[ajayclicks]

In March, I ordered an el-cheapo dashcam from Gearbest. It took a while to ship (item was preadvised fora few days), but it finally came in decent time. Look at the screen shot below:



Now, this cam turned out to be crap, and on reporting this issue with Gearbest, they decided to refund me (or send a fresh unit). I took the refund and ordered a better (relatively) one- 0826. The usual preadvised thing happened. The parcel has reached India, but is stuck in customs for some reason- especially when I compare to the timelines in the above screenshot. The screenshot below is as of today morning. I just hope i get the package and it does not disappear or get damaged due to being dumped in some corner of the customs office/warehouse/clearing lot.



The Bangalore customs website says ""No query has been raised for this Foreign Parcel Track No.'RS566947204NL'. Please contact the Post Office for clearance details".

[lambuhere1]

Originally Posted by ajayclicks

The Bangalore customs website says ""No query has been raised for this Foreign Parcel Track No.'RS566947204NL'. Please contact the Post Office for clearance details".

Patience. It takes generally 5-7 working days to move from CED, atleast what I have observed. As long as you have tracking number, the product "has" to reach you. On damage, if packing is good, no issues with it

[ajayclicks]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Patience. It takes generally 5-7 working days to move from CED, atleast what I have observed. As long as you have tracking number, the product "has" to reach you. On damage, if packing is good, no issues with it

I was basing my expectations on the previous delivery time . In any case, the parcel seems to have moved towards a local sorting center/ post office.

Cheers

[nkghai]

Garmin Dash Cam 35

Garmin is a name, which for me is almost Synonymous with GPSs/Navigation. Last decade, when I laid my hands first time on a Garmin GPS navigator with waypoint details, I was ecstatic. What a sigh! Less getting lost in the unforgiving deserts and the joy of riding cross country without sense of direction.

Ever since the purchase of my Nanook (Creta 1.6 VTVT SX+)and reading regular posts by members in this forum about the utility of a dash cam, I had been keeping an eye our for one, but frankly never wanted to spend more than 10K. This Jun, while in Canada for my son’s graduation, was intermittently looking at stores for any new deals on dashcams but failed to notice any. One weekend while shopping at Costco saw this Garmin Dash Cam 35 and spent quite some time trying to find out the features, but then with a price tag of $299, gave it a miss.

The day I was to leave, all packed, final goodbyes, my dear Sister in Law comes and gives a small sentimental talk and hands me a gift to be only opened at the airport. I was just elated; she had picked up the Garmin Dash Cam 35, which I was ogling at in Costco. So it goes in the hand baggage and during my flight back to India read the entire user manual. In fact when others were reading Kindle/Novels in the lounge at Heathrow, this stupid person had two user manuals. Garmin Dash Cam and Canon DSLR.

Silent features are :-
• Full HD camera.
• Built in GPS.
• Collision detection facility.
• 3” viewing screen.
• Lightweight at 112 gms.
• It has highest resolution of 1080p Full HD, which is recorded at 30fps, 8Mbits/sec data rate.
• 4 GB Micro SD card bundled with the camera. Can be expanded upto 64 GB

The dash cam comes with the usual accessories for fitment on windscreen and connecting to power source.

The camera also has an internal battery which lasts about 30 mins and is recharged once connected to the vehicle battery. Press the Power switch on the top right corner and camera comes to life with the details of the Dashcam configuration first displayed on the screen. When fitted on to the vehicle, it also gives an ALERT of not to adjust the device while driving. (So now I have two alerts, after switching ON my ignition, one from Creta AVN system and one from Garmin. Thankfully, I do not have to press OK switch every time in Garmin. Hyundai, please do something about it. At least make it only once every day.)

One of the most rudimentary elements of the dash camera is trying to change settings, which is a bit let down. Power ON and other system settings are done by side buttons, which are hard, more like those buttons on the monitor of your Desktop,and somehow same functionality too, with select, forward reverse and return button but these are extremely small in size and difficult to press. A tad bit annoying, but as it is there are not many settings to play with. Usual ones are Day, Time, Brightness, Display off, Collision warning off and on.

