Charlie Cip
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2015
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 0
- Country
- United States
Hello, new owner here and so far and am satisfied with my purchase. I paid $20 with free shipping off Amazon. At first the wrong item was sent and after contact (via Amazon) the mistake was realized and they sent the camera along with an apology. Finally, after a two month wait my camera arrived and they said I could keep the Fiat ECU scanning cable sent in error.
First impressions: Cheap, but okay for $20.
Cons: The user manual is terrible for English and you can tell was written by someone with very poor command of English language. Very poor in describing purpose and use of the various settings of the cam.
Connecting the camera (shoe mount) to the suction cup bracket is an extremely tight fit. Once on there very difficult to remove. I sanded the edges of the mounting bracket and that seems to help.
The suction cup mount does not want to stick onto a cold wintertime windshield. You have to first heat the glass using the defroster to ensure it will stick. The unit has fallen off numerous times (but hasn't broke luckily) due to a cold windshield. Once it has made good contact and sticks it stays on the glass very well, even when cold. Now I take the camera off the bracket and leave the suction cup stuck to the glass all the time, and will stay in place in cold temperature. I wasn't doing that prior until I sanded the edges of the bracket being in was extremely difficult to remove camera off bracket.
My Garmin Nuvi GPS DC power adapter will fit this Cam and it is of better quality. The adjusting knob on the bracket needs to be on the left side (looking at back of cam) not to get in the way of the connection with the DC power adapter.
The unit does sometimes spontaneously shut itself off. However, after more use it seems to be getting better. It shuts itself down mostly at night, but tinkering with some settings was able to improve. At night I turn off Motion Detection and that helps with the shutting off a lot. Also, make sure Parking Guard is only on when the car is parked. I think that plays a factor in the shutting down as well. By making sure those two settings are off (especially at night), shutting down is infrequent. Cold weather also I think is a factor in spontaneous shut off. Instead of leaving camera in car when it is cold outside, better to carry with you.
Poor video quality at night, even in the best setting (1080FHD).
Cannot find a firmware update. My version is 1.0 and there is probably a more current version. I tried the update for the GS8000 (not the L) and it was not recognized. Still said version 1.o after copying yamaha.bin to the SD card. Luckily, trying that did not cause any problems or issues with the camera and still working as it did prior.
Pros: Decent enough video during daytime even in 720 mode.
The 32 gig class 10 SD (cost more than what I paid for the cam) works great (PNY), plenty of space and will easily hold about two hours worth of driving time in 720 mode . Looping feature is working fine and taking on average about 3 minute clips (in 720 mode).
More cons than pros, however for my cost I am satisfied with the purchase.
Charlie Cip
First impressions: Cheap, but okay for $20.
Cons: The user manual is terrible for English and you can tell was written by someone with very poor command of English language. Very poor in describing purpose and use of the various settings of the cam.
Connecting the camera (shoe mount) to the suction cup bracket is an extremely tight fit. Once on there very difficult to remove. I sanded the edges of the mounting bracket and that seems to help.
The suction cup mount does not want to stick onto a cold wintertime windshield. You have to first heat the glass using the defroster to ensure it will stick. The unit has fallen off numerous times (but hasn't broke luckily) due to a cold windshield. Once it has made good contact and sticks it stays on the glass very well, even when cold. Now I take the camera off the bracket and leave the suction cup stuck to the glass all the time, and will stay in place in cold temperature. I wasn't doing that prior until I sanded the edges of the bracket being in was extremely difficult to remove camera off bracket.
My Garmin Nuvi GPS DC power adapter will fit this Cam and it is of better quality. The adjusting knob on the bracket needs to be on the left side (looking at back of cam) not to get in the way of the connection with the DC power adapter.
The unit does sometimes spontaneously shut itself off. However, after more use it seems to be getting better. It shuts itself down mostly at night, but tinkering with some settings was able to improve. At night I turn off Motion Detection and that helps with the shutting off a lot. Also, make sure Parking Guard is only on when the car is parked. I think that plays a factor in the shutting down as well. By making sure those two settings are off (especially at night), shutting down is infrequent. Cold weather also I think is a factor in spontaneous shut off. Instead of leaving camera in car when it is cold outside, better to carry with you.
Poor video quality at night, even in the best setting (1080FHD).
Cannot find a firmware update. My version is 1.0 and there is probably a more current version. I tried the update for the GS8000 (not the L) and it was not recognized. Still said version 1.o after copying yamaha.bin to the SD card. Luckily, trying that did not cause any problems or issues with the camera and still working as it did prior.
Pros: Decent enough video during daytime even in 720 mode.
The 32 gig class 10 SD (cost more than what I paid for the cam) works great (PNY), plenty of space and will easily hold about two hours worth of driving time in 720 mode . Looping feature is working fine and taking on average about 3 minute clips (in 720 mode).
More cons than pros, however for my cost I am satisfied with the purchase.
Charlie Cip
