[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by ajishanand

In fact, I have been thinking the same. The glare on the videos is too bad most of the time and it actually defeats the purpose. I have been looking for a CPL filter for my 70mai a500 plus, but couldn't find one. Amazon has a 24mm CPL filter but which is out of stock for a long time now.

How's the 70mai a500 plus in terms of video quality and hassle free performance?

Also, I found a Viofo A129G Duo listing on Amazon. This is the only dashcam that seems to have an option for CPL filter. The Amazon listing includes the CPL filter as well. But I think it's a little expensive. And not sure how good this is as well.

Not sure if link sharing is allowed, so not sharing here.

[ajishanand]

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

How's the 70mai a500 plus in terms of video quality and hassle free performance?

Also, I found a Viofo A129G Duo listing on Amazon. This is the only dashcam that seems to have an option for CPL filter. The Amazon listing includes the CPL filter as well. But I think it's a little expensive. And not sure how good this is as well.

Not sure if link sharing is allowed, so not sharing here.

The video quality is excellent except the glare during bright days (that's a universal problem i guess). I have got the dual channel model and both cams working seamless. Using it for past 3 months and did not face any performance issue. I have hardwired it and enabled parking surveillance as well.

Two things I don't like,
1. There's no button to mute audio recording. You'll have to go to the settings to turn it on or off.
2. The video download via the app is a bit slow. A one minute clip takes almost a minute to download.

[harry10]

After doing a lot of research I have narrowed down on DDPAI Mola N3 dashcam for my Tiago. Was interested in 70mai 500 but DDPAI has super capacitor which is highly needed in NCR hot conditions when my car in daytime is mostly parked under sun. Looking for reviews regarding this dashcam from members who have installed it. Is it the right decision? It's at 5799 at Amazon right now but I will buy it in Prime day sale when there would be some discount.

Will get there hardwire kit for 1599 too.

Also, any recommendation for 64gb SD card for this cam?

[RijuC]

Originally Posted by harry10

t's at 5799 at Amazon right now but I will buy it in Prime day sale when there would be some discount.

Will get there hardwire kit for 1599 too.

Check nexdigitrom portal directly. It's little cheaper there. 7899 for ddpai mola n3 with gps and hardwired cable kit

[audioholic]

Got a 70mai Pro+ dashcam for my Innova. Now all three cars have dashcams, two being DDPAI Minis and now this one. I was very satisfied with the DDPAIs but wanted something with GPS and slightly higher video resolution. Hence went with 70mai. On the other hand, I wanted the discreet models which would be mounted as compact as possible without vacuum mounts or things that would hang out from the mount visible to everyone.

The 70mai had two issues from my perspective. One is the brilliant designers decided to make the lens shroud silver in colour and the rest of the dashcam matte black. Hence everyone can notice a camera there. Second issue was the speaker was loud and though I turned it off, it would still fire a startup chime when turned on which would let everyone in the car at least know you have a dashcam.

Other than that, the camera, video, app and GPS utilities are excellent. Satisfied with the purchase.

To counter the issues, I first ended up painting the silver bits to matte black which was fairly simple. After this, the speaker issue really bugged me and I couldn't find a solution in the app or by firmware upgrade. Hence decided to put the dashcam into surgery since some things bother me a lot

The dashcam is built really well and internal circuitry is the cleanest I have seen and comes with a battery.


Made my way into the connections and was glad to find a speaker connector instead of solder. Made this job reversible just in case.


Job done:


Finished mounting camera in the car with a black patch to prevent direct sunlight on the camera and routed the wire inside a sleeve provided by Maruti for S cross mirror. Completely discreet install and no wires seen except near the charging port.


Dashcam out of drivers view just as I like it.


External pictures taken before blackening mod:




Sample video from 70Mai Pro+ - Note that the video quality is set to high compression so maybe the contrast and sharpness is compromised.

https://youtu.be/3s-PyU95dMc

Sample video in similar weather from DDPAI MINI

https://youtu.be/Kg1Swqk04bs

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Got a 70mai Pro+ dashcam for my Innova. Now all three cars have dashcams, two being DDPAI Minis and now this one.

I am looking to purchase the same dashcam too (I guess this is the same model that is tagged as A500S Pro Plus+).

