My first post here.....
I'm a dashcam novice but I liked the idea of the rearview mounted dash cam. Since this is DOD's first such cam, and they seem to make pretty good cams, so I thought I'd get this cam. I ordered from an eBay dealer in Hong Kong and it arrived in a few days. It seems to be the real deal, not a knock off. Being an early adaptor this unit comes with the Chinese menu, but I have a full translation of the menus from Chinese to English. I actually helped the vendor complete the translation so if you end up buying this unit from them you will probably get my .pdf file. They are supposed to send me the English version of the firmware when it is released. This is my first dashcam so I don't have any personal experience to compare it to, but I've done a ton of research and I think I know more than a noob about these. So I'll try to give you my honest review of this product. I'll post up some pics later, but you've all seen them here as well as video.
Pros:
- This mirror DVR is made by/for DOD and it seems to have the same basic electronics of the LS300W.
- The camera is pretty slim for a rearview mirror cam and the Velcro straps and the rubber pads on the back make it easy to install.
- I bought a 'cheap' 32GB Patriot SD card from Fry's and it seems to work fine. It didn't like my PC as well actually, but in the dashcam, set at 3min recording, it filled the card and over-wrote older recordings just like it was supposed to.
- The buttons on the bottom are pretty easy to access. There are visual indications of the button functions on the mirror, but being far sighted they are not easy for me to see, but you can run your thumb over them and find the button you need.
- As everyone realizes these types of cams are going to be larger than your actual rearview mirror. But I don't find it obnoxiously large. I can still lower my sun visors and not hit it, but it does 'overlap' the edge of the mirror. In fact the mirror is larger and you can see more behind you than your normal mirror.
- They must have some sort of image stabilization in the camera because I can see the vibrations in the road shake the cam but the videos don't seem to be affected.
- The daytime videos seem to be of the same quality at the LS300W.
- It is all black on the backside and when installed it is pretty stealthy. I haven't tried to hid the power cable yet but if the cable is properly dressed you would be hard pressed to notice it unless you were trying.
Cons:
- While the electronics seem the same as the LS300W, the camera/lens is not. It does not have the same '6G' lens and the aperture is only 1.8 (not 1.6) so the low light performance is not as good. I don't live in the city so most of my night driving is already pretty dark. So nighttime video is not like the video you have all seen of the LS300W at night. Note that most of those are taken in well lit city areas so I think they will look better than a country road.
- The LCD display turns on when the unit boots up. It shows the DOD splash screen and then in a few seconds it displays the output of the camera. You can verify that it is recording and setting etc. BUT... it won't turn off for 3 minutes. You can set the options for this to 'off, 3min, 5min, and 10min' but 'off' doesn't mean turn the display off immediately. It just defaults back to 3 min. The problem with this is that at night you don't want this screen to light up. With it on you can't see out the mirror because the light from the LCD is overpowering everything. What do you do after you start your car???? You normally back out of a parking spot, a garage etc, but you ALWAYS want to look in the rearview mirror. This makes it VERY difficult. This is the biggest CON for this camera and almost a deal breaker. I have a separate backup cam that shows on my Nav screen, but I always like to look in the mirror. It seems no one at DOD has actually used this camera or the cam would have a way to stay dark. I hope they fix this in a firmware update.
- The camera lens is built to swivel so that it can be pointed forward when your rearview mirror is tilted at an angle. But the lens can't move very far and it can't move far enough to make it point straight ahead when the mirror is angled for proper rear viewing. This is another case of the designer not using this cam before they put it in production. Maybe with your particular car and seating position it will be okay, but in my car it just can't go far enough. The camera is pointed slightly to the right of center. I can move the mirror (since it is larger and have more viewing area) and get it close but they need just a little more adjustability here.
- The G-Sensor is really sensitive. It has gone off several times just hitting an unusually large gap in the road. It does successfully more that recording into the 'safe' folder and won't over-write it (good) but when it goes off if also turns the LCD screen on so you can see the little 'lock' icon, but at night it also blocks your rear view from the mirror. You can adjust the sensitivity and I set it lower than the default of 'normal' but it still goes off on rough pavements like a pot hole or extreme pavement gap.
- The mirror is plastic and the mirror finish is sputtered on. It is pretty reflective but not as much as glass and probably not as durable. It may be easily scratched if you don't take care when cleaning.
I only paid $148 for this cam so it was an okay value. The other cam I was considering was the LS300W Plus. The problem I have with these cams is that I want to hide them behind the mirror, but then I can't easily access the button when I want to. So I thought the rearview mounted cam would overcome this, and it does. But the biggest drawback is that the LCD screen cannot be turned off in less than 3 minutes and that is bad at night when you want to look out the rear window.
I think I'll keep it and (hopefully) get the English firmware. Maybe they will make a few other improvements as well like the LCD screen OFF setting. I really like the idea of the dashcam and the mirror mounting, but DOD's execution has a few flaws. I think they can be fixed in a 2nd gen product. But once I'm done with my first dashcam I'll probably replace this with a better version or a windshield mounted cam like the LS300W Plus.
