Or the manufacturer could test the product and deliver us a product where we do not need to be their free dash cam development community. A lot of the stuff being brought up should be on products in pre production. Not on a shipped product. I respect your point of him driving and testing. But i tell you if I show you the night time testing you will be sadly disappointed.
I would agree that the dash camera manufacturers should deliver fully formed products that do not need to have enthusiasts perform as de-facto employees to test and evaluate dash cams for flaws and performance issues. You don't generally see this in the "real" camera industry for example, (think Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc.)
Then again, as someone who has been using and testing dash cams for more than 13 years I can't help but notice that this is not how the dash cam business (and many other businesses) operate in this day and age.
Manufacturers and certain retailers do not hand out many thousands of dollars worth of free dash cams, expensive battery packs and other related merchandise on forums like this because they really need this level of product testing and feedback, they do it because it is far cheaper than hiring an expensive advertising agency to promote their brand and get eyeballs on their products. Flaws that may turn up in some cameras and their eventual resolution are merely a facet of what engages people in the product and is just part of the process. This is all part of a larger phenomenon since the advent of the internet generally referred to as behavioral marketing, viral marketing and influencer marketing.
I've been watching this play out on this forum ever since I became a member ten years ago last month. In the "old days" only a small and select group of members would receive dash cams for testing and review, except that this process usually took place in private and would be discussed among a small group of invited testers/evaluators in conversation with the developer and the camera's flaws and new features/improvements would eventually be reflected in the products publicly available to purchase. Many times these were pre-production cameras but not always.
For those who don't know, DashCamTalk has "secret" threads that are only accessible to designated members when they log-in but invisible to everyone else and that is where all the testing and discussion would usually take place.
Nowadays, handing out free cameras for evaluation is a public free-for-all and is done primarily for product and brand promotion even if it does serve a useful purpose sometimes.
For one example of what is happening these days, Vantrue only came onto this forum about a year ago and now, personally, I've lost track of just how many individual threads there are from members who have received free Vantrue cameras for testing and review. The result is that Vantrue is now one of the most talked about dash cam brands on the forum. Viofo does their own version of this. This investment for manufacturers handing out free cameras for review is apparently money well spent. That is how this kind of marketing works in the age of the interent!
And as we know, some DCT members make their living doing professional camera reviews and certain others like Panzer Platform (he's not been the only one) who claims he is only doing this as a "hobby" while allegedly "losing" money by not monetizing what he does, while at the same time he solicits and accepts thousands of dollars worth of free merchandise in exchange for promoting various products often in "sponsored videos" on YouTube and here on the forum as well. (I commend PP for revealing this but this means it is no longer a "hobby".) Members who do a lot of camera reviews should consider the possible consequences even if you don't spend 7 days a week, seemingly 24/7 at it like PP.
According to U.S. Tax law and
IRS code, this comes under barter exchange rules for Payment-in-Kind income and so legally PP is self-employed and needs to file the appropriate 1099 forms and file a
Schedule-C 1040 The income threshold for a pursuit being a "hobby" or not is 600 bucks, so anyone reviewing the odd free camera or two or three here and there is ok but above this amount you are breaking the law and are subject to fines and penalties if you don't file and pay taxes on the fair market value of the goods you receive.
Payment-in-Kind is when you exchange goods or services with a business instead being paid in cash, so receiving free cameras (goods) in exchange for reviewing/testing and promoting a camera or brand on the internet (services) is technically
barter exchange income as far as the Internal Revenue Service is concerned. Also, many states impose sales tax
, as well as income tax on these types of barter transactions.
So, tax considerations aside, this is all part of how the dash cam industry works now and is much more complex than manufacturers and retailers simply asking people to help them out with camera performance evaluation and reviews even if that is how they may present it. And who doesn't want to receive a free $200-$300 camera for a modest commitment of time and effort?
But i tell you if I show you the night time testing you will be sadly disappointed.
Gee, I don't know. Some of the real world night time testing we've seen posted on the forum has been enlightening and useful. I don't include PP's low light testing in his garage though partly because his methodology doesn't really reproduce real world conditions very well, especially with the source of lighting he uses. To me it's more like some kind of dog and pony show. When I first got into dash cams nighttime recording was 100% useless. Night time dash camera recording has come a LONG way in the last 13 years even if it is still not perfect.
