My favourite dash cam
Added 2016-06-28 12:10:19 +0000 UTCLadies and gentlemen (but it's probably just the latter) - I'm posting this video here a couple of hours before it goes live on youtube, and I hope you enjoy it.
The downloadable samples will only be available when I set my blog entry live which will happen at the same time the video goes public.
I just have to mention that for the next couple of weeks unfortunately I'm not going to have an opportunity to post the videos early here. I've scheduled three videos to auto-appear on youtube, but youtube only allows me to schedule videos if I set them as 'private' until the scheduled release date.
So my sincere apologies for that, it's just that I'm going to be busy for a fortnight. Normal service will be resumed mid August.
Comments
Interesting looking dashcam, Mat. As you said, lots of good little devices one might use as a dashcam, including the Möbius which is the one I bought in late 2014 based on your review and it's still going strong. No screen, few frills but good picture and sound quality and reliability. I also swapped out the battery for the capacitor which is handy for the Australian summer. Cheers!
Luke Biddle
2016-06-29 08:10:04 +0000 UTCShooting more of the dash, probably won't help too much, the shadows and brightness changes will still take up quite a bit of data....but selecting a narrower aspect ratio has brought noticeable improvements in the past. I first noticed this on one of the Vicovation cameras and that convinced me that recording too much of the sky was a waste of valuable bitrate. It also probably helps with exposure by reducing the percentage of bright sky in the image.
Techmoan
2016-06-28 15:57:45 +0000 UTCPolarizing filter will drop the light by an entire F stop. Won't get as good night vision.
John Ridley
2016-06-28 15:27:37 +0000 UTCI'm also wondering what effect on video file size would come from lowering the view of the camera to show more dash. More dash, less movement in each frame, lower bit rate for the same quality video and a lower required bit rate when uploading to YouTube. I have added a short ramble here: <a href="http://www.evilution.co.uk/947" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.evilution.co.uk/947</a>#vbr The only way to really know the difference would be to have 2 identical cameras filming the same journey, both set showing a different amount of dash/sky.
evilution
2016-06-28 15:06:46 +0000 UTCThat's along the lines of what I was thinking with this one - it took four cameras to make this video about one camera - I didn't think the other three warranted their own video,
Techmoan
2016-06-28 14:32:29 +0000 UTCBrief update to say that the variety of items / areas covered is very good indeed, just that I'd like it if we could get a quarterly dash cam round-up, or say a review of one that offers something new / is a real bargain?
Graham Kirtley
2016-06-28 14:19:01 +0000 UTCMakes sense now. Thanks.
Ken Tittle
2016-06-28 14:13:42 +0000 UTCPerhaps I should post a survey under the video on youtube to see how many people are/aren't interested in dashcams.
Techmoan
2016-06-28 14:09:39 +0000 UTCThe firmware process works like this.... The camera works fine on it's own recording every journey with no need to connect a phone up to it. However if you do decide to download something off the camera and connect up to it's wifi with your phone and open up the app, the app auto-checks the firmware version in camera in the background and if there's a new version available online it asks something along the lines of "New Firmware available...do you want to update?" -if you say yes, it asks if you are OK with using your mobile data to download it...so far I've always clicked yes and the firmware file - has downloaded over my 3G/4G connection whilst the phone also remains connected up over wifi with the camera. Once the phone has finished downloading the firmware data, it uploads it to the camera over wifi and the camera then updates. The WiFi signal gets dropped during the process and you have to wait a couple of mins...once it's done you can connect up over wifi again.
Techmoan
2016-06-28 14:07:43 +0000 UTCDoesn't look too hard to make a small polarising filter to go on it. The filter mount could cover the red ring to make it a bit more stealthy too.
evilution
2016-06-28 14:07:36 +0000 UTCJust to be clear, the firmware is downloaded via your phone and then it transfers it to the camera via WiFi? I guess it was a little confusing to me about how that actually works. And I agree with Graham... I like the dash cam reviews as well as all the other odds and ends. (Oh, and I finally got my Star Wars LP, but now I'm on the hunt for a good strong directional light, these little LED flashlights I have just don't cut it <g>)</g>
Ken Tittle
2016-06-28 13:49:37 +0000 UTCLooks good quality, both in video and design/features. Please don't stop reviewing dash cams, granted there is a plethora of junk out there, but I'm sure that there's the odd gem to be found at both the high end (circa £100) and low end (circa £40) of the market. BTW were you tempted to leave your Muppet in charge for a while during your busy period ;-)
Graham Kirtley
2016-06-28 13:10:25 +0000 UTC
