A**W
Problematic.
Don't want to use the cliche "I really wanted to like this unit but",,,, here is my experience with this camera.There are some pro's to the unit that are well documented by others so I'll save everyone the ordeal of reading through those again.Problems encountered; my camera CONSISTENTLY shut off for no apparent reason. It started making beeping and chime noises which I still have no idea what they meant since there is absolutely no mention in the owners manual regarding this. The only way to rectify the problem was to pull over and turn the car off, re start and wait 17 seconds for the recording to start OR unplug the power cord from the unit and plug it back in - while driving. Neither of these were acceptable solutions.The unit only recorded in 23 second intervals even though I had it set for a 5 minute loop.The rear camera has a default brightness setting of 3. (1 though 5 settings) mine always defaulted to 1 no matter what I tried.I had to constantly re set the Wi-Fi and enter the password even though I had it "join automatically" on the phone.Constantly had to re initialized the GPS time and even with that it was off by (at least) one hour if not more.Playback on the phone is dreadful slow on occasion. Started playback showing a 23 second video but would stop at 4 seconds into the playback for minutes.Sometimes it would not save the last recording. I turned the car off and realized it completed the last 23 second loop but didn't save the current loop if I turned the car off before the 23 seconds was over.Could not find a way to turn "Park Mode" off. Not certain if that was the reason but the camera became so hot that you could not physically hold it for extended periods.For a camera that's getting good reviews, I'm a bit disappointed.Eventually ended up returning the unit and as always, Amazon customers care was great.The search for a good dual dash-cam continues.
S**C
Excellent features, design and build. Quality images. Couldn't be happier.
There's no screen on it, which makes it a much smaller, discreet size than most dash cams, but you can connect with it using your phone (while in the car, using wifi) to view any recordings and/or live view the cameras. You use either the phone app (which works fine with my Galaxy S6 Edge+) or their pc program to customize many firmware options. One of the "pros" of this camera is how finely tuned you can go with the options including separate front/rear brightness in case you have tinted windows or how sensitive you want it to be in detecting motion during parking mode. The pc app also allows you to do things like zoom in, screen capture and adjust image brightness after recording.I wanted something unobtrusive with features like true parking mode (so if someone messes with your car it captures 10 sec before and 20 sec afterward), event recording (either based on g-force or where you touch one button to record/save an event) GPS (tells you how fast you were going and where). Also, some dash cams had a good sounding resolution but the pic wasn't very good. After playing with it in various sunlight and weather conditions, I can say the Sony CMOS 2.1 MP on this looks good to me, even in low light or poor weather. The field of view is 135 dg in front and 130 dg in back, so it catches the side of the road or other lanes easily.The seller, BlackBoxMyCar.com, has a ton of great support videos and documents for this including a comparison of it with another model I was considering, the more expensive BlackVue DR650. This has all the features I want, including some the BlackVue doesn't have, but the BlackVue will record to the cloud allowing you to watch in real time where your employees (or kids!) are going (assuming it's connected via cellular link).We installed it on a Mazda CX-5 and had the local dealer do it. It took them ~ 3hrs and it looks perfect. We have the Smart City Brake System (SCBS) which meant it had to sit lower below the rear-view mirror but because of its trim size, it's no problem. Both cams have a solid, well-built feel to them and the seller included all necessary cables whether you want to hard wire it in (which we did) or use a cigarette lighter (not recommended if you want parking protection as the power usually goes off in those).
J**E
... this camera for two months now and I am pretty happy with it
I've had this camera for two months now and I am pretty happy with it. I knew from reading other reviews that it wouldn't be amazing picture quality, but it is very good. It will only be an issue if you're trying to read license plates. This camera will only reliably catch license numbers if they're close and slow moving. I decided that this limitation was worth it considering the superior user interface, customizability and relatively low price. The parking mode on this is super sensitive, which is kind of a bummer. In a city environment it basically records constantly while parked. Even leaves fluttering on trees or reflections of the sun will set off the motion detector. Fortunately the large SD capacity and ability to allocate different amounts of storage for different purposes (always recording, parking and event) makes this an acceptable issue. Overall, very good dual cam. The competitors might have marginally better picture quality under certain circumstances, but I love the features on this cam.
Trustpilot
1 month ago
3 weeks ago
