[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by dkaile

That's a nice review Tanveer. I was looking at Gopro for some quality shooting on my bike. This seems as a good and quite economical alternative in comparison. Do you think this can serve out the purpose on a bike too?

For biking SJ4000 makes more sense as it has better bike mounts.
Then there is the tiny mobius if you are looking for something lightweight. You have to purchase a separate waterproof case.
SJ4000 has a built in screen which is a big advantage.
SJ1000 is excellent, but older model from same MFR.

[getsurya]

Hi TSK,

Ordered SJ1000 red color to compliment my existing one from dx.com. It costed me Rs.5023/- and the expected delivery is 7-10 days. This way, I will have one each in the front and the rear to record my rides/journeys etc for the car.

For my (future) bike, the SJ1000 bike mount should do the trick. I liked the camera reproduction from your video postings and hence the decision.

Good thread that consolidates some information for car DVR's

[gautamkhadse]

am thinking of ordering the sj4000 . Does it come with all mounts ? PLus a 32 GB card would record how much video in terms of time ? 2, 3 4 hours ?

Does it take all classes of SD card , is there a way to stuff a 64 Gb card ?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by gautamkhadse

am thinking of ordering the sj4000 . Does it come with all mounts ? PLus a 32 GB card would record how much video in terms of time ? 2, 3 4 hours ?

Does it take all classes of SD card , is there a way to stuff a 64 Gb card ?

32GB is best bet. Should do around 4-6 hours of video at max resolution of 1080P
The sellers listing it will have all the mounts available
Entire KIT: This is an authorized reseller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281236008565#shpCntId
Aliexpress has it cheaper
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sport...590495019.html

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by champ27

Thanks for sharing the details Parag. There are a lot of models/makes available on these websites. Could also let us know from which model/make you have taken the videos depicted in your post?

Unfortunately I bought the first one (Single Channel without GPS) in 2011 and that product is no more listed. I had purchased this from ebay.

The second camera that I got (last year) was shipped to a local address in the US after purchasing from dx.com

While I paid 3770 INR for the first camera in 2011, my wallet was lighter by around 4500 for the latest one that I picked.

Note: dx.com will delivery to India but there is every chance that this can get trapped at the custom's office where you may be asked to pay the duty too. Better to take local delivery in a different country and get it from there. My friend got 3 of them together and didn't have any problems at the Airport.

Originally Posted by gautamkhadse

am thinking of ordering the sj4000 . Does it come with all mounts ? PLus a 32 GB card would record how much video in terms of time ? 2, 3 4 hours ?

Does it take all classes of SD card , is there a way to stuff a 64 Gb card ?

It is good to check the specs from the seller's listing on the Class of SD cards Supported. Most of the sellers make it a point to mention this. Hence, do not ignore this when picking the SD card once you purchase the camera.

In General (Not specific to SJ4000) The amount of time you can record will depend on a lot of factors - Single Channel, Dual channel, FPS Setting, Recording Resolution Setting, GPS (On/Off) etc.

A basic one with just the camera (front only) can easily record upto 8-10 hours of videos with a 32 GB card.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

In General (Not specific to SJ4000) The amount of time you can record will depend on a lot of factors - Single Channel, Dual channel, FPS Setting, Recording Resolution Setting, GPS (On/Off) etc. .

Most cameras have 1080P which is 1920X1080 resolution and 30FPS.
To calculate minimum recording time, you have to look at specs of camera.
If camera max bitrate is lets say 15mbps at highest setting your time is
32GB/15mbps ~ 4 hours and 40 minutes.
Of course, cameras use VBR compression due to which you will get longer time.

720P 60FPS is mostly useless because most budget cameras are not actually doing 60FPS but recording each frame twice. You also get lesser frame of view because they are doing cropped mode filming.

1080P 60FPS is available in few cameras(high end) and for acceptable quality 30mbps bit rate is needed which means you need a class 10 card

For 1080P 30fps cameras a class 4 does nicely.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Most cameras have 1080P which is 1920X1080 resolution and 30FPS.
To calculate minimum recording time, you have to look at specs of camera.
If camera max bitrate is lets say 15mbps at highest setting your time is
32GB/15mbps ~ 4 hours and 40 minutes.
Of course, cameras use VBR compression due to which you will get longer time.

720P 60FPS is mostly useless because most budget cameras are not actually doing 60FPS but recording each frame twice. You also get lesser frame of view because they are doing cropped mode filming.

