Hey folks,
I run a small removal business in Ireland and have been a dash cam user for a while. Have had the DRS1100 and the iTronics ITB100HD.
One of my iTronics ITB100HD cameras is acting up on me, I bought it from an eBay seller, it was shipped from Korea and I think I've feck all chance of returning it so am in the market for a new one. It was one of the best on the market at the time of purchase and looking for something of equal or better high quality, cheaper if possible and shipped with a warranty within the EU.
My requirements I guess are simple enough, the essentials are:
*1080 recording at least
*Great night quality
*Great frame rate for number plate recognition
*I guess a wide view lens for the same reason (although I'm not sure if the wider the lens = the more distorted things like plates can be?)
*G sensor
*GPS with separate speed reading (i.e, not embedded into the video itself, but read via software)
*Emergency button or shock files which can't be overwritten
*Adjustable Sensitivity (I don't think vans are renowned for suspension)
*High quality build, sold and warranty returnable within the EU (no customs etc)
*Discreet but good range of viewing if I need to manually turn it (suction mount ads too much bulk)
*Highly revered and quite popular camera with a strong enough user base. This is more to signify reliability than to have anything to do with firmare upgrades etc as I just like to plug, play and forget about it and to know it's always likely to work and the only time I'll need to touch it is if something important is recorded.
I'd be willing to pay extra for:
*24/7 surveillance (I tried to set this up in some vans with a secondary battery that would be charged by the primary battery only when the ignition was live and then the dash camera would be powered by the secondary battery, immediately after ignition and would continue to be powered until the secondary battery was drained and once drained, it wouldn't then feed off the primary so the primary would always have enough juice to start the vans and wouldn't be affected by the dash cam - however, I ended up spending a lot of money and being let down by auto electricians who did a both job and caused a huge fire hazard in 4 vans - I'm now sadly not willing to invest any more time or money into achieving this which is a pity as I'd love to have the surveillance (have had a few graffiti attacks on the van as it's parked in a dark enough place). If this is an easy to implement feature it would be great.
*Built in rechargeable battery (charged when vehicle in use, uses its own battery while parking so not to interfere with and drain the vehicle battery)
*Dual cam
*Motion sensor
*Internal storage
*UV Filter
*Low discharge cut off for car battery.
*Bluetooth/WiFi (sync video files and watch on phone if at the scene of an accident)
Existing technology but probably not in any dash cams?:
*GPS tracking (I can view where my vans are remotely)
*Video feed (I can see what my vans see remotely!)
*Mirror attachment sold separately (custom shape rear view designed specifically so camera can slot into it and be completely hidden from view)
Things that would make things easier for me:
*Regular SD card as I already have them for my cams
*Some way of switching the head of the current power cable to be suitable to the new camera as I paid to get the power connection for the DRS1100/iTronics ITB100HD hardwired to the ignition live of the radio and would prefer not to have to pay to redo the job just for a new connection type of the new camera.
A lot of the "willing to pay extra for" features I mention are influenced by the Lukas 7900 Ace which looks like an awesome camera but I don't want to buy from outside of Europe.
- The Lukas 7900 appears to give shadows a slight bright outline as you can see at around 27 seconds as the SUV drives by. Also, the DODLS430W "DAY TOWN" clips by Techmoan have a thick white stroke on car lights (and the ambulance)?
One thing also is the recording method used. The DRS1100 method was better than the iTronics I think. It recorded and kept "shock/emergency" clips and never recorded over these until you deleted them from the PC. The iTronics splits the clips by shock/parked/driving and records over each as new footage happens. Because it's so sensitive, the old shock clips easily get recorded over and because it senses so much while parked, this happened too so in a way it'd be good if the motion clips were shared with the general clip allocation, rather than having to change the allocation % every time you park it up. This would then create more space for motion detection recording and would just be recording over the old driving files you had, which 99% of the time will be absolutely fine as if you recorded anything important while driving, you would have already taken the footage to your pc.
