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

i haven't completely played with it yet, but do the "locked event" files overwrite themselves when their allotted storage is full or does it just not record any more?

Don't use a regular Sandisk card. Mine killed a card after only a few months with parking mode.

And you do have to format a 64gb card directly in the camera. Search this forum for instructions.

so you don't recommend even the sandisk class 10 card?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00M55C1I2
 
i haven't completely played with it yet, but do the "locked event" files overwrite themselves when their allotted storage is full or does it just not record any more?
not sure. it allocates apparently 20% of the card when you format it, which for a 32gb card means ~100 lock files. 64gb means about 200. i've never had more than 30 or so locked files before i put it in my pc and copied them off, then deleted them. my guess would be you'd get some sort of voice prompt telling you there's an SD card error or that the SD card is full. read this thread for more info on the event folder: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/cf-100-wasted-space-on-sd-card.10350/

so you don't recommend even the sandisk class 10 card?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00M55C1I2
no, i don't recommend that one for use in a dashcam at all. that's the exact card that died on me after about a month of continuous usage (truly continuous - i was using parking mode) in the cf-100 (after about a year of very light usage in my android phone - basically storing MP3s, pictures, and a few other misc files here and there). if you look at the warranty info on that card, they specifically say that continuous recording devices like a DVR or dashcam will specifically void your warranty. check out this thread, starting with this post: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...d-to-dashcams-are-now-over.10017/#post-144892 - goes into a good amount of detail.
 
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not sure. it allocates apparently 10% of teh card when you format it, which for a 32gb card means ~100 lock files. 64gb means about 200. i've never had more than 30 or so locked files before i put it in my pc and copied them off, then deleted them. my guess would be you'd get some sort of voice prompt telling you there's an SD card error or that the SD card is full.

yea the reason i'm asking is because in my lowered daily driver, it's fairly bumpy (especially when i change the setting to stiff when i drive alone) and on the 30 min drive to work and the camera laying in the seat, i had a beep about every minute if not more. that's with the default sensitivity. tonight i'll check to see how many files it created but i don't want to take the card out more than once a week just to remove the locked files that are only from "bumps" driving. i'm hoping it just overwrites similar to normal files

on the way home i turned the sound all the way down and have no idea how much it went off.

not at all. that's the exact card that died on me after about a month of continuous usage (truly continuous - i was using parking mode) in the cf-100 (after about a year of very light usage in my android phone - basically storing MP3s and a few other misc files here and there). if you look at the warranty info on that card, they specifically say that continuous recording devices like a DVR or dashcam will specifically void your warranty. check out this thread, starting with this post: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...d-to-dashcams-are-now-over.10017/#post-144892 - goes into a good amount of detail.

ok thanks for the heads up that's good to know haha. i'll check out that thread, i was searching last night for threads on that specifically but didn't find any good ones.

thanks so much for your quick responses!
 
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go back up and read my edits - i added another thread you should read (about the "wasted" space on the sd card in the event folder.

also, a camera laying on and bouncing around on the seat will give very different G-sensor reactions compared to when it's hanging vertically and solidly affixed to the windshield. it probably has different sensitivity thresholds for each axis (left/right, fore/aft, up/down) because up/down happens a LOT on bumpy roads, so they don't want to trigger all the time. but a high left/right or fore/aft hit is rare, so it'll trigger easier. and if it's laying on its back, it thinks it's getting fore/aft impacts just by moving up and down in the seat.

and one more thing. in my signature there's a link to a video splitter utility i wrote specifically for this camera (but which also works for other cameras), because it embeds both front and rear videos into one .avi file. so if you ever want to edit the videos or watch them individually (instead of at the same time in VLC or the crappy blacksys player software), you can't... until you split them apart.
 
^^ thanks so much, i didn't think about the different axes having different sensitivities but that makes sense! i'll read through all those threads tonight when i get home from work. i was hesitant to mount the camera before "testing" it because i have front windshield tint (very very light, not noticeable) and was worried about ruining it if i didn't like the camera but i think i'll be ok.

i've read some of your threads already but will have to visit the video splitter one.

thanks again!
 
anyone know which specific sensor this camera uses other than the fact that its a sony Exmor 2mp? I feel like the quality of video isnt that great, everything seems kind of fuzzy for being almost 14mb/s bitrate, as if its 720 scaled up to 1080 or something then super sharpened. Plates arent readable at all unless your are like 5 feet from the car directly in front of you. Street signs arent readable either. Initially I thought the video looked great, but I think its an illusion because of the over sharpening done in the camera making edges looks crisp, but when you try to actually look at the details, they are all lost due to the sharpening..

But overall its an its excellent bang-for-the buck, due to the recent price drop. $80 on Amazon for a dual channel, Korean quality device, makes me want to overlook the video quality.
 
I checked the focus, and it was good. The issue is the bad in-camera over-sharpening, which tends to remove detail by creating false details to make the overall image look better. Almost hurts your eyes to watch the video in certain scenes with lots of sharp lines. This has been covered before, lots of manufacturers do this. Just wish there was an option to turn down the sharpness setting. But again, for the money spent for a dual channel system, its an ok compromise.