So opened it and fitted it behind the IRVM mirror on the passenger side. Fitment was a breeze. The stick pad was easily stuck into the windshield and the camera fits snugly into the mounting socket provided. Just connect the connector and voila, ready to roll.

The reasons for choosing the location :-
• I cannot see it while driving. I tend to over speed sometimes and any distraction would be dangerous.
• From behind the IRVM the coverage is best and can have a clear field-of-view of the road ahead.
• The co-passenger can easily click still shots from his/her seat.
• I did not want to get it permanently wired as of now (warranty issues), so this location had the shortest distance to the power socket in my Nanook.

Performance : Dashcam 35 has very decent video quality and records in loops of 1 min in MP4 format. Each minute taking 60 Mb of space on the SD card. So 3.6 GB for one hour of recording and with my 32 Gb card, can safely go on for 8.5 hrs before it starts overwriting.

Playback on computers is easy with most available softwares and we get speed, coordinates and time displayed on the screen. Since this model is GPS enabled, in order to view the location on map where the particular video was recorded, there is a requirement of downloading the GDC Player software from Garmin site. When viewed in that, the map location comes on the right side of the video display and there is an option to enable/disable. Again for that you should be connected to internet also. The software is slow in importing files and the initial lag is irritating. One screen shot of the playback from my laptop.

Since each of the saved videos is 60 MBs, I am unable to upload any video on this page and request some guidance from members on compression and uploading on Team BHP site. Would like to post night, day time and early morning videos so that you all can judge the quality. For me the quality is very good in day as well as night. Viewing on GDC player is crystal clear. In case YouTube is the only option then here is a video i uploaded on YouTube today. I feel this somehow does not do justice as the same original quality video run on Garmin software.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ5qHhJ83_A

The dashcam comes with collision warning and if it senses something it records 30 seconds before and after the event and saves it separately in events folder. Very good, but somehow not good for our conditions. One small jump over a speed breaker, or getting near a truck within few feet and it gives a collision warning. So NOT set for Indian standards. Every hour, I get two to three warnings.

Another issue is that with a dash cam of Garmin reputation, it should have had at least the audio recording facility which is sorely missing. I am no fan for audio recording, but strongly feel that the option should surely be there.

Overall satisfied as it does its required job of recording good videos. For me the pros and cons are :-
Pros

• Light weight handy instrument.
• Quality of build is good.
• Video quality meets expectations and requirements.
• GPS/Map display may be good in case we want to be sure of where a particular video was taken.
• Event recording is a good feature which saves the required videos.

Cons

• No Audio recording.
• Event recording is erratic for our conditions.
• Side buttons are of 80s if not nineties feel.

Look forward to sharing interesting videos in times to come.

[AppyS]

Tested a chinese novatek dashcam of rearview mirror type and with a parking cam included that arrived with a cracked screen couple months ago(refund received). I had it lying unused and took it out just for the heck of it to test the dashcam functionality. Worked well despite the cracked glass, however as far as video quality goes if one can't clearly read off number plates@720p, especially of the notorious 2 wheeler ones who create the maximum nuisance zipping along, it makes no sense to me as of now. Junking it anyways due to the damaged mirror as I don't think anyone will cut me off a mirror of the same size. Now I understand atleast the reason why good dashcams are expensive afterall, quality matters and comes at a price.

[lambuhere1]

Quick Question :

What make of Fuse type would Swift 2007 Vxi take in the fuse box ? Is it MINI or Low Profile or Micro Fuse taps ?

Wanted your inputs before placing order for purchase

[harsh79]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Quick Question :

What make of Fuse type would Swift 2007 Vxi take in the fuse box ? Is it MINI or Low Profile or Micro Fuse taps ?

Wanted your inputs before placing order for purchase

Best would be to pull out one and inspect yourself, this way you'll be certain.

[phamilyman]

I got my viofo a119 dash cam delivered in 3 weeks from gearbest via NL Post. The cam quality is simply outstanding. I'm in love!

