I use a 8Gb MicroSD card, record in 1080P with 5 minute loops and this gives me about 2-3 hours of recording before it erases the oldest file. Each 5 minute video is approx. ~140-150Mb. Some people might complain that it erasing so fast is bad and what if they need something later; well, if there is an occurrence that you need to keep lock the file and it won't delete it. Otherwise, this is an install & forget device. It's great to have and isn't a nuisance and if an accident or ticket arises, will help you out immensely.
I work in Insurance and this is exactly what people need. The inaccuracies with human witnesses are too unreliable to be helpful during a claim or ticket dispute.
During the day, picture is great, if the sun is directly facing the camera; obviously there is a glare but that's unavoidable.
Can read street names, license plates everything it needs to do.
During nighttime, I personally do not turn on the 2 LED lights in the front, they are bright and don't add much quality.
Nighttime recording is a bit less detailed, given it's nighttime. But at stoplights it will record license plates and street signs depending on the type of sign. It shows the stoplights current color great and reflective lines in the street.
Audio is a bit meh, but what purpose does audio serve? None. Insurance / police don't care to hear you singing the Top 40 on the radio prior to the accident / that stop sign ticket violation, they care about visual proof.
The car cord is like 10 ft long, so when unraveling it, I would recommend not un-bundling all of it, just what you need to adequately have the cable connected and the rest tied up.
Overall, I am completely satisfied with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking for a dash cam.
(...) Daytime
(...) Nighttime
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There are rightfully many mixed reviews about this car-cam on here. At first, mine had stopped working too, but it wasn't the camera's fault. In fact, the car-cam works perfectly fine if it's configured correctly. Here's how: 1. Do not buy a Class 10 micro-card. It will stop working soon after. Amazon recommends it by default, but it is wrong 2. Buy a Class 4 micro-card instead. The car-cam works with an older technology, so you must use the Class 4 type of card. I bought and used this one: Kingston 16 GB Class 4 MicroSDHC Flash Card with SD Adapter SDC4/16GB and it works 100%. With the Class 10, mine stopped working after the card filled up, or thereabouts. After I read some detailed websites about car-cams, it's imperative you use the Class 4. I hope this helps both new buyers and older buyers as well, since Amazon is recommending the wrong type of card. Other than that, the camera works perfectly fine for $55. The playback is good enough for road use. The on/off with the car ignition is awesome too. Been working for a few months with no issues.Update after about 7 months, it still works 99%. Some points to note: 1. Use a 16gb Class 4 card (32gb is too large and won't work) 2. If it records for a bit, then randomly stops (red recorder blinker stops), the card may have a corrupted file on it. This happens when I accidentally unplug it while driving, or another random reason. Simply take the card out of the camera, plug it into your computer, and delete everything on the card. Then put it back in your camera after everything is deleted. It should now work 100% again for months. It's not flawless, but it's very easy to fix (just delete the files on the card when this happens). It's only happened twice in 7 months! Love this camera!
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I have gone back and forth, trying to decide which camera to get. I finally got this one. CHECK MY VIDEO and you will see that this was a GREAT investment. The Clarity of this camera is amazing. Dont be fooled by the quality, when uploading videos, the videos lose some clarity. HOWEVER, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ THE LICENSE PLATES from the video in its Raw being (but of course you have to be close enough).
There are people that complain about how this camera isnt great quality. Well seriously, for about $50, what did you really expect? If you want TRUE 1080p, then mount a digital camera or a Real camera to get that quality.
For those of you who only need this for insurance purposes or to save your own ass, buy this gadget!
My only complaint is the fact that the mount is a bit flimsy (NOT THE SUCTION--THE SUCTION TO THE WINDSHIELD IS PERFECT). It's the fact that when I lean in to push the Power button, or the Record button, the Camera comes off the mount. I dont know, maybe its just me? Maybe I am not mounting it in correctly...
