Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

Thanks,

Nick

Nick Odell was thinking very hard :
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something that
justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for somebody
else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be unfortunate
enough to give them a turkey.

I bought a combined HD forward facing and remote mounted SD (rear
window) cam unit, some 3 years ago, for around £29. Front cam is not
very good in the dark, with no street lights, rear is fine. Collision
sensor is not that sensitive, it needs a good thump to trigger it. Its
tiny, fits tight to the screen, using a double sided tape bracket, so
invisible from the inside or out. Its difficult to configure, via its
tiny screen, but it has worked fine for all that time.

If you buy the expensive ones from the likes of Halfords, you are still
buying the cheap Chinese ones, but rebranded.

"Nick Odell" wrote in message
news
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

Thanks,

Nick

I had an £11 one the battery expanded .....

On 09/03/18 02:39, Nick Odell wrote:
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

Thanks,

Nick

My first one didn't cycle the video files. Once the micro SD card was
full, the dashcam stopped recording.

The second one, a Z-Edge Z1 is much better.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Z-Edge-Dashboard-2304x1296-G-sensor-Superior/dp/B01I4EIS4S/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1520589280&sr=8-5&keywords=z-edge+dashcam&dpID=41MtTi5X6SL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&d pSrc=srch

I've now been running it for 17 months, and it's working well. Ii does
hang down a bit lower than the rectangular-shaped cameras (the Z1 is
almost square), but I can live with that as I keep the sunscreen down
most of the time anyway. I did try it on the left-hand side of the
windscreen, but the wipers don't clean the screen there! The suction
fitting is starting to play up a bit (sun ageing?), and I find it best
to push it hard against the screen before pulling the locking arm down
(by itself the locking arm doesn't apply enough suction to keep it on
the screen for more than an hour at best).

--

Jeff

On 09/03/2018 02:39, Nick Odell wrote:
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

Define "not too expensive"
For less than £90 you can get a Ddpai M6Plus.
I think you can see where the extra money goes compared to a £20 dash cam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4N82I8X4Gs

Jeff Layman pretended :
My first one didn't cycle the video files. Once the micro SD card was full,
the dashcam stopped recording.

Mine was by default set for that, a simple option change and it
overwrote the oldest files first.

On 09/03/2018 10:07, Jeff Layman wrote:


My first one didn't cycle the video files. Once the micro SD card was
full, the dashcam stopped recording.

On some that seems to be as a result of the crash detection creating a
write protected section of video which creates a barrier where the new
over-writing old will not cross. The SD card then needs to be
reformatted to remove this barrier. The crash detection may have been
caused by the camera being poorly fixed and falling off the screen.

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 09/03/18 02:39, Nick Odell wrote:
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.


http://www.techmoan.com/what-is-the-best-dashcam/

Another Dave

--
Change nospam to techie

On 09/03/2018 10:52, www.GymRatZ.co.uk wrote:
On 09/03/2018 02:39, Nick Odell wrote:
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

Define "not too expensive"
For less than £90 you can get a Ddpai M6Plus.
I think you can see where the extra money goes compared to a £20 dash cam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4N82I8X4Gs



The one I bought a few years ago for £20 off ebay produces images that
good. It also has a GPS logger which most of the cheap cameras don't
have. I would buy another if I could and fit it to the rear.

On 09/03/18 11:15, alan_m wrote:
On 09/03/2018 10:07, Jeff Layman wrote:


My first one didn't cycle the video files. Once the micro SD card was
full, the dashcam stopped recording.

On some that seems to be as a result of the crash detection creating a
write protected section of video which creates a barrier where the new
over-writing old will not cross. The SD card then needs to be
reformatted to remove this barrier. The crash detection may have been
caused by the camera being poorly fixed and falling off the screen.

This one actually stayed on the screen, but I get what you are
suggesting. However, I always viewed the micro SD card on a laptop and
then deleted the files (and indeed reformatted the card) so it was
clean. The dashcam still wouldn't deleted the oldest file and overwrite
it (it was set up to overwrite the files). A few of the reviews noted
this as a problem - I should have paid more attention!

--

Jeff

On 09/03/18 02:39, Nick Odell wrote:
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

Thanks,

Thanks for the replies: lots of useful stuff in there and I appreciate it.

Nick

In message , www.GymRatZ.co.uk
writes
For less than £90 you can get a Ddpai M6Plus.
I think you can see where the extra money goes compared to a £20 dash
cam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4N82I8X4Gs

I use one of these. It has been excellent. Good points are its small
size and ease of taking off the mount and into the house to download
footage from the SD card.
I don't really like the way the camera itself only works with a phone or
tablet as a display and not a PC, but do like that settings are done via
phone display rather than the stupid menu buttons on the cams with built
in displays. That said, the Ddpai user interface is a bit weird until
you get used to it.
I have several extremely cheap Chinese cams, some of which have been
relegated around the house as very cheap security cams. One of the
square ones was about the same price as the rest (under a tenner) and
gives a picture almost as good as the M6Plus. I think it is just pot
luck what you get in the very low price range. Some of the plastic
mounts on the cheapest have gone brittle and cracked.
--
Bill

On 09/03/18 02:39, Nick Odell wrote:
Does anybody have any first-hand experience of cheap Chinese Dash Cams?

On paper the specifications seem very good but there must be something
that justifies the very much higher prices of the branded alternatives.

It's not for myself - it's intended as a not-too-expensive gift for
somebody else. But however not-too-expensive it is, I don't want to be
unfortunate enough to give them a turkey.

I had/have a 'mini803', not that cheap (~£80 in 2013). It worked well
enough for a year or two but has become increasingly unreliable. It
randomly switches off, on never switches on. Reformating the memory card
or even re-flashing the software fixed it for a while, but it has got
progressively worse.
The problem with these things is partly the car environment: sitting
just under the windscreen they get overheated on sunny days, in winter
there is humidity and cold. But it is not impossible to make the
electronics robust, but it would add to the cost. More significantly it
would require a bit more care at the design stage, and that applies even
more to the software. The rush to bring out the latest version with the
'improved' higher res chip seems to cause all these brandless
manufacturers to cut corners. The software is never stable before they
move on to the next version.

--
djc

(–€Ì¿Ä¹Ì¯–€Ì¿ Ì¿)
No low-hanging fruit, just a lot of small berries up a tall tree.