Here is a sample night video.
http://sendvid.com/y3hy4a36

The video was simply trimmed and compressed with whatsapp.

[Safety is Param]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

You started me on my final dashcam quest. First I ordered this one which is super VFM. Then within the day, I discovered
http://www.gearbest.com/car-dvr/pp_392247.html ($90 vs $40 - yay for self-enable-ment).

Originally Posted by phamilyman

I got my viofo a119 dash cam delivered in 3 weeks from gearbest via NL Post. The cam quality is simply outstanding. I'm in love!

Thanks! I was keenly awaiting an update on the 1st post of yours when you ordered the Viofo A119.

After seeing your post that day I did quite a bit of search online and was impressed with the quality of this dash cam - only thing that kept me from ordering was availing the services of Gear Best, which prompted me to get a Transcend DP 220 from the U.S.

Fellow member harsh79 suggested the Street Guardian SG9665GC, on which he has a comprehensive thread, and the Transcend took a back seat now, once I watched the reviews and accessories bundled with the SG9665GC.

I know it's the peak time of the week, however, when you get some time later can you please briefly describe the Viofo in terms of seller response (IIRC, there is only one seller on Gear Best), packaging, tracking (whether you paid additional shipping), package contents, any other vital information? Did you order the one with the GPS mount?

Currently, the Viofo A119 is out of stock on Gear Best since a week atleast.

Thank you! Wish you positive memories with the Viofo!

Edit : I see it is available at foxoffer.com to be shipped inside of U.S. at $ 104, including GPS mount, 32 GB card and hardwiring kit. Hmm, interesting - definitely worth considering over the Transcend DP 220 now since either of them would be carried to India from the States. Any pointers folks? Anyone has experience with foxoffer.com ?

http://www.foxoffer.com/car-dash-cam..._class_10_32gb

Discount code for order over $50: HDVZVPKT
Discount code for order over $100: WV86K1BH

Disclaimer : I don't have any association with any of the E-commerce sites referenced in my post!

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by Safety is Param

I know it's the peak time of the week, however, when you get some time later can you please briefly describe the Viofo in terms of seller response (IIRC, there is only one seller on Gear Best), packaging, tracking (whether you paid additional shipping), package contents, any other vital information? Did you order the one with the GPS mount?

Currently, the Viofo A119 is out of stock on Gear Best since a week atleast.

Thank you! Wish you positive memories with the Viofo!

Thanks SiP

1. Response = outstanding. I had ordered the G1W (?) earlier. Within a few hours I requested for upgrade to the Viofo A119. It was shipped within 2 hours of payment
2. Contents: Long hard wire, 2 USB output car charger. Short USB charger, Spare , Camera, mount pointer.
3. When I ordered there was no GPS mount option. I am getting it now separately via FoxOffer.com - I wrote to viofo and their support staff replied in <4 hours! They rock!

The menu and a very sparse instructions booklet are all in english.
I bought a strontium micro SD card and USB card reader separately for ~1300 via Amazon. So total cost is around 7500 till date.

[harsh79]

Originally Posted by Safety is Param

Thanks! I was keenly awaiting an update on the 1st post of yours when you ordered the Viofo A119.

After seeing your post that day I did quite a bit of search online and was impressed with the quality of this dash cam - only thing that kept me from ordering was availing the services of Gear Best, which prompted me to get a Transcend DP 220 from the U.S.

Fellow member harsh79 suggested the Street Guardian SG9665GC, on which he has a comprehensive thread, and the Transcend took a back seat now, once I watched the reviews and accessories bundled with the SG9665GC.

I know it's the peak time of the week, however, when you get some time later can you please briefly describe the Viofo in terms of seller response (IIRC, there is only one seller on Gear Best), packaging, tracking (whether you paid additional shipping), package contents, any other vital information? Did you order the one with the GPS mount?

Currently, the Viofo A119 is out of stock on Gear Best since a week atleast.

Thank you! Wish you positive memories with the Viofo!

