Shadow RX300

[quorthonrhar]

So, on another note... what is really the field of view angle on GT680W and RX300. I'm reading everywhere it says 140 degrees super wide angle, but many people are reporting it's actually 160 degree. Which information is true? I believe I watched couple of videos on YouTube, some comparison footages, and it really looked like little wider angle than in GT550W/WS which is 140 degrees. FoxOffer says both, RX300 and GT680W have 140 degrees only and they confirmed it with manufacturer. It's kind of confusing...

 

[Gurkha9]

FYI ordering by express means for sure you will pay courier (broker) fees and probably custom fees as well.
Ordering via regular parcel post usually means no extra taxes or fees. YMMV of course.
Curious if @quorthonrhar can figure out how to enable the 'parking mode' feature as the instructions seem a little thin
GT680W FOV is a tad wider than RX300, GT550W/WS is the narrowest of the 3.
Numbers don't seem to be consistent with many of these cams, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[jokiin]

Numbers don't seem to be consistent with many of these cams, so take it with a grain of salt.

figure quoted is generally diagonal so depending what the horizontal and vertical view numbers are as to what difference there might be even on lenses that quote the same diagonal view, confusing at best

 

[quorthonrhar]

FYI ordering by express means for sure you will pay courier (broker) fees and probably custom fees as well.
Ordering via regular parcel post usually means no extra taxes or fees. YMMV of course.
Curious if @quorthonrhar can figure out how to enable the 'parking mode' feature as the instructions seem a little thin
GT680W FOV is a tad wider than RX300, GT550W/WS is the narrowest of the 3.
Numbers don't seem to be consistent with many of these cams, so take it with a grain of salt.

I just got confirmation from DHL I won't have to pay anything, all covered when I paid for Express service. Only customs fee. I also received an email from FoxOffer confirming they declared my package as $42 only. I am not worried about that anymore.

A friend is a long time dashcam junkie, and it happens he has all three models plus some other too. I believe he said DOD or something along those lines. He said field of view is identical on GT680W and RX300 and he confirmed it by doing comparison video and taking screenshots into photoshop.

As far as parking mode goes, I believe Nico already posted about it after checking it with manufacturer.

 

[Gurkha9]

Niko's review was updated on Jan 14 after I asked about parking mode, I just read the part he edited, so I get it now
On a few screenshots that were posted in that review, i thought the GT680W had a slightly wider FOV.
Good luck on the customs thing.

 

[REyewitness]

Gt550ws is narrow compared to Gt680w... But really if you didn't have both you wouldn't notice. Not like your in a fish bowl etc. Both are good.

 

[REyewitness]

Just looked at the park function.. Such a low frame rate, is it even worth having?
If you are trying to catch say car park hit and run.. Wouldn't it be jumpy and blurry with that frame rate?
I will stick with straight up motion detection or let her run while I'm in the store for the 30min-1hr.

 

[quorthonrhar]

Just looked at the park function.. Such a low frame rate, is it even worth having?
If you are trying to catch say car park hit and run.. Wouldn't it be jumpy and blurry with that frame rate?
I will stick with straight up motion detection or let her run while I'm in the store for the 30min-1hr.

No that's not how it works. Low frame rate won't give you blurry frames. That's what slow shutter speed does. Framerate is just what it says.. how many frames per second will be captured. Every single frame will be captured perfectly sharp. At the end, you can collect all those captured frames and make kind of a stop motion movie. It's still better than nothing

The thing is. Park function actually works in 30 fps, but we all wanted it to work at low frame rate. Because if I park my car outside on my driveway whole night and I want to keep monitoring who is possibly scratching my car, I don't want it to shot at full framerate. I want it to capture every other or even every 5th frame if possible. That's what low fps is made for. I believe RX300 normally captures 30fps in park mode, but to get it to work in low fps, you have to activate special low fps mode. Niko was talking about that in his extensive review too.

This is from Niko's post:

Myself, having experience with dash cameras, in 99% cases don't need to look into user manual and I am sure most people also can manage on how to operate this device, but with RX300 I struggled to activate Parking Monitoring low FPS rate ( 1, 2,5 Fps ). This function I have not been able to test. E-mail was sent to the vendor to explain on how this function works and how to activate it. I will keep update about it in Post 8.

And just so more people can find how to activate this function, I will re-post Niko's part. I hope he doesn't mind.

