I had no idea about car dash cameras hence what I usually do in a situation like this, I'd 'Googled It'. There are a lot of good tips & write-ups available online and one of the sites that explained them very well is Techmoan. After reading and watching some of these reviews, I thought I was ready to make my first purchase. Since this was my first attempt, I wanted to be 'safe' and not spent too much money on it ... so as usual I looked online for the best deal. I found on MyDeals.com.my this: "2.5" HD Car DVR IR Night Vision 270° In-Car AV Recorder" sold at discounted price of RM59.00.
Extracted from the online deal site;
- Comes with 6 IR lights that will help you record day and night or in a dark environment
- Records automatically after the car starts
- High speed recording
- Support Real Time & Date display on video
- Cycled recording and repeat storage by section
- Image sensor: 1/4 color CMOS WXGA Sensor
- Recording resolution: SXGA 1280 x 960 Pixels, 30fps(interpolation) VGA 640 x 480 Pixels , 30fps
- Support SD/MMC Cards: Up to 32GB(memory card not included in the package)
What was included;
- 2.5" HD Car DVR IR Night Vision 270° In-Car AV Recorder
- Mounting bracket
- USB Cable
- Box
- Car Charger
- Battery
The overall experience;
Purchasing & Customer Experience- The product had a delivery promise, it was suppose to be delivered within 7 days, the item was ordered on 21 Nov and was estimated to arrive on 28 Nov - That did not happen.
- When the product was not delivered at the promised time, I'd wrote an email to the Customer Service. The Customer Service was not helpful and told me to contact their supplier directly via email. However, the email address provided by the Customer Service was incorrect which resulted further delay in proper follow-up and delivery. It was only delivered on 12 Dec.
- It is made of plastic and the finishing is very poor. It feels like it will break very easily. The buttons are hard to press, and if I applied a bit of force, I am afraid I will break them.
- The bracket was not able to secure tightly around the ball-joint, this resulted the camera to shift/move slightly when the car goes over bumps or uneven roads.
- Battery cannot hold a charge even after a full day of charging via USB connected to a notebook.
- There is no proper marking to indicate the direction the SD card is suppose to be inserted into the slot. (Refer to Arrow #1 below).
- Since the battery was useless the only way to power the device is with the car charger to the USB point (Refer to Arrow #2 below). Later, I noticed because it solely depended on the car charger, once the car engine is switched off, the device powers off immediately and could miss saving the last segment of the video it was recording.
Video Quality;
I believe the videos captured by this dashcam will speak for itself. The following video playlist consist of 9 situations (1 minute each);
- Car is stationary during daytime.
- Car moving slowly making some turns during daytime.
- Car traveling down a highway during daytime.
- Car moving through KL Sentral station during daytime.
- Car exiting a car park.
- Car traveling on a highway in the rain during the evening.
- Car traveling at night in the rain.
- Car traveling on a highway at night in the rain.
- Car turning into a row of shops at night.
You can download the original video files produced here by clicking the link here.
In summary, this car dash camera is a piece of crap. I would not recommend it to anyone to buy it.
I am still looking forward to owning a car dash camera ... just be careful about this one (2.5" HD Car DVR IR Night Vision 270° In-Car AV Recorder).