Edit : I see it is available at foxoffer.com to be shipped inside of U.S. at $ 104, including GPS mount, 32 GB card and hardwiring kit. Hmm, interesting - definitely worth considering over the Transcend DP 220 now since either of them would be carried to India from the States. Any pointers folks? Anyone has experience with foxoffer.com ?

http://www.foxoffer.com/car-dash-cam..._class_10_32gb

Discount code for order over $50: HDVZVPKT
Discount code for order over $100: WV86K1BH

Disclaimer : I don't have any association with any of the E-commerce sites referenced in my post!

If your purchase can wait approximately 2 weeks, hold on for the A119s, same hardware as the SG9665GC. The manufacturer Viofo has confirmed that the retail price online will not be beyond $120. The 's' version will definitely be better that the current version for night footage due to the IMX322 sensor instead of the OV4689.

Foxoffer is just another Gearbest or Banggood IMO but is an official supplier for Viofo, unlike many sellers on Aliexpress.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Thanks SiP

1. Response = outstanding. I had ordered the G1W (?) earlier. Within a few hours I requested for upgrade to the Viofo A119. It was shipped within 2 hours of payment
2. Contents: Long hard wire, 2 USB output car charger. Short USB charger, Spare , Camera, mount pointer.
3. When I ordered there was no GPS mount option. I am getting it now separately via FoxOffer.com - I wrote to viofo and their support staff replied in <4 hours! They rock!

The menu and a very sparse instructions booklet are all in english.
I bought a strontium micro SD card and USB card reader separately for ~1300 via Amazon. So total cost is around 7500 till date.

Have you updated to the latest firmware version available, there have been many improvements since the version that's ships with the camera, all the work from the Beta versions till date has been finally baked into the new version.

https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/thread...29-v1-1.21130/

[Safety is Param]

Originally Posted by harsh79

If your purchase can wait approximately 2 weeks, hold on for the A119s, same hardware as the SG9665GC. The manufacturer Viofo has confirmed that the retail price online will not be beyond $120. The 's' version will definitely be better that the current version for night footage due to the IMX322 sensor instead of the OV4689.

Sure, I can wait a fortnight!

By the way, the Transcend DP 220 (16 GB) is available on Amazon India at INR 15,000/- today -

http://www.amazon.in/dp/B00U701N72/r...bf76ed194c21_S

[harsh79]

If you aren't too concerned with the camera not being discreet. The DP220 is a decent buy, there'll be a bit of compromise with the video quality (day & night) but you'll get local warranty and support, not to mention receiving the camera without any anxiety within 2-3 days.

All depends on what your requirements are.

[Safety is Param]

Originally Posted by harsh79

If you aren't too concerned with the camera not being discreet - The DP220 is a decent buy - bit of compromise with the video quality (day & night) - you'll get local warranty and support - receiving the camera without any anxiety within 2-3 days. All depends on what your requirements are.

Thanks!

I am using the Blaupunkt BP 2.0, which is not discreet by any means - so, I am ok with that size, comparatively.

Compromise on video quality - After waiting this long and juggling different purchase options, I wouldn't want to compromise. Otherwise Blaupunkt is the best compromise w/o incurring additional costs.

Honestly, after viewing numerous videos on VIOFO A119 and Street Guardian, I think the Transcend DP 220 pales in comparison (strictly my opinion, no offense to existing owners of the dash-cam)

I agree with you on the delivery period and support availability w.r.t. Transcend, but INR 15,000 for 16 GB is way too much, again, in my opinion.

I think I will wait it out for a fortnight before finalizing. Till then, Blaupunkt does the duty!

Just wondering when will these manufacturers treat us on par with Australia, Canada and the U.S. w.r.t. these kinds of products! Can't depend on Ali Express, Gear Best, Banggood, etc. till eternity!

[harsh79]

had almost bought the Blaupunkt one before ordering the Mini 0805 when selecting my first dashcam. IMO the Mini has outstanding video quality for the price, though not reliable, it set a bar for the kind of or better video quality I was looking for when searching for a replacement.

16GB is just the capacity of cards being supplied with the DP220, should have little bearing on the price considering the plummeting cost of memory in the past years.