Honest reviews on Car DashBoard Video Camera Vehicle Video Accident Recorder DVR
Bottom line so far, so good... I am VERY happy with the camera I received and will post updates if things should change. Works great, good daytime video, so-so night video, actually relatively easy to operate love the automatic looping !!! I think this camera is an amazing bargain and fairly sophisticated for the price. I ordered this camera knowing I was purchasing a "no-name" device so the lack of a top-end consumer brand label on the device does not bother me. Hopefully the capitalized HEADLINES below will help if you are only interested in one or two of these topics:1. ROLLER COASTER REVIEWS !!! The 100+ reviews currently written are quite a roller coaster ride. I found this same "ride" with many products here on Amazon. I reviewed a carpet cleaning powder last year that I absolutely loved (did a great job cleaning my carpets) and people actually gave it 1 star because the instructions required them to shake the container a bit to fluff-up the powder which settles between the time of production to the time it reaches the consumer. "What does carpet cleaner have to do with dash cams?" you ask, well, my point is sometimes you need to really read between the lines with these reviews !!!
2. DIFFERENT VERSION !!! From info provided, it is very obvious there are different versions being shipped, e.g., my cam only had 1 min, 2 min & 3 min file options, while others had up to 5 mins, 10 mins, & 15 mins. It's all part of the fun, guessing which version you're going to receive. I do like the 3 minute files they work great for me.
3. WHAT SELLER / MERCHANT ??? This part was confusing in the end. I ordered my camera from the Brainy Trade Storefront to be fulfilled by Amazon.com, yet I received it from the Afunta Mall Storefront who had the same camera listed for approx. $24 less than Brainy Trade. Of course, I was charged the higher of the two prices, but since the camera works I really don't care. The original listing I ordered from has now been changed to say sold by the merchant DingDing and the Afunta Mall Storefront no longer (as of this writing) has a listing for this camera. The only reason I bring this up is that I selected one Amazon merchant over another based on the satisfaction percentage and Amazon fulfillment, which apparently doesn't really mean anything if they just give the order to a different merchant. (I also tried to select a seller / merchant who was shipping from North America but who knows where my shipment originated.)
4. MICRO SANDISK CARD !!! I apparently got an older camera based on the 1, 2, & 3 minutes file size choice (no problem it works). However, I purchased a Class 10 32GB Micro SanDisk which DID NOT work in my camera. When using the Class 10 card the camera would only record for about 10 minutes and then shut off (a problem experienced by some other reviewers). I promptly made a trek to WalMart and purchased a Class 4 16GB Micro SanDisk ($15) which works great. Others claim the Class 10 is the ONLY way to go, possibly they received newer cameras or cameras with newer firmware ??? Of note here is the exact quote from the manual concerning the memory card, "Push the [card] into the card slot in the direction of the body till hearing the voices "ka". (Note: I might think I'm hearing voices, but none of them are saying "ka".)
5. MANUAL !!! Ok, I agree the manual is a bit silly. However, after playing around with the menus a bit they really are quite self-explanatory. The fun of reading the manual is worth half the price. I mean who would have any problem understanding instructions that say (exact quote), "You can press reset and starting up the product when a crash happened because disoperation it will get right." C'mon have a sense of humor we all know that means "if press reset tachograph very much better to operate" !!! Yes, this device is actually referred to as a tachograph in the manual I received.
6. MENUS !!! The menus on the camera are GREAT !!! They're very easy to understand very self-explanatory and provide all the basic settings you should need. There are three main operating modes when plugged into external power (car adapter): Video Cam, Still Cam, and File Management, each having their own menu (all three also share the exact same main settings menu). When plugged into a computer via USB, the camera has two main modes: a) "Mass Storage" where it is accessible as any external storage device would be, and b) "PC Camera" where it provides a funky, somewhat kaleidoscopic picture on my PC screen using my webcam software. But, who is buying this device for these latter two functions??? If you want to view your files pop-out your SanDisk & plug it into your PC. If you want a webcam get a REAL one. In my application the camera stays in the car & I will not be plugging it into a PC.
