Complete Review BlackSys CF-100. 2Ch 1080p Sony Exmor CMOS + 720p, GPS, 24/7 Parking.

That would work but you only get one shot at getting it right. Personally I'd go for something a little less permanent. Maybe a blob of silicone gasket material or bathroom caulking in the socket, then snap it together and get it aimed right, then let it dry. In theory you should still be able to take it back apart if you needed to, such as if you buy a new vehicle and want to keep the camera.
 
this mount is absolutely horrible. i have two sets of these and both go bad very easily. i even tried gasket material, a rubber glove, and silicone sealant to lock one of them in and over time they still loosen up and move around. this is enough to make me never buy this camera again. i've put polyurethane adhesive in one but it's a pain and i shouldn't have to do this for a dash cam setup. the camera's center of gravity is off from the mount and makes the camera want to rotate down.

contemplating switching my camera setups it's such a pain. camera doesn't help much if it moves all the time and doesn't give you the right view you need
 
this mount is absolutely horrible. i have two sets of these and both go bad very easily. i even tried gasket material, a rubber glove, and silicone sealant to lock one of them in and over time they still loosen up and move around. this is enough to make me never buy this camera again. i've put polyurethane adhesive in one but it's a pain and i shouldn't have to do this for a dash cam setup. the camera's center of gravity is off from the mount and makes the camera want to rotate down.

contemplating switching my camera setups it's such a pain. camera doesn't help much if it moves all the time and doesn't give you the right view you need
Strange... I've had two and the only thing I've had to do special is the rubber glove thing.

Do you press the emergency button often? Or is it mounted so close to your mirror that it's always being hit when you adjust the mirror? I got tired of it moving when I hit the button so I started putting my index finger on the front bottom edge below the lens (right on the parking led) and pressing the button with my thumb, in a light squeeze motion. This stopped all movement when pressing the button.
 
Strange... I've had two and the only thing I've had to do special is the rubber glove thing.

Do you press the emergency button often? Or is it mounted so close to your mirror that it's always being hit when you adjust the mirror? I got tired of it moving when I hit the button so I started putting my index finger on the front bottom edge below the lens (right on the parking led) and pressing the button with my thumb, in a light squeeze motion. This stopped all movement when pressing the button.

I hardly ever press the emergency button and almost never take my card out. it's very very frustrating that the mount can't hold up. i placed the camera so i never hit it with the mirror or my windshield cover, it just falls over time even with the glove and silicone sealant. our windows are pretty slanted so i have to be at almost the extreme of the mount limits which exacerbates the loosening mount issue. i press the button just like you described.

i think i'll try to put some construction strength polyurethane adhesive and just make the ball/socket permanently set. or i may just switch it out for another company. when we get my wife a new car i'm definitely not going with this camera, i'll pay a little more and get something more robust. i don't even live in a hot climate and my cars are garage kept too.

does anyone know any other 2 channel systems that allow you to push a button to save a clip? I like the blackvue overall but they don't have this feature which i think is very important.
 
our windshield is slanted so much that the proper angle on the cf-100 is pulled all the way back till it stops. yes, it shows some of the dashboard that way, but it's still wide-angle enough to see traffic lights that we have to lean forward in the seat to see. and it does get plenty hot here in houston. our cars are NOT garaged, but there is a small tree to one side of the driveway, so my wife's car gets partial shade for part of the day when she's home. maybe the heat is actually good for this camera? maybe it makes the mount ball expand and get tighter or something.

the blacksys ch-100b i have in my truck (cf-100 is in wife's car) has a MUCH more solid mount, and much more discrete form factor, but the front video quality isn't as good as the cf-100. but it has a big emergency button, and it has wifi to make downloading clips and changing camera settings simple via smartphone app. the rear cam is also more solidly mounted, though i had to get creative about mounting it in my truck since the center of my back window slides to one side to open.

there's also the k1s, but it's battery-based, and has horrible audio... but it's 1080p front AND back, and has a remote DVR box so there isn't anything bulky on the windows - just some tiny cameras. and it has a remote lock button. but i wouldn't want to use a battery-based camera for parking mode, especially with how hot it gets here in houston. i haven't used one of these but it's gotten decent reviews here and there.
 
^^ yea i don't know why this mount works for some but not others. could be variation in the mold quality as well so that mine are not as tight fitting as yours. either way it's a poor design if some work and some don't, i've seen the blackvue mount and that thing is solid.

I'm interested to see how the new blacksys 2 channel works but i haven't seen any reviews. seems to have more functionality, a better mount, and a more low profile form (horizontal instead of vertical). i'm also hoping that it has the same connectors so that i wouldn't have to rewire anything if i decide to purchase that one. blackboxmycar did a comparison with the blackvue one but i haven't had a chance to go into detail on reading it.
 
^^ yea i don't know why this mount works for some but not others. could be variation in the mold quality as well so that mine are not as tight fitting as yours. either way it's a poor design if some work and some don't, i've seen the blackvue mount and that thing is solid.

I'm interested to see how the new blacksys 2 channel works but i haven't seen any reviews. seems to have more functionality, a better mount, and a more low profile form (horizontal instead of vertical). i'm also hoping that it has the same connectors so that i wouldn't have to rewire anything if i decide to purchase that one. blackboxmycar did a comparison with the blackvue one but i haven't had a chance to go into detail on reading it.
If you mean the ch-100b then there's a review of it right here in this forum. In fact I bought the actual camera used in the review. Unfortunately it uses completely different wires than the cf100 so you'll have to replace all the wires. I'm about to buy the GPS mount for it so it will show my speed in the video.
 
