Does anyone have a dash cam in thier car ?

[dpSparhawk]

My Mini 0801 arrived. Going to get it in the car tomorrow morning and record my run to work. It'll be a daytime run there and a night run back. I'll upload and post the vids as soon as I've edited half a mile out from my home and work destinations from either end of the vids

From a brief resting on the dash today,


That transcend is definitely shaky

[reverend]

The Transcend looks slightly better with firmware 1.19 but not fantastic. The GS6000 arrived today and it's definitely better - it's got mega issues handling the reflection of the speaker grid so I'm going to try a newer firmware as there's a much better Texet version available that goes up to 30Mbps. The PQ is literally a whole other level better than the Transcend though.

I've also ordered a GT680W which lands tomorrow - it's basically a Dod LS330W clone with GPS etc and that'll be going in the back window as I figure the larger aperture (f-stop 1.6) will handle the view through the privacy glass much better.

[evilsatan]

Are you stocking them or something?? Mine is due tomorrow.

[reverend]

No mate having a front and back camera - I got the Transcend after seeing good reviews but after seeing it wasn't all that happy and decided to spend a little bit more to get something a lot better. I'm always like this - spend ages thinking whether I can afford the 80 quid for the Transcend and then two days later I've spunked 300 quid away to get something better!

I've just upgraded the firmware on this EPrance GS6000 A7 from the factory one to the latest Texet 571-G firmware (6 March) which has better IQ and more options, including speed cameras and a lane detection warning system like they spec on higher end cars these days. In fact that half makes me wonder if they actually record the video the lane detection systems see anywhere in the car in case of an accident if I was being paranoid!

I'll stick a comparison up in a min

[reverend]

Here we go - first of all the £80 Transcend DrivePro 200 (with a free 16GB memory card):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ison/DP200.MOV

And then the £96 (no memory card) Ambarella GS6000 with stock firmware:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...parison/A7.MOV

It's supposed to be better with the newer firmware so I'm just going to have something to eat and will pop up to get some footage

I'm not actually sure if the pricing is wrong as I got the 32GB one for £114ish and it's still showing as fulfilled by Amazon, whereas the other ones from 4GB upwards cost more!

[evilsatan]

Sounds cool mate, especially speed cam warnings. Not sure what lane assist is for but I've heard of it. I needed something discreet hence my choice, hope I don't regret it! My headunit has sat nav automatically running in the background and I have speedcams set up in there so that warns me through my speakers atm otherwise you would have tempted me to sell this on and get the cam you have!

[reverend]

You won't want to when you see the quality mate - the Sony Exmor sensor in that one you've bought is the dogs bollocks!

I'll head out and try night time footage on this one now, I'm intrigued!

[evilsatan]

Well from Korea to China, to Germany, to France and to me all in 2 days, not bad going by FedEx. Hopefully I won't receive an import duty letter next week. Going to try and install later when I get some work out of the way but weather forecast doesn't look too good.

[reverend]

I did some testing with the custom firmware on the GS6000 so it records up to 30Mbps and it's transformed it - the GT680W also came and the quality on that is great out of the box. I raved at the GT680W footage when I first saw that and was taken aback by how good the A7 device looked. Lot's more testing to do yet though.

I'm at work now so haven't seen the footage on the big screen yet so hopefully I won't be at work 18 hours today.

I've not done much night stuff yet, but I get the feeling if they took a decent sensor like the Sony and paired it with the Ambarella A7 you'd have an awesome device on your hands!

[reverend]

Oh and if anyone gets any of these devices the custom firmwares definitely offer improvements over stock from my experience so far.

[evilsatan]

I was away over the weekend but managed to install mine on Friday and upgrade to custom fw. Just getting to grips with it then I will post some feedback. I have a 64GB Sandisk extreme micro SDXC card coming too.

[reverend]

Here are two comparison videos today of similar daytime footage with a tunnel thrown in for good measure to show night performance.

This is the video from the GS6000 running Falsificator's custom late Feb firmware:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GS6000 Day and Tunnel.MOV

And then the same trip from the GT680W with fw 2.6:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106226829/Comparison/GT680W Day and Tunnel.MOV

I'm much happier with these than the DrivePro!

[reverend]

I've done loads more testing with these the last couple of days - it turns out there's a bug in the GS6000 firmware when WDR is on which is why it looks crap at night - turn it off and the footage is loads better, albeit darker. Play these in 1080p or 1440p to get an idea

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwL10Tzx5cQ

Daytime is great too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BxmA742KPE

The the GT680W for good measure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXSs_V3mVZY

The Mini0803 is coming out now and that's based on the same hardware as the GS6000 I've got - the demo videos look great at night but I'm waiting to see what feedback actually is when they're out in the hands of users.

[evilsatan]

Forgot to mention, I saw yesterday that SwiftCover are offering a 10% discount to those who have dashcams, hopefully his is the start of them all following suit.

[greaseweasel]

Forgot to mention, I saw yesterday that SwiftCover are offering a 10% discount to those who have dashcams, hopefully his is the start of them all following suit.

Not sure I'm keen on this idea.
Nice in practice to bring premiums down, but how long before you can't get cover without one, with gps logging checking on your speed etc.

Two thoughts on this, great if people drive safer knowing they are 'watched' but I don't want big brother in the car with me either.

[Northernbloke]

Not sure I'm keen on this idea.
Nice in practice to bring premiums down, but how long before you can't get cover without one, with gps logging checking on your speed etc.

Two thoughts on this, great if people drive safer knowing they are 'watched' but I don't want big brother in the car with me either.

I agree but sadly it's becoming a necessary evil due to too many bad/ignorant/stupid/aggressive drivers out there - I went to court last year after refusing to admit liability for being hit whilst edging forwards out of a bay in a car park because I couldn't see to my left - I was hit by a Chinese guy, going well in excess of the posted 10mph limit and the wrong way on a clearly marked one way system. My own insurance company threatened several times to accept blame on my behalf - it was only because I hadn't accepted my car being repaired (I stuck the number plate back on myself which was the only damage to my car) and hadn't paid the excess that they weren't allowed to do that. When it got in front of the judge he looked at my photos and statement and after the other driver admitted lying about his statement we won the case.

Fecker was trying to claim over 20 grand for whiplash and damage to his old grey import car

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[beansontoast]

Forgot to mention, I saw yesterday that SwiftCover are offering a 10% discount to those who have dashcams, hopefully his is the start of them all following suit.

Imagine taking them up on this and then something happens when the camera is off...

[reverend]

I spoke to my broker last week and they were saying they're not bothered about you having to declare them, but they will make a note on the account so we'll see what they say come renewal time.

You do actually tend to stop driving like so much of a nob when you realise you're constantly recording!

These things do have the bonus of recording some nice views like the birds arse at 45 seconds in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k0KBBa_e_g

[reverend]

This is the sort of reason I bought these things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH2hMK9cByM&vq=hd1080

What can I say - it was a woman driver (or a very ugly bloke!)

[Goldberg]

This is the sort of reason I bought these things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH2hMK9cByM&vq=hd1080

What can I say - it was a woman driver (or a very ugly bloke!)

Not exactly sure what we are looking at there? I see nothing major and if anything you cutting the last car up at the end was a bit of a cunts trick.