Cheap dashcam review

[Sp!ke]

I ordered a cheap £30 dashcam from china recently. Fitted it today.

Quality of manufacture appears pretty good. I deliberately chose one that was small and unobtrusive that I could leave permanantly attached to the screen. Note that there are a few versions of this camera. This one is the A8 which is supposed to be improved over earlier versions. It does voice , has a Gforce sensor and it displays the date and time should you wish. I haven't bothered with enabling either.

Video quality is acceptable for evidence purposes but not high quality. Given the cost of the device, I think its good enough.

This is the item and seller I bought it from, andmy order arrived from china within 5 days. (the price seems to fluctuate - I paid £34 including shipping)

HD720P Smallest In Car Dash Camera Video Register Recorder Min DVR Cam G-sensor | eBay


As already mentioned, the video quality is rather average... but good enough for evidential purposes. Below you'll see my first time out with it and look what happens towards the end of the video.... talk about timing.

[YOUTUBE]NQ0e3de6zlk[/YOUTUBE]


Here's a picture of fitment in my Smart. As you can see it is a very neat little package. All things considered it seems a reasonable budget buy.

 

[MCFastybloke]

deffo having one for my new van,whats it like at night?

 

[Ted]

Excellent. Good quality footage imho.

Driving with a dash cam certainly gives you a little more confidence (not sure if thats the best word to use, but you know what I mean.
Bargain too.

 

[Spin_bowler]

Looks great value to me.

I can't quite tell, did the biker actually just ride straight into that stationary car or did he simply fall off?

 

[Sp!ke]

Yes, the rider forgot to turn

 

[wemorgan]

learner biker: ooops

Is yours on loop recording mode? What size SD card do you use?

 

[BTB 500]

Most of these cheap video cameras from China use mass-produced smartphone components and work pretty well. I've used various HD 'keyfob' ones on radio controlled planes and helicopters for the last couple of years.

 

[Spinal]

Looks pretty good for the price. Be interesting to see what it's like after dark...

Is it me or did the instructor ride onto the pavement after seeing his pupil hit a stationary car? ;p

 

[MOCAŠ]

For comparison purposes, here's the test footage I took using a camera I bought from 7-Day Shop in 2010 for about £16 (following a forum recommendation from wemorgan):

[YOUTUBE]UudhFKodINs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Sp!ke]

learner biker: ooops

Is yours on loop recording mode? What size SD card do you use?

It came with an 8gb card included which is a couple of hours or so of recording. It overwrites the oldest 5 minute chunk as required. It autoprotects clips if it senses an impact or if you press the save button.

I wired it straight to a unused switched live in the fusebox, so fit and forget until the need arises. (Hopefully never)

How odd that I captured an incident within 5 minutes of fitting it though!

 

[sinewave]

You want Cheap you won't beat this in a month of sunday's!

Just bought two for my Fireblade.

Yes, you read it right, £7.70!

NEW MD80 Mini DV Digital Video Camera DVR Spy Cam Pocket Cam Bike Cam | eBay

Check out this Youtube video for it's recording abilities, makes Spikes 'Brown Tarmac' camera quality look quite bad but as stated it's enough for evidence.

MD80 camera test brands hatch indy track - YouTube

 

[Sp!ke]

Those md80's are ok and my son has one for his RC copter.

No good as a dashcam though...track camera yes but a dashcam needs to be fully automatic.

My brown road is a reflection on the glass from my red dashboard. I think I will farkle a lense shield to stop the reflection longer term.

 

[jonk]

I have this one...

Wholesale Product Snapshot Product name is Black GS5000 1.5" LCD Full HD 1080P Car DVR Recorder with GPS G-Sensor and IR Night Vision

and a 32GB microSD card.

It's great for footage and I forget it's there as it's up behind the mirror and switches on and off with the ignition via the cigarette lighter socket wired into the glove box.

Really very good for constant footage and the sound quality is excellent too.

 

[Ted]

This is mine - think I paid slightly under £70 for it - came with a 4Gb micro SD card
I have now tidied up the wiring so it looks much better now.

Pros
excellent quality recording in the dark or daytime
unobtrusive - no suckers or anything
totally automatic - nothing to turn on - screen is set to turn off after 5 mins

Cons
Actually made for LHD cars. the OE mirror can block off a little of the offside part of the road (not too much on mine)
If the original mirror was auto dimming,ths would cover it.
Sound is a little crackly

Overall, it does what I want and I'm pleased. Mrs Ted made me show her where a cyclist went straight across a crossing when the lights were green and nearly went under her. She was starting to doubt herself on the light status (they were in fact on green).

 

[Sp!ke]

I've noticed a bit of a problem with mine.

It seems to interfere with radio reception. Initially I thought I must have distrbed the aerial lead but I discovered that if I turn it off the reception returns to normal... not really sure what to do at this point.

I could reroute the cable further from the aerial I guess but its a bit of a faff. Some kind of shield maybe or a surpressor fitted somewhere??

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[boxbrownie]

My brown road is a reflection on the glass from my red dashboard. I think I will farkle a lense shield to stop the reflection longer term.

Aww I thought you were using the inbuilt "sunset filter"

 

[boxbrownie]

I've noticed a bit of a problem with mine.

It seems to interfere with radio reception. Initially I thought I must have distrbed the aerial lead but I discovered that if I turn it off the reception returns to normal... not really sure what to do at this point.

I could reroute the cable further from the aerial I guess but its a bit of a faff. Some kind of shield maybe or a surpressor fitted somewhere??

Anyone got any ideas?

Its probably getting the interference through the power connection, try unplugging the power and just running it on the built in battery (I assume it has one?), otherwise run it on a seperate 5v/12v supply for the purpose of the test.

 

[Dieselman]

Its probably getting the interference through the power connection, try unplugging the power and just running it on the built in battery (I assume it has one?), otherwise run it on a seperate 5v/12v supply for the purpose of the test.

The problem is that the camera causes the radio interference.

 

[Sp!ke]

A quick google reveals that this is quite a common problem with dashcams. Hmm... doesnt look like anyone has nailed the issue either.

I so cant be bothered to spend hours and hours experimenting but it looks like I might have to.

 

[Ted]

A choke in line with your supply to the dashcam may help.
Maplins may have some - I will take a look later.

Edit: just had a thought - as previously, is there interference when the cam is running from its own battery? If so, a choke wouldn't help.