Dash Cams really are over priced junk? F800

[psyshack]

Hello,, New Member,,, Do all dash cams suck? Or am I expecting to much out of China and Korean Junk?

So let me start out with a good dashcam given to me as a gift five or 6 years ago. Some no name china junk that worked great! Video was clean day or night,, plenty of detail. Parking mode was great be it motion or impact. Plug it into a power port, hide the wire and forget about it. Then it quit working a few months ago.

So I buy a new car,,, Nothing fancy just a 2018 Ford Fusion for daily grind work. I drive 90 miles a day round trip in the car or on the Harley. So I think,,, lets get a dash cam for the car and some action cams for the bike. It's getting quite harry out there now days. I haven't a clue how most drivers now days even qualify to get a drivers lic. It's evident they haven't a clue how to drive.

So the first cam was a YI Smart Dash Cam. Great video quality, Simple,,, does what they claim. Then dead in 3 hours. Well so much for YI,, won't be buying any of there action cams. China junk #1 down.

I guess it's time now to do more research. Waist hours and hours reading, watching videos. I mean a insane amount of time going into this research. Maybe I'm not very smart. So I order a Viofo A119S and a A119 Pro. If I like one or the other or both I will put one in the front,, one in the back. Lets just see? They both were trash. Out of focus, hot pixels, Complete garbage. So more China junk goes back for a refund.

So I do more research,,, does it really have to be this hard? So frustrated I went to Best Buy and bought a Thinkware F800, F800R and there way over priced hardwire kit. I turn myself into a pretzel installing the hardwire kit. Stuff cables and stick the cams up and it's installed. Update the firmware and off I go into the absolute worse wifi, hotspot and cloud setup I have ever seen in my life. It's all slow, clunky and very amature. It hasn't over heated yet in the hot Okie sun. And it seems to have at least passable video and as slow and horribly done as the interface is,,, it sort of works. For $420 or so dollars including tax it's really a let down. I'm going to keep the junk because my time is worth far more than the time needed to pull all the cams out and all the cabling and return the junk. I will never buy another Thinkware product again.

At this point I don't think I will very buy another dash cam again.
Looking in on this industry from the outside,,, it's just a bunch of over priced pacific rim crap!

 

[MattressActress]

I wonder how many people each of these companies have that contribute in developing the product and verifying quality. I agree in that dash cams for the most part are clunky and are not reliable.

I’ve only heard of one brand in the US that has recently made a dash cam available (Naruto I think?).

Maybe it has to do with the fact that the dash cam market is a relatively new one and manufacturers are still working out the details needed to produce a reliable dash cam with a very customer-friendly interface? Korean electronics (e.g. Samsung) are respectable. Thinkware is a Korean brand and is regarded as the leading dash cam manufacturer. Yet, their app performance is subpar. I am surprised their WiFi/Hotspot troubles have dragged this far.

 

[franka]

Dear me, you do seem to have a problem.
I think i am right in saying that very few others will agree with. I personally find this "junk" to be usually of very good quality
and more than able to do the job.
If you continue to read this forum you will realise that there are many clever and experienced contributors that are only too willing to assist you.

 

[jcpg]

I’m going to agree to an extent based on 9 months of Thinkware F800 ownership.

I bought the F800 2 channel back in Sept 2017 and about a month ago I got the cellink NEO. I was able to get a good amount of recordings in parking mode in 3 day intervals.

Here’s the serious problem with parking mode.

Surveillance isn’t 100% reliable. Yesterday was Father’s Day and I parked my car near a hydrant at a local Dunkin’ Donuts. Not 2 min went by and i get a ticket. Fine that’s my fault for parking there, but did I get any footage of this on my Thinkware? Nope. Not even an approach or lifting of my windshield wiper or anything. This is insane considering motion sensed other random nonsense except for the life sucking fatherless leech that ticketed me on Father’s Day as I pulled in. Not only can I see the wipers on my Thinkware, but I also see a few feet left and right of it. There simply no way the camera should’ve missed this! People here pride Thinkware as the premium parking mode dashcam, but I’d like to say for 400 bux this is simply unacceptable.

