB probably would have been enough. The 32GB holds 6 hours and 42 mins according to the camera

Lawless2k12

RandomAccess wrote: »

On your clip and on his I noticed if you pause the clip you can't read the number plate on cars in the other lane,
Just today I saw someone pull out in front of a Garda car on the North Circular in Dublin, when they were responding to a call. Close one it was, like something off the VodkaVideo dashcam channel

It's actually less clear on youtube though. I can read most of the reg plates when I pause the video on my computer but once I upload it, it seems to diminish in quality... That could also mean the Mobius is even clearer too!

And I actually saw a guard flying up the wrong side of the road responding to a call today as well. He was going thru town and doing way over the 50km I was doing, possibly 100km at a guess, and went round a bend on the wrong side while overtaking a GARDA escort with a money van. Came very very close to a head on with a white van who luckily swerved into a bus stop. Hadn't gotten the camera by then unfortunately :P

Voodoomelon

Lawless2k12 wrote: »

So did I but I popped down to the local DID Electric shop and picked up a 32GB. Turned out the files were smaller than I thought so an 8 GB probably would have been enough. The 32GB holds 6 hours and 42 mins according to the camera

I ordered a 32GB too earlier on, hopefully it's here on Friday. Any pics of your install?

quenching

Might get myself one of these, any idea how long the USB to 12v power lead is?

aristotle25

the power cable is 4m long according to the link in the OP post.

Lawless2k12

quenching wrote: »

Might get myself one of these, any idea how long the USB to 12v power lead is?

Didn't measure it but it was long enough to go from the cam (Situated behind rear view mirror) up into passenger sun visor, over to B-pillar, down along b_pillar, down the inside of passenger door, Underneath glove box and then to power. I still had a bit too much wire left so I rolled it up, sellotaped it together and stuck it under the glove box. I have to admit I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it. Got a bit lazy... very very DIY looking job :P

I'll put up a few pics later. Probably won't be the best of quality as I'll have to use my phone :L

Lawless2k12

Dashcam installation... Very "homemade" :P

Voodoomelon

I might try and solder the USB cable directly into the device, the connector sticking out the side looks terrible, noticed that in the video review too.

patnor1011

Do not want to derail your thread but here is my recording from different car dvr just to compare... I did edited sound out, I do not want to offend people as I tend to use bad language while driving
It was X3000 dvr with 2 cameras but I use only front one.
I can confirm that youtube somehow do not show it in the same quality as I can see it in my computer dunno why...

Cabaal

Lawless, a few months on how are you finding this dashcam?

I was thinking of picking up one of these,

aristotle25

I also bought one of these cameras.

My experience:

Good:
1) small and discrete
2) good picture quality

Bad:
1) The firmware that runs it has issues which cause it to turn itself off. Sometimes that would be 15 times in as many minutes and other times it will work fine for 2 days. There is new firmware (see dashcamtalk.com) but its not trivial to update the firmware and it may not resolve the issue
2) Cable length is actually 3 metres rather than 4 so that may be too short.

Lawless2k12

I'm still finding it great... Didn't find the problems mentioned above either thankfully. Videos upload easily, records perfectly... no negatives from my side of it anyway

sentient_6

I recently bought a smartcam 2 but i'm disappointed with the size of it, more so the holder which is massive. So i'm pondering selling now after seeing this.