CH-100B Video Review

USDashCamera

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Got another review for you guys, this time the CH-100B (obviously) from Cammsys. This was sent to me for review by www.blackboxmycar.com so thanks to Alex for this review.

This review was a long time coming since I had my issues with youtube taking down my previous review and taking over 2 weeks to reverse it and tell me I did not violate any guidelines.

It's a cool camera, that rivals the blackvue dr650gw-2ch but has lower quality video, plus blackvue has the benefit of the custom firmware alexsol and his team have made.

But thats not to say this camera is not better than the blackvue, as it does have a few special features blackvue doesnt have (it also is comparable to Lukas dashcams, but with a more discrete form factor).

This camera does support OBDII and external GPS, but both of those are optional. It does have built in wifi though which is where it really shines for me. The wifi app is how you change the settings and the amount of settings rivals the previous Lukas LK-9370 that I reviewed including separate brightness and security LED settings for each channel, and motion detection zone control.

It also has a buffered parking by g sensor or motion like blackvue/panorama/lukas, and an emergency record/lock button on the actual unit.

So it is a pretty feature packed camera, with typical lower than desired video quality (1080p30 @ ~6300kbps video + audio for the front, 720p30 @ ~4400kbps video +audio for the rear channel) but with a pretty great form factor that only blackvue can compare to for discrete form factor in a 2CH system (not including KS1 or other cams with remote cams front and rear I suppose).

Check out my video review:

 
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Good review, this will be my first dashcam. I purchased this camera a few days ago and still waiting for it to come in. picked this one over the blackvue for the decent wifi app and more settings/adjustability. I am concerned that I wasted money on a 2ch setup though, as my car's windows are tinted with 35% tint film. this may reduce the usefulness of a rear cam.
 
I actually bought this camera from Jon and I use it in my Tacoma which has factory privacy glass (like tint) in the back. Works fine. Probably not ideal at night but you can still make out some details. If you want I can try to post some samples.

Here's a few pics from my install. You can see how I have it hanging in front of the slider part of the window, and when it's closed you can't really see the camera.


IMG_20160228_115415~01.jpg IMG_20160228_115429~01.jpg
 
A sample would be great if you had one. what are your impressions of the whole package?
 
A sample would be great if you had one. what are your impressions of the whole package?
Front video quality could be better, and sometimes it switches between super sharp and "soft" video. Soft looks a lot better but doesn't capture license plate details. I've only noticed that in parking mode though, so not a big deal.

I'll see if I have any night clips saved and try to upload them for you.
 
I thought i read somewhere that parking mode was 15fps. can you confirm? did you adjust the brightness setting of the rear cam for the privacy glass?
 
I thought i read somewhere that parking mode was 15fps. can you confirm? did you adjust the brightness setting of the rear cam for the privacy glass?

You can choose to drop the rear frame rate to 15 FPS but AFAIK it's 30 FPS by default even in parking mode.
Blackvue cloud is dropped to 15 fps for parking mode though
 
i don't remember any settings for 15fps anywhere. i think in the review video above, you can see all the options in the wifi app. if not let me know and i can check. it may be dropping the bitrate though, and that's what i'm seeing when it switches from "soft" to "over-sharpened". i can probably post an example of that. it's weird... everything looks great, and then the event triggers (whether it's motion or g-sensor) and it switches to over-sharpened and even the dirt/pollen on my hood looks weird. then again, you can't read license plates even one car over in the parking lot when it's in soft mode, so the over-sharp is actually needed.

here's the night sample. i don't currently have any parking samples saved, but i HAVE noticed that when it sees motion in parking mode, it only saves the file for the camera that it saw motion in. so if it only sees something in front, it will NOT save the rear camera feed. so it saves SD card space and probably a little energy that way.

 
actually i found a clip that shows the soft/sharp transition. starting the engine was enough of a g-shock that it triggered and locked the file while in parking mode. notice the text at the bottom of the screen. ALWAYS means normal driving mode. EVENT means something triggered and it saved it. PARKING is self-explanatory.

 
The transition you speak of happens as the cam switches modes from parking to event. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
 
The transition you speak of happens as the cam switches modes from parking to event. I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
yeah, it's probably lower bitrate or something during parking mode to save power and to fit more in the buffer/ram, and then when it triggers, it goes full quality because now it's writing to the card and you NEED more detail for things like a license plate number or a person's face/clothes/etc.
 
Got mine installed last night, wasn't bad at all. I dont have the hardwire kit yet, forgot to order it. So i cant check the parking mode quality switch yet. looked at some video from the drive to work and it looked as expected. rear had good brightness through the tinted glass. will have to check after a night drive.
 
Got mine installed last night, wasn't bad at all. I dont have the hardwire kit yet, forgot to order it. So i cant check the parking mode quality switch yet. looked at some video from the drive to work and it looked as expected. rear had good brightness through the tinted glass. will have to check after a night drive.

any chance you could post some night video through that tinted glass? i'm interested to see how it compares to my cf-100 through my tinted glass and defroster lines.
thanks!
 
great video review! i love how you went into the app and should some of the features. i'm considering switching out my cf100 for this guy but i had a few questions:

- what is the mount interface? is it a serrated tooth that gets locked tight by a screw? i'm hoping it's better than the cf100.
- can you turn off the g sensor while driving completely? i have aftermarket motor mounts and an aftermarket sound system so this would reduce my unnecessary files

love that you can pick where motion is picked up and that there are different g sensor settings for driving vs parking.
the form factor is great too! i'll have to look into this more to see if it's worth the switch, thanks again for the review!
 