PARKING MONITORING: 1, 2, 5 Fps
To activate Parking Monitoring:

1. set from Menu settings "Parking Guard" to value 1, 2, or 5Fps.
2. Exit Menu
3. Hold down (!) "emergency" button for 2-3 sec
4. Now RX300 starts loop recording at chosen parking monitoring Fps

If you set RX300 to "motion detection" mode and also activated from menu settings a "Parking Guard" 1, 2, 5Fps, plus Hold down (!), - then RX300 also will save all motion detected videos at low Fps chosen from the "parking monitoring" menu on the first place.

To Exit Parking Monitoring you need to go to Menu Settings and set "Parking Guard" OFF

 

[REyewitness]

Even with WDR.. If you have no street lights etc.. Your not going to see much. But keep us posted when you get it. Sounds like a OK feature.. But only a few will probably use or be able to figure out

 

[jokiin]

None of them see in the dark

 

[quorthonrhar]

Even with WDR.. If you have no street lights etc.. Your not going to see much. But keep us posted when you get it. Sounds like a OK feature.. But only a few will probably use or be able to figure out

That is true, but this cam also has IR so even though there is a windshield in between camera and the possible suspect, it could come helpful. It all depends on the outside light and in what way it will affect everything. To be able to talk about that, I will have to test it. As I already said before, I am not putting my hopes into IR being too useful for me since I will not use it to record my passengers (my wife and kid lol), but for some taxi drivers, that feature might be useful. That's why I will try to test it by recording inside my van one day, just to see the results. Not saying they will be good, not saying they will not be good. Just curious and it might help others too.

Also, you are right about the amount of outside light. We have very good street lights, sometimes I wish it's not there lol. It's so bright and coming right into our bedroom, it's difficult to get any sleep unless we have curtains fully on. But, the fact that my car is always in garage, I also won't be using Parking Monitoring unless when leave my car on some mall parking or something while I'm away. Usually, in my case, that's during the daylight, so recording should be good. But again, that's not the reason I decided to go with this camera. Not Parking Monitoring, nor IR lights. It's just it was same as GT680W, but updated model with couple of extra features (higher capacity battery etc), and all that with exactly the same price. I also like the shape of it a little better than GT680W (reminding me of regular pocket camera), but that's of course very subjective opinion. I am sure other people will find it better looking, thousand people, thousand different opinions... and that's OK, that's how it should be and that's what makes us unique from each other. Having options is always good. I accept to be guinea pig and test RX300 so others don't have

 

[REyewitness]

None of them see in the dark

Whaaaattt!?

 

[REyewitness]

What's up with YouTube... Works then doesn't.

 

[quorthonrhar]

Beautiful... except not

My shipment hasn't even left Hong Kong and it's been 3 days since I purchased it. True Express service I'd say.

 

[Gurkha9]

Should have just gone with regular shipping or waited until the New Year thing is over in China.

 

[jokiin]

lol, and now I am being lied to... This is the email from FoxOffer:

this is how it works, Foxoffer would use an agent that takes it to DHL, I use the same type of service when using DHL also, it can take them a couple of days to do their bit but it's out of your hands at that point

 

[quorthonrhar]

this is how it works, Foxoffer would use an agent that takes it to DHL, I use the same type of service when using DHL also, it can take them a couple of days to do their bit but it's out of your hands at that point

Well, at this point I just want that status to change to something else... Anything, just to see that package is on the move. Right now it doesn't say anything except that DHL got all needed information from them, but they didn't even pick up the package from FoxOffer.

In the meantime I'm using my GoPro HERO3 as my dashcam. It works great since there is loop recording option now, and the viewing angle is 170 degrees, true super wide. The only thing is, I hate I have to keep installing it and removing it from my van, wouldn't leave it in to attract too much unwanted attention and risk someone breaking into my vehicle to steal the camera. Plus, no GPS tracking...

 

[jokiin]

yeah it can be frustrating, I've had packages delivered at times before the tracking info gets updates anything beyond collected

 

[Dashmellow]

We all might want instant gratification but when ordering from Hong Kong or the Chinese mainland one just needs to be patient. Feel surprised and pleased if your parcel shows up sooner but just know that it can be normal for it to show up later. Most merchants are doing the best they can and the rest is in the hands of various post offices, delivery services and customs agents along with other factors like holidays and the weather.

 

[Dashmellow]

yeah it can be frustrating, I've had packages delivered at times before the tracking info gets updates anything beyond collected

I've had this happen too. In fact, I have a hunch I am about to receive a parcel from Hong Kong tomorrow or so that I ordered December 23rd that tracking still says is "preparing shipment".