If you mean the ch-100b then there's a review of it right here in this forum. In fact I bought the actual camera used in the review. Unfortunately it uses completely different wires than the cf100 so you'll have to replace all the wires. I'm about to buy the GPS mount for it so it will show my speed in the video.

thanks for all the info and i just went through that thread and started reading up on it. there's so many better features it seems on the new one. if you were going to buy a new camera setup, which blacksys one would you lean towards?
 
tough call. the ch-100b front camera footage is LOWER quality than the cf-100 because it records at a lower bitrate. and i haven't found a way to increase the bitrate. rear video seems to be about the same, but the rear cam is smaller, has a better mount, and has a (user-selectable) security LED in it if you want (i don't - i disabled as many LEDs as i could).

but i have a feeling the cf-100 is discontinued since it's probably at least 2 years old now, and the low price is because sellers are trying to get rid of their inventory. so it may not be available much longer.

right now all 2-channel systems have some sort of compromise, whether it's lower quality video, combined files like the cf-100, a battery instead of supercaps and bad sound (k1s), or something.... if you are most concerned about quality video, you just need to use individual cameras. which means you can't lock a file on the rear cam so you'll need a big enough card that it won't cycle out. and you'll need more than one SD card. before i got the ch-100b to put in my recently-purchased tacoma, i used two separate cams in my camry - a118 front and a118c in rear - both recording at 1080p30. they don't have as good of night vision as the blacksys cameras because they don't use sony sensors, but daytime video was still great. and since i do the bulk of my driving during the day...
 
So I went ahead and place the CF-100 at the back of my Car.

Been running it for three days now and here are some observation
1) It takes time for the camera to bootup (approx 30sec, more or less), not sure if this is setting related or not.
2) The gps is not as fast as I have imagine, not a big deal really. I would expect some files would have different timestamp while there is no gps (this is a guess, haven't lookup the file contents yet)
3) I do like the voice promt.
4) I will comment on the camera quality once I got a chance to view them.

Here a some pics
BOd0SMS.jpg

HYaRbcO.jpg



I did not cover the led lights and as of now it has not bothered me yet (not sure what will be the reaction of the passengers in the near future.
As you can see I haven't install the 2nd camera, I plan to point it inside the car not 100% sure yet where to place it yet (at the back, up front or at the side near the front passenger).
 
The boot time is normal if you don't have it hardwired for parking mode. The timestamp is according to the camera's realtime clock, it does not sync with the GPS nor is there an option to do so that I've found. It would be nice to have it sync with the GPS and just set the timezone, but that'll have to wait for another firmware update, which probably isn't going to happen anytime soon.

KuoH

Been running it for three days now and here are some observation
1) It takes time for the camera to bootup (approx 30sec, more or less), not sure if this is setting related or not.
2) The gps is not as fast as I have imagine, not a big deal really. I would expect some files would have different timestamp while there is no gps (this is a guess, haven't lookup the file contents yet)
 
I find that it does in fact sync the clock with gps on its own. When I had been driving with gps disconnected because of the bug in the 1.2 firmware, I noticed that once it got a gps lock the first time after updating the firmware and plugging gps back in, the clock changed on its own. That's why you give it a time zone in the settings.

That said, it has its own internal clock so the time stamped will at least be close while it doesn't have a gps lock, or if you don't use the GPS antenna (it was optional).
 
Guess I'll have to double check. I have had the GPS or display connected, but not both at the same time and remembered the clock was off when I was looking at the live view. However, that was with the early shipped firmware, haven't checked since the upgrade.

EDIT: Just checked one of the recordings and the timestamp does change by a few seconds once the "GPS is connected" message is announced, so you're right.

KuoH

I find that it does in fact sync the clock with gps on its own. When I had been driving with gps disconnected because of the bug in the 1.2 firmware, I noticed that once it got a gps lock the first time after updating the firmware and plugging gps back in, the clock changed on its own. That's why you give it a time zone in the settings.
 
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Here are some sample recordings.
These are taken on a cloudy morning just before sunrise.



yay for the clean window !
I now have an extra task of cleaning the back window every morning before I go out :p
 
In my camry, usually running the defroster was enough reach morning. No, it didn't get the window clear immediately, but usually by the time I was at the exit of my neighborhood, it was clear enough to see between the lines and get most details.
 
Hey guys just reporting here that I got a 128GB microSD for my CF-100 (Silicon Power) and it holds my entire 1,370mi 25hour trip without overwriting itself.

This by using the 720p setting instead of the highest HD setting 1080p. The files are smaller by almost half it seems. In any case I looked real hard to see if one-or-the-other was better visual quality and could not, so I'm settled on 720p. If anyone here knows better by all means tell!
 
replacing the CF-100 with a CH-100B, the mount drove me over the edge haha. if anyone wants it i'll sell it for cheap along with the motopark battery discharge prevention device. excited for the upgraded CH-100B!
 
replacing the CF-100 with a CH-100B, the mount drove me over the edge haha. if anyone wants it i'll sell it for cheap along with the motopark battery discharge prevention device. excited for the upgraded CH-100B!

wanted to close the loop on this...ended up trading my camera setup and cash for the CH100B with another member
 
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