7. KNOCK-OFF ??? Some reviewers complained they received a knock-off and returned the camera as a result. Actually, for the price and lack of brand name in ANY of the written descriptions I actually figured I was ordering a no-name or knock-off and would have been surprised if it was a REAL brand name. There was not one word in any of the written descriptions indicating this item had any brand name at all. Besides, what are the top consumer brands in dash cams??? I'm not sure there are any yet !!! I started out looking for dash cams manufactured (or at least labeled by) Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon, Toshiba, etc., and after having no luck whatsoever, decided the consumer market was totally saturated with no-names / knock-offs at this time. So, as any smart consumer would do, I ordered what I actually figured was going to be a no-name brand with documentation from China and no support. I would have gladly paid more money for a well known consumer brand name, and was not familiar enough with the professional brands (used by police) to go that route. Besides, some of the professional brands looked like I was getting a suitcase full of equipment that would require an electronics engineer to install !!!
8. PICTURE QUALITY & STORAGE !!! I have only used the quality setting which was listed on my cam as 1080 Full HD. It works great for me. (I did set the Exposure to +1 initially since I was out on a very cloudy day & will play around with this to suit my needs.) The daytime picture quality is quite satisfactory. You can definitely read the highway signs in the videos and can read the license plate of the car stopped directly in front of you at a stop sign or red light if you are no more than around 15 feet away. At this setting (1080 Full HD) my 3 minute file sizes are averaging around 460,000 KB which is giving me 33 to 34 files on my 16GB Class 4 Micro SanDisk or a total of approximately 100 minutes before looping (overwriting) begins. While this works fine for me, I plan to try a Class 4 32GB card very soon, however, will still always use the best picture resolution available. My preference is for picture quality over number of files or minutes stored. The night pic is only as good as the available light. Stick with city driving and you'll be ok travel a dark country road and don't expect much in the way of picture quality. (The key here is always drive in well lit areas LOL.) BTW, don't expect anything from the two lights in the front of the cam. I just always make sure they are off, because although they do not improve the picture quality, I have a feeling that some local law enforcement professionals might not take too kindly to the bright glow coming out of your windshield !!!
9. SOUND !!! I have NOT tested the sound, but I am including this paragraph here for folks who, like me, do NOT wish to have their every word / every sound recorded. My point in this paragraph is to tell everyone clearly that the menus DO ALLOW you to turn the sound off !!! (YIPPEE!!!) This wasn't clear to me when I ordered but I was hoping this to be the case. My fallback would have been to either open the case and see if I could disconnect the sound or plug-up the mic hole with something hoping to muffle the sound a bit. Neither of these was necessary. Now the world will only be able to guess what radio station I am listening to or what profanities might come out of my mouth when someone pulls out in front of me. For me, SOUND = OFF !
10. BATTERY LIFE !!! I know this is important to some reviewers however, in my application this does NOT matter at all. I am recording every minute I am driving using the car adapter (which DOES allow you to record). Because my 12V outlets in my car are always hot, I just plug the adapter into the 12V outlet and it starts recording. I am leaving the device plugged in & running the entire time I am in any parking lots (shopping, restaurant, etc.) You never know what you might capture in these situations, so why have it automatically shut-off after 3 minutes? And of course, I made sure the battery was fully charged before my initial use as the manual says regarding your initial charging of the device (exact quote), " . . . the red charging indicator will lit up during charging which will last about 180 minutes. The red charging indicator will be automatic off after finish charging." So there you have it !!!
11. SAMPLE VIDEOS !!! I have posted four sample (uneventful) videos on YouTube all shot on a very cloudy day. Since Amazon seems to remove links from reviews and leaves some links on some comments see the comments to this review for the links (hopefully). All were shot using the resolution setting referred to on the menu as 1080 Full HD. The Exposure was set to +1 for all of these videos. What appears to be little specs of white "noise" in the picture is actually very light snow flurries. These videos are for illustration purposes only & do not contain any exciting car crashes. Also, when viewing these for quality comparison it's important to keep in mind what resolution you are watching these in (YouTube resolution setting is available at the bottom of the video display. For me, YouTube is initially displaying these specific vids in 360 res. you should at the very least view these in 720 res, again, they were shot at a setting listed on the menu as "1080 Full HD".)
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