Here is a sample video:

Here are screen shots:
YCz68QP.jpg


G7w54Rn.jpg


mjt78gL.jpg
 
i thought there WAS a way to turn down the sharpness in the options. normal/fine/superfine? or maybe that's just turning down the bitrate, which in turn softens the image? dunno, i keep mine all the way up.

here are a couple screenshots from mine from today:

Sweet yellow Nomad on other side of highway (I was doing 75, he probably was too!)
vlcsnap-2015-07-26-17h05m16s027.png

I was doing 85 (legally!). Digital/LED signs never show up right in screenshots or videos due to refresh/frequency mismatch.
vlcsnap-2015-07-26-17h06m01s255.png

One of at least 6 red light runners i caught, just today. I was stopped, he was probably doing 45-50.
vlcsnap-2015-07-26-17h06m43s964.png

This guy ended up running the light as well, as did the TWO cars in front of him. I was stopped and he had JUST taken his foot off the brake in this screenshot.
vlcsnap-2015-07-26-17h08m25s000.png

one important note though - i took off the chrome ring around the camera to de-bling it. however, i think it's allowing too much light in from the sides, and it's making the entire image a little foggy. I think I will paint the chrome ring flat black and put it back on to see if it improves quality.


BTW - I recognize the areas in your shots... I used to live and work in the Land of Sugar. Even without the big signs pointing to the george observatory and brazos park, the imperial logo on the highway overpasses gave it away. In fact, I lived in Ragus Lakes. Apparently the people who built the neighborhood had a sense of humor... "Oh, this neighborhood is just behind the sugar mills so let's spell sugar backwards! it's so clever! herp derp..." One morning we were woken by some explosions - sounded like big fireworks in the distance. it was when they knocked down the old mill building. :(
 
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finally played with the camera today even though i didn't mount it yet.

seems like you can't ever turn off the g-sensor, the lowest setting is "low" and not off.
you can turn the sound all the way off

i saw the settings for "camera settings" and there is "dark, normal, and bright." i have pretty dark tint does that mean that i set the setting to "dark" or would i need to set it to the opposite "bright?" little confusing but i'm guessing dark...has anyone played with this yet? if not, i'll play with it this week and update here.

the blacksys viewer has poor detail and i can't even read the text in the bottom corners, is the best way to view videos through the VLC player (essentially rendering the blacksys player useless since you can't capture license plate details)? or am i missing some setting? i could only see details after uploading it to youtube and changing the quality to 1080p
 
Vlc is best. Yes the black sys player is total crap. I only ever use it to change settings in the camera.

If you want to break out the rear video for YouTube or whatever, you'll need the 2 channel video file splitter. Link in my signature.

Oh and for tint, I'm not sure. My car has factory privacy glass in the back but the rear cam handles it just fine. It's probably the equivalent of 20% tint so it's fairly dark. This video was made with the cf100. The only thing I did to the rear video was to crop it and mirror it so it looked like what you'd see in the rearview mirror.
You can see that the back is a little darker than the front but not much at all.

 
Hey guys.
Can anyone confirm that CF-100 takes 64GB cards? In particular I'm looking for a confirmation on Samsung Evo 64GB SDXC. I've read that Evo 64GB comes formatted to exFat and I need to format it to FAT 32 and can do it only on PC cuz the CF doesn't take exFat and a card can not be formatted in the unit.
Never paid attention before, but like my 32GB card holds only 2-2.5 days of driving (apprx. 1.5-2 hours of driving a day) even if I delete junk from "Event" folder and I want to keep at least 3+ days on a card.
ok. I've been using Samsung Evo 64GB card since April and can tell that CF-100 takes 64GB card, but the cam using only 48.4GB out of 59.6GB that seen by PC. Anyway, instead of 2-2.5 days I can keep 4-5 days of driving on my 64Gb card now and it works for me.
 
i would not recommend turning down the volume because then you won't get voice notices for things like SD Card errors, nor will you know whether it actually started or stopped recording.

and yes, you can disable the accelerometer or g-sensor completely. even in my wife's minivan with mushy tires, it would still beepbeep and lock files for certain railroad crossings, most speed bumps, and the bump at the end of our driveway. can't imagine how often it'd go off in a sports car.
I don't see a way to disable G-sensor. I can set it to 1 (out of 1 to 5), but there is no way to turn it off completely.
Q: I'm in Dallas TX and most of the recordings are kind of bright and sun washed. There is a setting that allows to change camera setting to Dark, Normal and Bright. For now my stays in Normal mode, but I guess if I want to go darker I need to switch to "Dark" mode. Have anyone played with that setting? How much darker the "Dark" setting vs "Normal"?
 
i haven't completely played with it yet, but do the "locked event" files overwrite themselves when their allotted storage is full or does it just not record any more?



so you don't recommend even the sandisk class 10 card?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00M55C1I2
I'm running Samsung Evo 4gb class 10 since April and everything looks good UTD. Just be carefull, there are bunch of fake 64GB cards on ebay and Amazon.
 
ok. I've been using Samsung Evo 64GB card since April and can tell that CF-100 takes 64GB card, but the cam using only 48.4GB out of 59.6GB that seen by PC. Anyway, instead of 2-2.5 days I can keep 4-5 days of driving on my 64Gb card now and it works for me.
there's a thread on here about wasted space with this camera. unfortunately nothing we can do about it.
 
Does anyone have any other suggestions for a recommended BDP to go with this camera? I've pretty much set my mind on getting CF-100s for both of our cars since they've both experienced more than enough parking lot mishaps--the only cause for delay is what BDP to buy.

Was gonna duplicate Gibson99's setup and get the Ojocam one, but found it went up in price and no longer included free shipping. I have my eye on this MotoPark one, but am open to other suggestions under $40.
 
I bought two sets of the motopark ones and have no complaints so far
 
Does anyone have any other suggestions for a recommended BDP to go with this camera? I've pretty much set my mind on getting CF-100s for both of our cars since they've both experienced more than enough parking lot mishaps--the only cause for delay is what BDP to buy.

Was gonna duplicate Gibson99's setup and get the Ojocam one, but found it went up in price and no longer included free shipping. I have my eye on this MotoPark one, but am open to other suggestions under $40.

That PANOBDP motopark works good, very reliable long term now.
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...charge-prevention-device-ms-multi-safer.4603/
 
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