USDashCamera
Well-Known Member
Hey guys, got a review of the recently released F800 from thinkware. Sent to me for review from blackboxmycar.com.
As usual my main review is in video form but I would like to mention some of the pros and cons which might get a little long. Starting with the cons, I think a big thing that people will notice if they are familiar with the F770 is the form factor is more like the F750. What that means is the lens sticks out the side (look at the video thumbnail below) instead of inside the body of the camera like the F770. It also uses lighter shades of gray. There is the F800 pro which is all black, but it still uses the same shape with the lens sticking out the side.
At first I hated that, but I have come to like it because with the F770, which I used as my main personal camera, I had to place the mount a few inches to the right of the mirror because if it was too close you would see the base of the rear view mirror on the window. With this shape, you can mount it just low enough where the lens will be directly below your mirrors mounting base, which puts the lens right in the center. To get the F770 in the center it would have to be another inch and a half or two lower due to the plastic housing.
Another con I would say is the fact that they even have two separate high end models. I think the F800 pro should be their high end model and the regular F800 pro shouldn't exist. Although it is slightly cheaper and the F800 pro only offers a few more features. It has a power saving parking mode where it goes to sleep and wakes up and starts recording within a second (thinkware's claim not mine as I do not have one yet) instead of staying on and always buffering 10 seconds of footage. this means you would capture an impact, only the moment after the impact. The F800 also only supports 64gb cards where the F800 pro supports 128gb. I think this feels a bit stingy to me, thinkware is purposely holding back a feature on the F800 to get people to pay a bit more for the F800 pro. Even the $200 Blackvue DR490-2CH supports 128gb cards.
The F800 Pro also supposedly supports a new cloud feature but I have yet to see how it works. A press release claimed the pro supports a cloud feature yet the official product page has nothing about it so I assume this is being developed still and will launch with a firmware update for the pro model only. this would explain the price difference between the pro and non pro models. But at the same time the DR750S-2CH with a 128gb card and power magic pro is $520 (which would have been crazy a few years ago) and has a very well developed cloud feature, while the F800 pro with 128gb card, blackboxmycar hardwire kit, and rear camera is $540 with hardly any information on this supposed cloud feature. The 750S models also do 60 FPS in the front.
While I don't want to claim the blackvue cams are better, I do prefer their model better of having the top of the line $400+ 650s/750s series, with a $200+ 490 2 ch series that still has 1080p + 1080p but much cheaper due to no wifi or built in gps. I think the f800 should have gone that route, drop the wifi and built in gps and make it significantly cheaper, while the f800 pro can be the top of the line model at the premium price. instead thinkware basically has a premium top of the line f800 cam at over $400 with the rear camera that doesn't live up to everyones expectations, and then an even more expensive top of the line f800 pro that has some of the features people expect the f800 to have. Or at least get the non pro model in the lower $300 range to help it really distinguish itself from the pro, even if that means removing some features.
That's not to say I don't like the f800, I am just frustrated by the way thinkware split this product line. I would be very upset if they end up having some sort of F880 soon, or if they do at least make it next years model. I just feel like there are too many models that makes it confusing. And I wish they wouldn't make the non-pro models an ugly shade of bright gray and silver. Blackvue is nice enough to still make ALL of their products a sleek black that most US consumers want. I am sure they know this, its like they want to punish the customers who don't fork over more money for the higher end model with an uglier less sleek device.
You can not use the F770 rear camera cable if you want to upgrade. they switched the side that the ports are on, and the F770 rear camera cable ends up pointing down instead of up. The way the ports are aligned also means the power cable can't stick straight up either because the rear camera cable gets in its way. I am surprised that thinkware would change something that was so thoughtful in the F770.
Besides some of these issues that annoy me, the camera itself is still very good for a 2ch system with all the bells and whistles (for the most part) that you want. The voice alerts are much easier on the ears now, the time lapse feature for parking mode is a welcome addition (edit: for some reason I totally forgot the F770 had time lapse parking mode too so I thought it was new this year. The only new parking mode is the low power parking mode only offered in the Pro model) for people who may be concerned with motion detection draining their battery or filling up their memory card too much. The Sony Starvis front and back of course is a decent upgrade, if even not a huge leap.
And one thing thinkware has continued to do which I like is you can buy just the front camera if you want, then later buy the rear camera. Blackvue does not offer this, if you buy the 750S 1 ch, you can never add the rear camera.
