[SS-Traveller]

Other Dashcam Reviews:

1

2

3

Whether it be interesting roads or errant drivers, or just a record in case of unwarranted incidents or accidents happening before one's eyes - a digital video recorder in the car, otherwise known as a dashcam, is a handy device to have. Except that some of the good on-board cameras can cost a lot.

My search for a low-cost dashcam led me to this site: http://www.shopclues.com/hd-mini-car...ar-camera.html.

At Rs.1999, the price seemed lucrative, and 3 days later, this is what I received.

[SS-Traveller]

It is time to take a good look at the equipment and familiarize myself with the workings of the camera. I connect the camera to the car cigarette lighter socket through the charger, and I see a warning: SD Card Error. The box did not contain an SD card, so I temporarily put in a spare SD card to test the system. Now to tweak the settings.

Except, there is one big problem. The box does not contain a user's manual, and the menu that I can turn on, on the camera screen, is in unintelligible Chinese.

I cannot figure out for a while how to solve the riddle, and turn to Google to see if I can download a user's manual in English. Not much luck there either. Every site I go to, is trying to sell me another F400E, not provide me with a user's manual.

I finally land on this page that Google has been so kind as to translate for me - and voila, there is a semblance of a user's manual published on the page.
http://translate.google.co.in/transl...ed=0CDIQ7gEwAA.

Now to change the language to English first, then fiddle around with the settings.

[SS-Traveller]

This little device does so many things. It can record audio along with the video, or one can turn off the audio recording feature. Most times it catches songs on the radio, and once you upload the video to YouTube, you are pulled up for violation of copyright, and you need to insert other music approved by the site. It even has motion detection, whereby the recording turns off when you stop facing a wall.

The following video was shot at SXGA resolution, and the clips merged using Windows Movie Maker. The music has been inserted from YouTube's collection, since the site raised a flag regarding violation of copyright of the music playing on the radio in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quQT1CsS2WY

The camera supports 3 video resolutions: QVGA, VGA and SXGA. Each of these resolutions progressively eat up more and more memory space.

SXGA (1280x1024) uses about 25-33 MB to create a 1-minute recording.

VGA (640x480) uses 18-23 MB for recording each minute of video.

QVGA (320x240) requires 6-11 MB for each minute of recording.

The camera can be set to record clips of video in various durations, such as 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes or 20 minutes. When the memory card fills up, it overwrites the oldest recordings.

A look at the various videos shot at different settings:

Settings at VGA, sections merged on Windows Movie Maker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7GSDvdqoyw

Night driving video, SXGA resolution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdaOAdU_INU

At QVGA, sections merged using Windows Movie maker:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GRA3fSySQc

[SS-Traveller]

The car cigarette lighter power supply adapter packed up soon after, and I now use an old cellphone charger to power up the camera.

Have installed a 16 GB memory card, which allows me to capture about 30 hours of 1-minute clips at VGA resolution.

The windshield mount appears a little flimsy, but does its job of holding the camera steady over rough roads.

For some reason, I am unable to set the date and time on the camera.

[Rudra Sen]

Mods note: Thread moved from Assembly Line to Product Discussions. Thanks for sharing.

[blackasta]

Nice little gadget. I believe these are primarily used to find the 'at fault' driver during accidents, but in India the bigger vehicle is always 'at fault de facto'!

I sense quite a lot of DIY opportunities with this one.

[Arvind6488]

SS_Traveller,

Thanks for sharing. It is a very nice device. It would be very helpful to record and share all types of incidents happening during our every day drive, such as Bad Drivers, accidents etc that would benefit a lot of people and also make them visually see things that we have actually witnessed.

[Warwithwheels]

A very useful device indeed. Thanks for sharing the info!

Can you please upload the pic of the setup inside the car?

[swarnava.m]

Thanks for sharing this. Was really looking for one of these and maybe I will go for this one, more so because you have already posted a user manual.