- what is the mount interface? is it a serrated tooth that gets locked tight by a screw? i'm hoping it's better than the cf100.

yes, it's got teeth in the two moving sections so once you tighten the screw, it ain't going ANYWHERE. probably the loosest part is where the mount slides into the main body of the camera, but that's pretty tight too, and doesn't allow for adjustment or movement. only thing i noticed tho - you want the mount to be stuck to the glass on the RIGHT of your mirror mount post, or the video will look annoyingly off-center, since the lens is on one side of the camera, not centered. so you may want to try to get the lens centered under your mirror mount. course that may only matter to mildly OCD people like myself. :p i'll correct this oversight when i get the GPS mount since i'll have to take it off the glass anyway.

- can you turn off the g sensor while driving completely? i have aftermarket motor mounts and an aftermarket sound system so this would reduce my unnecessary files

i have this camera in my 2005 toyota tacoma x-runner, which from the factory has stiff lowering springs, hard bilstein shocks, big sway bars, and 18x8 rims with 255/45/18 tires. rides harsh, potholes and speedbumps hurt. and since it's a manual with a big v6, it gets driven like you'd expect a sport truck to be driven. that said, i have the driving mode G-sensor sensitivity set to 0.9 all around. now the only time it locks a file by itself is if i hit the brakes hard enough to make ABS kick in, or take a corner at the absolute limit of traction. or if i get wheel hop after a hard launch or shift :D you can set it higher than that too, but i left mine around there so it'd still register SOMETHING during emergency situations that might not be an actual collision - like having to stand on the brakes for some reason.

love that you can pick where motion is picked up and that there are different g sensor settings for driving vs parking.
the form factor is great too! i'll have to look into this more to see if it's worth the switch, thanks again for the review!

yes it's very handy. so it won't trigger on reflections from your hood. you can also set the delay before it goes into parking mode. i tried 30 seconds, but that's too quick - simply getting out and closing the door normally (not even slamming it) is enough to trigger the g-sensor and lock a file in parking mode, since the sensitivity SHOULD be turned way up (lower G numbers - mine is set to something like 0.05) in parking mode so it'll actually trigger if someone bumps your vehicle in a parking lot. i set the delay to 5 minutes and that prevents it from triggering on normal unloading of kids from the back seat. it still triggers when we're getting IN the truck though, since it's still in parking mode because the engine is off. not much you can do about that unfortunately, unless you can figure out some way to give the camera accessory power when you unlock the vehicle with your remote or something, so it'll switch from parking mode to driving mode. i'm sure it's possible, but it's not worth the effort to me - it's not even coming close to filling up my 32gb card with event files, and i only pull the card every 2-3 weeks or if something especially bad/interesting was captured. and on that note - you can adjust how much space it allocates for event files, parking/motion files, and normal "always" files. so event files can NEVER fill up your card. i don't know what happens when you fill up the space you allocated for event files but i wouldn't be surprised if it gave you some sort of voice warning.

the video i posted above is through factory tinted glass, probably about 30 mins after sunset, obviously in a busy city environment. i can try to find a true night time video but offhand i don't think i have one right now. i do need to go take the a119 i'm testing on a drive at night, so i'll try to save a file or two from this camera for you as well. i can post them on my website so you can see the raw files rather than crap youtube compression. also defroster lines aren't really an issue for a rear cam. my truck doesn't have a rear defroster, but my wife's highlander, her previous sienna van and my previous camry all had them. just put the camera in live preview mode so that you can position it between lines. the lines are too close to be in focus, so you can pretty much see through them... just try to avoid having one in the center of the frame since it's very distracting and could potentially obscure a plate or something.
 
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^^ SO much great information, thank you for taking the time to post those details. the ch100b just sounds better and better i'm going to have to take a hard look to see what i can do. i have a tinted windhield so i'm really worried about ripping the tint in trying to switch cameras and is the only thing holding me back. i repositioned my wife's cf100 so that it wouldn't be hit by the sun visor and i got 3 corners off fine but the fourth ripped some of her windshield tint off. we'll be getting her a new car in a year or so, so it doesn't bother me but my car is in for the long haul and that tint is expensive for the windshield. maybe i can be extra extra careful taking it off.

i would love to switch to the 100b if i can, sounds like so many good features. thanks for the info on the g-sensor sounds like you have the comfort i have in my car haha. the cf100 is constantly going off in my current setup, i would say probably 3x each time i drive to work. i would also try to put the mount on the right side since there's where my current one is and i'm going to try to use the existing spot. do you know the outer physical dimensions of the ch100b is (length width and height)? trying to see if it will fit in the same spot

which card are you using currently? i remember there were issues with >64 GB cards with the cf100 so i got the one you recommended (lexar). on amazon someone said they are using a 128gb in the ch100b!
 
i don't know the dimensions of the mount, but it looks like it's a little larger than the cf100 mount, maybe by a few mm in each direction.

i wouldn't be surprised if you can use a 128 in it. i currently have an old transcend 32gb class 10 card in it that was used in one of my smartphones for a year or so. i may later put one of my samsung evo 64gb class10 cards in it, once i get the action camera footage off it.
 
which card are you using currently? i remember there were issues with >64 GB cards with the cf100 so i got the one you recommended (lexar). on amazon someone said they are using a 128gb in the ch100b!

I use a 128g Samsung Evo+ without issue

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
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