 

[Moon]

psyshack rides a Harley ... that in itself screams don't sell me cheap Chinese junk. It's when 'trying my best' just ain't going to cut it. I demand 'Quality'

Obviously, psyshack is looking for a Dash Cam made by Sony, Olympus, Panasonic etc ... let's face it ... he's right on the money. I want one too.
Unfortunately ... the choices are limited to products manufactured by Chinese, Taiwanese or Korean companies ... or an Australian owner manufacturing in China
jokiin/Street Guardian.

 

[krole]

psyshack rides a Harley ... that in itself screams don't sell me cheap Chinese junk.

It means sell me overpriced American junk.

I live in Milwaukee so I think I have the right to say that.

Even if there was an American\European company, where do you think the camera would be made? I think you only need 1 guess.

 

[DT MI]

...except for the life sucking fatherless leech that ticketed me...

Nice to see that you can remain objective about your experience in the aftermath of the illegal activity you initiated.

 

[Moon]

Even if there was an American\European company, where do you think the camera would be made? I think you only need 1 guess.

I'm still grasping onto a belief that say a Japanese Company like Sony getting cameras manufactured in China is more likely to be a much higher quality product than a Chinese company making stuff in China ... yeah?

Take Michelin Tires for example (your spelling not ours) ... I think they are manufactured in Malaysia for the Australian market ... or is it Thailand?
Whichever ... I'm hoping that the quality is still pretty good ... as compared to Chinwah brand. I'm willing to take that risk and pay the extra .... ?? lol

ps. Ok ... I'll admit ... we do get taken as suckers and get ripped Downunder ... so what can you do, eh?

 

[krole]

I'm still grasping onto a belief that say a Japanese Company like Sony getting cameras manufactured in China is more likely to be a much higher quality product than a Chinese company making stuff in China ... yeah?

It would probably be higher quality. China makes both low and high quality items. The thing is if it was a quality design to begin with, and be able to enforce a strict QA.

 

[Nik]

The F800 pro is definitely overpriced because when I first bought it at closed to USD400 for a 2ch model nearly 7 months ago, I expected it to have the advertised cloud features where it will send the video or alert me when I'm parked. But no... Thinkware lied to us and decided that it was just a prototype never intended to make it to the F800 pro.

Considering that in Singapore where it is hot and humid all year round, the F800 pro is definitely more hardy as a 24/7 cam than IRoads and other Taiwanese and Chinese made dashcams that I've owned, where they will either simply stopped working, suddenly restart or get blurry from overheating. Currently the F800 pro has been running 24/7 for 7 months now, and still working well.

You're right about the Thinkware software. I had trouble just browsing to get the right file I need, I get there in the end but the process is just tedious. Now I prefer to just pluck the sdcard out of the cam and stick it into a reader then to my phone or pc to read the files.

 

[Paul Iddon]

Or am I expecting to much out of China and Korean Junk?

Starting off like that isn't going to get you much feedback from the manufacturers here Stephen.

Reading all your post, you need something from Hollywood studios, not something like what a dashcam is...

 

[psyshack]

Paul Iddon,,, If your addressing me it's psyshack. Don't see a Stephen in this thread. At least not yet,,, LMFAO

But since you brought it up. Is it mandatory that one kiss's a factory's rump? I'm a manufacturer's rep in a diff. industry. When a customer has concerns or is po'ed about one of our products, it's all hands on deck,, right now! If it's a issue dragging on that has not been taken care of because of bad engineering or production. Folks loose there jobs. Be it a so called important person on Wall Street or and plant worker that can't get it done. Or a over educated engineer that thinks the world revolves around there degree's. Me I'm just a pump guy that has to get things done or heads roll. I left a rep and manufacture I had worked with for 15 years. They started making the castings in China. One of the most expensive pumps in the world over all and they are going to stamp China on it? I'm out as were a bunch of very experienced long term people. I walked out the door,,,, made a phone call and had a new job in the time it took me to drive 2 miles. I work extremely hard at taking care of my customers. The hotter they get the harder I work. And I will yerk a knot in a factory boy's neck in a heart beat.

Have a Great Day!

