Re: 360º, triple camera dash cam - cool or too good to be tr
Ok, so... good news bad news... and some more bad news.
I got my "360º panoramic view camera". it works. it was not a brick in a box, it did not explode when i connected it. it's menus were not in Chinese or Russian. but it is not, repeat NOT, a 360º camera. not even close.
i'll post a real review when i've had it longer and have figured out all the ins and outs, but for now, let me answer some of the concerns i had before i bought it and now have seen for myself:
-feel... it feels cheap. it's good enough, but it's just a cheap plastic body.
-the two front lenses con't converge perfectly. there's some overlap and weird blurriness that happens in the center. not that bad actually, but quite noticeable when panning it back and forth by hand. considering work needed to merge two wide-angle lenses into one image, i'm actually rather impressed that it works at all, but it's just not perfect.
-view angle out the front is pretty much exactly 180º. i placed it on a desk and observed objects directly to the left and right of the camera. when driving, it sees both sideview mirrors of my car. i do like that, but it is NOT what the description or the box says - 270º for the front - no. it's 180º.
-rear camera is pretty much useless. it's not that wide, maybe 120º. i have not installed it yet... here's why...
-resolution. when camera makers are having their product packaging designed, is there only one logo available for which to stick on every box... "1080P HD"? I mean, that logo is supposed to mean something. you can't just say "1080P HD" to describe a toaster that looks nice, can you? is my dog 1080P HD because her coat is nice and shiny? are these shoes 1080P? i mean, they do look sharp. no, 1080P HD means something, and it is not this camera. I'll post the actual resolution of each of the camera modes shortly. in the mean time, know this:
-you can record front only, back only, or front+back in one super-wide video file. In all 3 modes, you only get one file, you don't get separate video files for front and rear.
-front only is... reasonable. maybe a blotchy version of 720p
-rear only is 640x480 i think, but don't quote me until i've confirmed.
-front+rear is a real compromise. it chops the vertical down to 480 to match the rear camera. so the whole video, though wide, is only 480 tall. everything is noticeable blocky and pixelated.
I wanted to believe that i could record almost a 360 view of the road around me, to capture incidents occurring from either side or behind. that's just not possible with this camera. i wish i had just planned to buy 2x or 3x regular, single-lens cameras.
i'm going to keep this one, but likely will not install the rear camera. i don't see ever plugging it in, as it reduced the whole video to almost unbearably low quality.
oh, and the "night vision lights"?? please don't get me started. 4 little white LED's. with my headlights on full high beam, the camera can see about 50% of the road ahead compared to what my eyes can see while driving. now turn on 4 tiny, little, itty bitty LED's. how much brighter do you think the road ahead gets? now shine those off of the windshield.. who was it who thought this would be beneficial?
finally, it has a "TV OUT" plug. for those of us who have installed OLD SCHOOL, ANALOG TELEVISIONS SETS IN OUR CARS..... again, who thinks up these products?
The manual is useful when on the phone and you have to jot down a phone number but don't want to write it on anything important. Plenty of blank, white space. otherwise, it's really just a token "see, here's the manual!" It is quite useless. though ridiculously poorly translated, i'm sure the original Chinese is no more useful. it just sort of lists the buttons and the various menus. it doesn't bother trying to explain them, it just lists them. click around in the menus and you'll find "auto power off - 3 minutes, 5 minutes, disable". Oh, i thought, i can get it to remain on (on battery) for a while when i park. i set it to 5 minutes but it shuts down when i shut off the car. screen says "goodbye!", and it gracefully shuts down (i mean, it appears that it's supposed to - it does not just crash). so i looked it up in the manual for a better explanation. it says Auto Power Off - 3 minutes, 5 minutes, Disable. that's it. no further explanation, in any language.
I'll post the actual resolution of each camera, and some sample videos.
Though this mini-review may sound pretty negative, it's probably par for the course for non-brand name dash cams. Don't not get it because of my bitching. the 180º front view is nice and wide. any wider and the quality would probably be so long, and distant objects appear so far away, that it would become completely unusable. so it's not all bad.
the bottom line is that i'm keeping it. i'll make do. i wished i had stumbled on a real gem, how i was soooo much smarter than the rest of you chumps with your expensive multi-camera systems and such. but i'm not. i'm just a different kind of chump. a chump with a no-name dashcam with video that i can't read license plates, see in the dark or record what's going on beside me.