1080P 60FPS is available in few cameras(high end) and for acceptable quality 30mbps bit rate is needed which means you need a class 10 card

For 1080P 30fps cameras a class 4 does nicely.

Thanks but apart from these specifications you mentioned, I have done a couple of tests with various settings to know the difference in clip sizes based on using just front cam, no GPS logging etc. I was mentioning this more for the benefit for those who want to pick a Dashcam with GPS logging capabilities.

The one that I have simply records this in AVI format and you can access this directly from windows explorer just like any other file and the AVI file itself shows all GPS Parameters (as you can see in the first sample).

Another one that Mighty_Lothar picked from US is similar but you cannot access the clips on the card directly and one MUST use the proprietary software to watch the clips and click a few buttons to rip these videos to your local directory (even after that, if you play these files it wont show any GPS parameters which is displayed only when played using the Media Software provided).

Likewise, there are various factors apart from just the Recording Resolution, FPS and etc which determines the amount of space the a clip will consume.

For simple cameras like this SJ Series, everything that you said holds true when it comes to deciding the number of hours it can record.

In fact, I have seem a 2MP camera do a better job than a 5MP camera on this Dashcams making us realize the usual truth that its not all about Higher Megapixels. Buying a Dashcam should only happen after user reviews is what I have learnt.

[gautamkhadse]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

32GB is best bet. Should do around 4-6 hours of video at max resolution of 1080P
The sellers listing it will have all the mounts available
Entire KIT: This is an authorized reseller

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281236008565#shpCntId
Aliexpress has it cheaper
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Sport...590495019.html

Thanks for the links , ordered the sj4000 from ali express . Now begins the painful wait .

I was wondering if its easy to do the time lapse video . I will be taking a vacation in April and hope to record my trip using the time lapse feature . Is it easy to do ?

[Technocrat]

great review Tanvir, just ordered an SJ1000 from Amazon, will play around with it & report back

[nec2152]

Great review tsk! I've been thinking about getting a dash cam for a long time, my current purpose being mostly to prove other guy's fault, if something happens. A question though - Have you ever been pulled over by police for recording?
For E.g, When I was doing Delhi - Pune route, my co-passenger was snapping some pics of the iron bridge between Ankleshwar and Bharuch. I got pulled over by the local cops for taking pictures of the bridge. There was a small board in the corner with "photography prohibited" supposedly written on it in Gujarati. I was made to pay a bribe of 1500 INR, and I was made to delete the pictures of the bridge.

These dash cams might become risky if some authorities spot them in a no photography zone - like some military area. Unless you prove to them it wasn't recording at the time, which might not be the case for these always-on-record devices.

Any such real life encounters? Anyone?

Thanks!

[Mpower]

Here's a quick video from my dashcam from couple weeks ago. Poor lighting conditions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgXSP...ature=youtu.be

[josejoseph]

Originally Posted by Mpower

Here's a quick video from my dashcam from couple weeks ago. Poor lighting conditions

May I know which model you're using? Also the quality during night driving.

I've been looking for a dash cam for a while, but never able to zero in a particular model.

Thanks

[sam_hyd]

I have been thinking about buying a dash cam for quite some time now.
I see two options:-
1) Buy regular dash cam from ebay, dx or amazon.
2) Buy an Android mobile phone for less than 10k and use it both as a dash cam and a GPS device.

Option 2 seems better because:-
Mobile phone will be more reliable in the long term.
We don't have to buy two devices for dash cam and GPS.
People will not be able to know that we are using it as a dash cam, as the recording app will be running in the background. So, no problem of getting caught in no photography zones.

any comment and suggestions?

[Arunshek]

Originally Posted by sam_hyd

People will not be able to know that we are using it as a dash cam, as the recording app will be running in the background. So, no problem of getting caught in no photography zones.

any comment and suggestions?

AFAIK one can't do recording in background on a phone if GPS is running in foreground. is there any special app?
Plus in the video recorded by mobile phone, we can't tag Date and Time or location

[sam_hyd]

Originally Posted by Arunshek

AFAIK one can't do recording in background on a phone if GPS is running in foreground. is there any special app?
Plus in the video recorded by mobile phone, we can't tag Date and Time or location

In fact we can do that. Please look at this app called daily roads voyager:-

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...m.dailyroads.v

I have used it few times and found that the app is pretty stable and good.
It can do everything that a dash cam can.