Check out the video review:
As usual my main review is in video form but I would like to mention some of the pros and cons which might get a little long. Starting with the cons, I think a big thing that people will notice if they are familiar with the F770 is the form factor is more like the F750. What that means is the lens sticks out the side (look at the video thumbnail below) instead of inside the body of the camera like the F770. It also uses lighter shades of gray. There is the F800 pro which is all black, but it still uses the same shape with the lens sticking out the side.
At first I hated that, but I have come to like it because with the F770, which I used as my main personal camera, I had to place the mount a few inches to the right of the mirror because if it was too close you would see the base of the rear view mirror on the window. With this shape, you can mount it just low enough where the lens will be directly below your mirrors mounting base, which puts the lens right in the center. To get the F770 in the center it would have to be another inch and a half or two lower due to the plastic housing.
Another con I would say is the fact that they even have two separate high end models. I think the F800 pro should be their high end model and the regular F800 pro shouldn't exist. Although it is slightly cheaper and the F800 pro only offers a few more features. It has a power saving parking mode where it goes to sleep and wakes up and starts recording within a second (thinkware's claim not mine as I do not have one yet) instead of staying on and always buffering 10 seconds of footage. this means you would capture an impact, only the moment after the impact. The F800 also only supports 64gb cards where the F800 pro supports 128gb. I think this feels a bit stingy to me, thinkware is purposely holding back a feature on the F800 to get people to pay a bit more for the F800 pro. Even the $200 Blackvue DR490-2CH supports 128gb cards.
The F800 Pro also supposedly supports a new cloud feature but I have yet to see how it works. A press release claimed the pro supports a cloud feature yet the official product page has nothing about it so I assume this is being developed still and will launch with a firmware update for the pro model only. this would explain the price difference between the pro and non pro models. But at the same time the DR750S-2CH with a 128gb card and power magic pro is $520 (which would have been crazy a few years ago) and has a very well developed cloud feature, while the F800 pro with 128gb card, blackboxmycar hardwire kit, and rear camera is $540 with hardly any information on this supposed cloud feature. The 750S models also do 60 FPS in the front.
While I don't want to claim the blackvue cams are better, I do prefer their model better of having the top of the line $400+ 650s/750s series, with a $200+ 490 2 ch series that still has 1080p + 1080p but much cheaper due to no wifi or built in gps. I think the f800 should have gone that route, drop the wifi and built in gps and make it significantly cheaper, while the f800 pro can be the top of the line model at the premium price. instead thinkware basically has a premium top of the line f800 cam at over $400 with the rear camera that doesn't live up to everyones expectations, and then an even more expensive top of the line f800 pro that has some of the features people expect the f800 to have. Or at least get the non pro model in the lower $300 range to help it really distinguish itself from the pro, even if that means removing some features.
That's not to say I don't like the f800, I am just frustrated by the way thinkware split this product line. I would be very upset if they end up having some sort of F880 soon, or if they do at least make it next years model. I just feel like there are too many models that makes it confusing. And I wish they wouldn't make the non-pro models an ugly shade of bright gray and silver. Blackvue is nice enough to still make ALL of their products a sleek black that most US consumers want. I am sure they know this, its like they want to punish the customers who don't fork over more money for the higher end model with an uglier less sleek device.
You can not use the F770 rear camera cable if you want to upgrade. they switched the side that the ports are on, and the F770 rear camera cable ends up pointing down instead of up. The way the ports are aligned also means the power cable can't stick straight up either because the rear camera cable gets in its way. I am surprised that thinkware would change something that was so thoughtful in the F770.
Besides some of these issues that annoy me, the camera itself is still very good for a 2ch system with all the bells and whistles (for the most part) that you want. The voice alerts are much easier on the ears now, the time lapse feature for parking mode is a welcome addition (edit: for some reason I totally forgot the F770 had time lapse parking mode too so I thought it was new this year. The only new parking mode is the low power parking mode only offered in the Pro model) for people who may be concerned with motion detection draining their battery or filling up their memory card too much. The Sony Starvis front and back of course is a decent upgrade, if even not a huge leap.
And one thing thinkware has continued to do which I like is you can buy just the front camera if you want, then later buy the rear camera. Blackvue does not offer this, if you buy the 750S 1 ch, you can never add the rear camera.
Check out the video review:
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