One other option that I see is: DDPAI Z40 GPS Dual Cam (Upcoming release) is from DDPAI.

VIOFO options that I was initially looking at seem to be prohibitively expensive now that we can't get them from Aliexpress (Viofo.in listed prices are outside my budget).

Since you have experience with both brands of the dashcams can you please help with the following doubts:

1. Reliability: For daily usage which one do you find better amongst the two brands? All 70mai models seem to be equipped with lithium batteries whereas DDPAI ones have super-capacitors. Have you faced any issues on the DDPAI units (I guess the 70mai one is brand new so it's not the right time to ask)?
2. Quality of footage: I am not sure if either of these brands tends to over sharpen or over saturate the footage to make it look good. DDPAI offerings (like the DDPAI Z40 above) seem to be geared towards sharing footage on social media. I am not sure if this negatively impacts the footage quality.
3. Built quality of the unit itself: A500S Pro Plus seems to use a plastic lens along with a glass lens where as most DDPAI units seem to use glass lenses. Is either one of the brands better than the other in overall build quality?
4. Also, 70mai seems to have moved away from HiSilicon processors due to cost (at least on A500S Pro Plus+) while DDPAI seems to be sticking with them. I am not sure if the 70mai firmware has been updated for this new processor and if this has caused a downgrade in their footage quality.
5. Parking mode: A500S Pro Plus+ seems to have parking mode but it's only impact based and that too with a some delay (not sure why). However, DDPAI ones seem to support 1fps recording. Can you please clarify if you use parking mode on DDPAI ones and if so does the impact based capture still work if the 1fps mode is in effect.

[RijuC]

I think any dash cam with display LCD will have Lithium battery and certainly not a supercapacitor based system.

[wildsdi5530]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Second issue was the speaker was loud

Could you tape some filter paper to the speaker mesh? That generally mutes the speakers well.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by wildsdi5530

Could you tape some filter paper to the speaker mesh? That generally mutes the speakers well.

Hello Doctor, like I mentioned earlier, I just took the easy way out and disabled the speaker for good. Perhaps tape would have muted the sound, but it was too loud to be controlled well.

Originally Posted by JithinR

I am looking to purchase the same dashcam too (I guess this is the same model that is tagged as
Since you have experience with both brands of the dashcams can you please help with the following doubts:

Hi Jithin, unfortunately I do not make such extensive use of the dashcam. Since I am currently abroad at the moment, these dashcams just serve as a security device in case any incident happens. When I was in India briefly over the past few weeks, just checked everything to be working fine. Since two of the cars are used by a driver, it was necessary to keep a watch just in case, but so far it has never happened.

The DDPais have been running from more than 2 years and 1 year respectively and they are running fine. I havent used hardwire kits since earlier with Viofo the hardwire kit failed first. So on the relibility front, I would say DDPAI is quite good. On the quality front, its 70Mai>>DDPai>Viofo(I had A118, not sure of the later models) when it comes to the general build of the camera. Footage wise, again the 70Mai has better clarity in reading number plates in the neighbouring lanes of the car. The DDPAI does a good job only on the objects towards the center or slightly outwards of the frame center and as we approach the edges, it is rather poor. Both have glass lenses but due to the bigger frame of the 70Mai, running it in less than full resolution still gives a good coverage and lesser distortion towards the edges of the frame.

One drawback of the DDPAI Mini is that its base is fixed and once you paste it to the windshield there is no way to remove the camera for anything.

I find the 70Mai app to be more user friendly while downloading videos or playback. The DDPAI guys have tried to provide a fluid seeking option on the videos and while this makes it easy to quickly rewind the footage, it isnt helpful to perfectly select what you need to download. The 70mai instead lists down the filenames by time and you can view them or download them. However, both cameras automatically download emergency video footage once the phone is connected along with the snapshot during emergency. The DDPAI came with a bluetooth trigger whereas 70Mai didnt. Using this trigger, I could take snapshots and a 20s video at that time. I had put it to extensive use in 2019 when I would drive in Bangalore and capture images of traffic offenders and upload them to public eye.

I feel both cameras are worth their price, and especially the DDPAI which is in use from 2019 or earlier.

For me parking mode is of no use so no comments on that. Usually my cars are not parked in shady places for too long.