A few questions:

• What about warranty? This thing looks genuinely chinese, and we know too well how easily they conk off!!
• What car is this installed in? I guess whether it remains steady over rough roads will also depend on the ride quality of the car. As somebody above already said, some interior setup pics maybe?
• Is the camera allowed to rotate or is it fixed in a single orientation?

[Rahulk76]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Whether it be interesting roads or errant drivers, or just a record in case of unwarranted incidents or accidents happening before one's eyes - a digital video recorder in the car, otherwise known as a dashcam, is a handy device to have. Except that some of the good on-board cameras can cost a lot.

My search for a low-cost dashcam led me to this site: http://www.shopclues.com/hd-mini-car...ar-camera.html.

At Rs.1999, the price seemed lucrative, and 3 days later, this is what I received.

thanks for the post ss.. i have ordered the same too
i was looking for something cheap :-) like this and indeed seems like full paisa vasool.

cheers.

[SDP]

Doc, very nice and informative review. Thanks a lot!
The video samples do help a lot. The choice of background music for the nightshoot is interesting! Straight out of a horror movie.

The only thing missing in the review is the final verdict. Would you recommend it to others? From the pictures its very difficult to assess the build quality. Would it last a couple of years? What's your take?

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by swarnava.m

A few questions:

• What about warranty? This thing looks genuinely chinese, and we know too well how easily they conk off!!
• What car is this installed in? I guess whether it remains steady over rough roads will also depend on the ride quality of the car. As somebody above already said, some interior setup pics maybe?
• Is the camera allowed to rotate or is it fixed in a single orientation?

There doesn't appear to be any warranty for this gadget, as with all such cheap Chinese stuff.

It's installed on my Scorpio, and I took it for a 4500+km drive over the last 10 days. Will post up the setup pic in a day or two, along with more videos.

The windscreen mount does allow for adjustment of the camera in all 3 planes.

Originally Posted by SDP

The only thing missing in the review is the final verdict. Would you recommend it to others? From the pictures its very difficult to assess the build quality. Would it last a couple of years? What's your take?

I really don't know whether it will last a couple of years, but given the kind of summers we have in Delhi, I wouldn't leave it mounted on the windscreen continuously.

My verdict would be, for the price I paid, it's well worth it. Including the 16GB SD card and the cost of the spare charger (which I had anyway), the total would come up to around 3k INR. Anything else that one can procure online costs at least 70-100% more than this.

[seanr]

Good one for the price.
For the date and time settings, please connect it to a PC and see if you can locate some text file with a generic date and time and edit it. Usually chinese products like pen cams etc. have this system to edit in a text file and then upload the file to the device and so on.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

It's installed on my Scorpio, and I took it for a 4500+km drive over the last 10 days. Will post up the setup pic in a day or two...

Here's the setup...

Camera attached to windscreen mount

Charger running from a 12V 3 Way (+USB) cigarette lighter charger adapter - picked this up for Rs.350

Adapter inserted into cigarette lighter socket - USB 5V output point can be seen on the back of the plug, with a micro-USB phone charger cable lying below it

Originally Posted by seanr

Good one for the price.
For the date and time settings, please connect it to a PC and see if you can locate some text file with a generic date and time and edit it. Usually chinese products like pen cams etc. have this system to edit in a text file and then upload the file to the device and so on.

When I connect to PC, all I can see is the DCIM folder, which saves the videos inside it. Can't see any text file at all.

[Rahulk76]

I received my unit.. Its kind of cool and does the work. By the way it doubles up as PC camera as well and has zoom functionality too. I am kind of impressed with the chota pocket rocket.

Having said that here is how you set the date on the unit..

After setting the language to English (it was kinda complex to me.. took me 30 mins to figure out which menu works)
Go to this menu



Then this click down to select and click rec/snap to select the choice



Click on the rec/snap button to move around and up/down to set the date and time..

[

Rejoice


EDIT: How long does it take to charge the inbuilt battery if any ?