 

[jokiin]

the challenge with a lot of the products on the market is if you have problems you can't give feedback that is going to get anywhere, and even if you are lucky enough to get the info to the right people they too often don't listen, this happens in every product category, it's not just a camera thing

 

[Moon]

'Made in Japan' used to be junk back in the 60s & 70s and have evolved into the preferred choice for those looking for 'Quality'
I once read that if the Japanese wanted to compete with German quality ... it would cost the consumer at least 3x the price.
'Made in China', like Japan, has started out with the cheap junk tag and are gradually improving. It takes decades for a Nation to change it's reputation from cheap junk to Quality.
A Country needs to lift its game right across the board, as it is no good taking pot luck that you have purchased a good quality item ... or perhaps not?

I purchased an Apple iMac desktop computer back in 2008 ... hasn't missed a beat. Although 'Made in China' I put its reliability and longevity down to Apples top notch Quality control... at least back then. In the earlier days, Companies on home turf, whether in USA making Levi Jeans or suits, workers took much pride in their workmanship and products.
Getting items manufactured offshore removes the pride in workmanship and product. Over in those sweat shops ... it is all about meeting the quota and getting them out the door.
These Companies don't care about happy workers or striving for perfection ... and it comes out in their products. 'Quality Control' isn't what it used to be, especially when going offshore and paying peanuts. I'm not prepared to equate 'Made in China' with 'high Quality' just yet. There would be exceptions ... sure .. only how can you tell before you purchase it?

If I had the choice between a Mercedes Car Made in Germany or China ... for $5,000 cheaper ... I know which one I'd be buying. Reputations are earned.

 

[psyshack]

Went out this morning to go to work and found the Thinkware SDMicro card had some how corrupted it's self over night in park mode. Unit telling me memory card error. And it would not format in the unit. Power cycled the unit and reset it. No Help. Took it out brought it inside and did a quick format on the pc and did some testing. Still would not work in the unit. Put a known good 64 gig card in. And it worked. Took the Thinkware card into the office when I got to work blasted the partition and did a standard format on the card with my work pc. It worked when I put it back in after work. See if it fails tonight.

 

[kamkar]

There are 2 kind of made in China. ( or any other country for that matter )

1: Made as cheap as possible in China,
2: Made according to customer specs in China, which mean not cheap if specs are high, and in many cases as the process are highly automated the job could be done elsewhere more or less at the same cost.

Another thing China got going for it are no or little environmental concerns, so waste from production can be disposed off at a lesser cost than say here in Denmark.

And other things as China seem to insist on making the same mistakes all we western countries also made when we transitioned from a farming country to a industrial country, China had a golden chance here learning from our mistakes, but they dident want to do that.

I am pretty sure you could make B&O quality audio / visual or Dynaudio Audio in China, the "problem" is it will cost just about the same as when they are made here in Denmark.

Workers also jumped out of windows here at one time, problem was back then most factories in Denmark was 1 floor, and this could well have been child labor as we did that too back then.


The big problem is most people dont give a damn where their stuff come from, as long as they can get it cheap. and denial are strong in these matters.

 

[jokiin]

some of the best products are made in China, conversely so are some of the worst, you don't get what you don't pay for and unfortunately way too many buyers are fixated on things having to be as cheap as possible and constantly push for lower prices, it's not good for consumers as in many cases it's so bad that there is no longer even an option to buy something of decent quality that is built to last

 

[kamkar]

People could save on other things that then translate into money saved in the end, for instance why get that new fruit or Sumsang phone when you never use 1/3 of its compute power.
Okay i am about to upgrade my computer, though what it will be doing most of the time could well be handled by the meager processing power of my cheap China phone.

Still i am convinced that many people have phones with way more power than they will ever need, but they just need the show off power of that phone.
Personally i think its insane to spend 500 USD on a damn phone, but i can easy spend that amount on a radio controlled "toy" but at least i get my RC toy for me alone, there are absolutely no show off powers in a +50 yo man running around in the forest with a RC toy.
But lucky for me i care zero about what other people think, at least what strangers think.

 

[jokiin]

the top model iPhone here is over $1800, ridiculous amount of money for what it is

 

[kamkar]

yeah i know, my brain go strait into thermal shutdown when it seen phone prizes like that.