I'd ideally want one with a good review history and reputation and looking for the best choice that matches as much as the above for:
a) No budget
b) €100 budget
I'm VAT registered in Ireland and could either claim back Irish VAT or get a reputable seller to sell to me EX VAT from within Europe. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated
I run a small removal business in Ireland and have been a dash cam user for a while. Have had the DRS1100 and the iTronics ITB100HD.
One of my iTronics ITB100HD cameras is acting up on me, I bought it from an eBay seller, it was shipped from Korea and I think I've feck all chance of returning it so am in the market for a new one. It was one of the best on the market at the time of purchase and looking for something of equal or better high quality, cheaper if possible and shipped with a warranty within the EU.
My requirements I guess are simple enough, the essentials are:
*1080 recording at least
*Great night quality
*Great frame rate for number plate recognition
*I guess a wide view lens for the same reason (although I'm not sure if the wider the lens = the more distorted things like plates can be?)
*G sensor
*GPS with separate speed reading (i.e, not embedded into the video itself, but read via software)
*Emergency button or shock files which can't be overwritten
*Adjustable Sensitivity (I don't think vans are renowned for suspension)
*High quality build, sold and warranty returnable within the EU (no customs etc)
*Discreet but good range of viewing if I need to manually turn it (suction mount ads too much bulk)
*Highly revered and quite popular camera with a strong enough user base. This is more to signify reliability than to have anything to do with firmare upgrades etc as I just like to plug, play and forget about it and to know it's always likely to work and the only time I'll need to touch it is if something important is recorded.
I'd be willing to pay extra for:
*24/7 surveillance (I tried to set this up in some vans with a secondary battery that would be charged by the primary battery only when the ignition was live and then the dash camera would be powered by the secondary battery, immediately after ignition and would continue to be powered until the secondary battery was drained and once drained, it wouldn't then feed off the primary so the primary would always have enough juice to start the vans and wouldn't be affected by the dash cam - however, I ended up spending a lot of money and being let down by auto electricians who did a both job and caused a huge fire hazard in 4 vans - I'm now sadly not willing to invest any more time or money into achieving this which is a pity as I'd love to have the surveillance (have had a few graffiti attacks on the van as it's parked in a dark enough place). If this is an easy to implement feature it would be great.
*Built in rechargeable battery (charged when vehicle in use, uses its own battery while parking so not to interfere with and drain the vehicle battery)
*Dual cam
*Motion sensor
*Internal storage
*UV Filter
*Low discharge cut off for car battery.
*Bluetooth/WiFi (sync video files and watch on phone if at the scene of an accident)
Existing technology but probably not in any dash cams?:
*GPS tracking (I can view where my vans are remotely)
*Video feed (I can see what my vans see remotely!)
*Mirror attachment sold separately (custom shape rear view designed specifically so camera can slot into it and be completely hidden from view)
Things that would make things easier for me:
*Regular SD card as I already have them for my cams
*Some way of switching the head of the current power cable to be suitable to the new camera as I paid to get the power connection for the DRS1100/iTronics ITB100HD hardwired to the ignition live of the radio and would prefer not to have to pay to redo the job just for a new connection type of the new camera.
A lot of the "willing to pay extra for" features I mention are influenced by the Lukas 7900 Ace which looks like an awesome camera but I don't want to buy from outside of Europe.
One thing also is the recording method used. The DRS1100 method was better than the iTronics I think. It recorded and kept "shock/emergency" clips and never recorded over these until you deleted them from the PC. The iTronics splits the clips by shock/parked/driving and records over each as new footage happens. Because it's so sensitive, the old shock clips easily get recorded over and because it senses so much while parked, this happened too so in a way it'd be good if the motion clips were shared with the general clip allocation, rather than having to change the allocation % every time you park it up. This would then create more space for motion detection recording and would just be recording over the old driving files you had, which 99% of the time will be absolutely fine as if you recorded anything important while driving, you would have already taken the footage to your pc.
I'd ideally want one with a good review history and reputation and looking for the best choice that matches as much as the above for:
a) No budget
b) €100 budget
I'm VAT registered in Ireland and could either claim back Irish VAT or get a reputable seller to sell to me EX VAT from within Europe. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated