Got my camera installed yesterday so I thought I'd share my initial impression and problems.
After hooking up the rear camera, GPS and power cable, I turned the camera on and fairly quickly heard the message that the GPS was active. On my trip to the store, the GPS was working but it lagged far behind where I actually was by as much as 1.5 miles. After about 10 miles or so, the GPS finally caught up to my approximate location though is was not as accurate as it should have been. During the trip, I had the screensaver set for my driving speed and while sitting still at a stop light for about 2 minutes, the miles per hour (or KMH) was showing and fluctuating between 35 KPH and 52 KPH. Needless to say, this was worthless so I just turned the screensaver off.
After arriving at my location, I turned off the camera and stowed it away and out of sight while I did some shopping. When I returned to the car, I hooked everything back up and then powered the camera up. What I didn't hear when I turned it back on was the audible message letting me know that GPS was activated. I made a few more brief stops and each time turned off the camera via the power switch. When I arrived home and reviewed the driving footage, my entire return trip of about 20 miles did show any GPS data or speed. GPS is not a huge concern for me, but my feeling is that if you pay for something, it should work the way it was designed to. It makes no sense to pay for a GPS attachment and then find it doesn't work half the time. That being said, I need to analyze what is going on with the GPS and make sure that I have all the settings correct.
As far as video is concerned, it does an okay job but as was previously noted, the quality of the video is not that great due to pixelation. For a camera in this price range though, I would expect better video results. The footage from my night driving was better than I expected but the camera does not handle brake lights, traffic lights, or any direct lighting very well. In fact, when I was directly behind a car at a traffic light, I could not make out the license plate at all.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about the camera but will need to test further and become more accustomed to its operation. My desire for a camera is to protect myself in the event that another driver finds it more important to use their cell phone than actually driving and this camera will do just that. But at this price range, I think its fair to expect better video and GPS operation.
Question: When the camera records events, how do you delete or allow them to be overwritten? Do you just reformat the card or is there some other method to allow them to be overwritten when your done with them?