[RijuC]

Originally Posted by RijuC

I think any dash cam with display LCD will have Lithium battery and certainly not a supercapacitor based system.

Correction: I checked the feature list of the upcoming DDPAI Z40 dash cam model. It is mentioned to have the supercapacitor, and not Lithium battery.

I am attaching the file downloaded from the website NEXDIGITRON.

But the datasheet/ spec sheet doesn't reveal much about the battery, powering details.

[Dharmen]

Note from Support: Quote trimmed. Please quote only relevant portions of posts.

Originally Posted by abhi_tjet

After delaying the purchase for almost an year, I finally went ahead and got a Made In India dash cam.

Hi, I ordered Y3S model through Amazon, however the cable provided to connect front and rear camera is not adequate for my car. The item is non returnable and the seller does not respond. I have been chasing with Amazon to either get me a longer connecting cable or refund. Last 10 days I have been chasing them with no result. I am not sure cable is available in open market which I can buy. Looks like wasted my money. Any suggestions. Because of the side curtain airbags, cable has to take longer route.

[abhi_tjet]

Originally Posted by Dharmen

Any suggestions. Because of the side curtain airbags, cable has to take longer route.

Hi Dharmen, did you went through SafeCams website? Please check. There are lots of connectivity options.
https://www.safecams.in/

Y3S model is basically for offline sellers. I get in touch with company representative directly before getting their product. They have official sellers for various cities.

Try sourcing cable directly from SafeCams, or
ask them regarding official seller information for Mumbai(seems your location).

I connected with Akshay(wats app- +91 86001 47788) from SafeCams for all my queries. Hope it helps.

[Kln]

Originally Posted by JithinR

:

1. Reliability: For daily usage which one do you find better amongst the two brands? All 70mai models seem to be equipped with lithium batteries whereas DDPAI ones have super-capacitors. Have you faced any issues on the DDPAI units (I guess the 70mai one is brand new so it's not the right time to ask)?
2. Quality of footage: I am not sure if either of these brands tends to over sharpen or over saturate the footage to make it look good. DDPAI offerings (like the DDPAI Z40 above) seem to be geared towards sharing footage on social media. I am not sure if this negatively impacts the footage quality.
3. Built quality of the unit itself: A500S Pro Plus seems to use a plastic lens along with a glass lens where as most DDPAI units seem to use glass lenses. Is either one of the brands better than the other in overall build quality?
   .
4. Parking mode: A500S Pro Plus+ seems to have parking mode but it's only impact based and that too with a some delay (not sure why). However, DDPAI ones seem to support 1fps recording. Can you please clarify if you use parking mode on DDPAI ones and if so does the impact based capture still work if the 1fps mode is in effect.

I'm using ddpai a500s pro plus since more than a month now. No issues reliability wise. It gets the job done without a squeak. No hang ups, no crashes. GPS works, recording works.

The quality of the video is reasonably good. I can see the number plates of the front and back vehicles adequately. In night time, the back camera is not that great, but the front one is reasonably good. They do oversharpen and saturate, but just a tad bit.

The build quality of the cam itself is good - the brushed plastic gives a semi-premium feel.

The parking mode kicks in a second after the impact - it's kind of hit and miss. If you're buying for parking mode only, then I'd advise not to buy this. I doubt if it's of much use in the court of law, considering it doesn't catch the perpetrator in action. I tried researching why it doesn't offer time lapse mode, and apparently the new processors get very hot. Same reason why they disabled voice commands. Both the things were enabled at launch and disabled via subsequent firmware updates. You could wait for any upcoming models if time lapse is important for you.

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by Kln

I'm using ddpai a500s pro plus since more than a month now. No issues reliability wise. It gets the job done without a squeak. No hang ups, no crashes. GPS works, recording works.

Thank you for reply sir. One doubt, did you mean 70mai A500 Pro Plus or maybe even 70mai A500S Pro Plus+?

As far as I know (very limited knowledge on dashcams though) the only DDPAI dual dashcam "ddpai x2s pro dual channel" is not being sold anymore.

[livelyyoungman]

I own a Skoda Octavia MKIII model Would like to install front and rear dash cam. Have got the MI model but I am unable to find a solution to install the rear camera. Anyone installed rear cam for Octy or any suggestions? More than happy to hear from experts.