DVR-207GS from estor009, is it supposed to be this bad?

[AndreyCo]

I read up about dash cams on this site and ordered the latest and greatest from this trusted ebay seller. Can't say I'm satisfied with the quality of the video, but it'll do.

I am, however, having some significant problems with the exposure levels on the video. Setting EV to 0.0 leaves me with very dark video, even thought I have aimed my camera down towards the road. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQdey1elbyQ)
Setting the EV to 0.7 results in a good exposure level, until I go under a bridge at which point the camera goes crazy and whites everything out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHoJ_ib_uzo) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggyj_0cbyBw). It will stay this way until I drop the EV to 0.3, at which point I can raise it back to 0.7 to have a decently exposed video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4GFIwKgl00).

Is this how it's supposed to be? I bought this camera as a safety device, but if I have to keep checking if the exposure is acceptable it defeats the purpose. Should I try sending the camera in for a replacement?

 

[Xybone]

Try getting a 027/007, I haven't heard of EV problems on that camera.

 

[CheckYourLights]

My DVR-027 was never that bad. It might of gotten a little lighter, but never a white out like that unless i crank it to 2.

 

[Gurkha9]

Never seen anything that bad on my DVR 027.

 

[CheckYourLights]

I don't mean to be off topic, but i am curious. What kind of car is that? It has a neat dashboard.

 

[Xybone]

I don't mean to be off topic, but i am curious. What kind of car is that? It has a neat dashboard.

Looks like a newer Civic. But then again, I don't know a car from a jar, so I could be wrong.

 

[CheckYourLights]

I don't mean to be off topic, but i am curious. What kind of car is that? It has a neat dashboard.

Looks like a newer Civic. But then again, I don't know a car from a jar, so I could be wrong.

Thanks that's cool. I'm decent with most American stuff from about 1970-2000,but i am sure stuff slips my mind, and not much imported stuff. I had a Pontiac from the 80s that had a digital dashboard and always thought they looked neat at least until was a bulb or wire issues. Had one or two lights burn out. Then it can be a little rough.

 

[HangFire]

I just got the same model from estore 009 and am having the same problem. It seems to light balance on the sky exclusively and leave everything else black. When I drive under a bridge that blocks out the sky, it momentarily light-adjusts so that everything has contrast again but as soon as I come out it's awful again.

I have some basis for comparison, I've had the $18 clone from Amazon for several months and its much better in daylight. Unfortunately it has a 60 degree view not 120, so I need an upgrade of some sort. 60 degrees is not enough to catch all the idiots.

I'll try adjusting it but if it stays this bad it's going back for a refund. So far, big disappointment.

 

[HangFire]

Setting EV to 0.0 leaves me with very dark video, even thought I have aimed my camera down towards the road.

How do you set the EV? It's not a top level menu item on my DVR207GS.

EDIT- Never mind, just hit "up" or "down" while recording. D'oh.

 

[HangFire]

I figured out the EV thing right before Vicky wrote back and suggested I try that. Last night I tried an evening commute at 0.7 and today a morning commute at 0.3. Both ways have substantial portions of commute directly into sunlight. The results of both are "acceptable" in a minimum sort of way, but not really "satisfactory". The 0.3 commute has substantial portions of the commute dark, and 0.7 bright. In all I think I'll go with the too bright, as more detail can be found in general.

At one point I passed a truck that momentarily blocked out the not visible, through-the-clouds Sun, and the picture turned to perfect exposure until the moment I was past it.

The issue I have seems to be direct sunlight, even if the Sun is unseen through heavy cloud cover and not bothersome to the driver, it affects my DVR-207GS disproportionately. In this regard, my cheap $18 HDMI-free Amazon clone DVR (with a 60 degree view) is greatly superior in handling sunlight (through cloud cover or not). This is a big disappointment after spending more money for the "real thing".

At this point I'm iffy whether to keep the thing or not. I'm going to try it at night. If I get acceptable results (even with an manual EV setting change, I don't expect perfection for <$70), I may keep it and try the following- get a shorter mount that puts the lens quite close to the windshield, put some black electrical tape just above the lens on the windshield. The camera body will block my view of the tape and the cam will be higher up on the windshield so it will be an all-around positive as to driver's view obstruction, and the tape should handle almost all indirect sunlight falling on the lens. I don't think anything can be done about direct sunlight (sunrise/sunset on the horizon). Maybe a polarized filter refit? I'm open to cheap experimentation. There are a lot of cheap small linear polarizers out there for older handi-digicams.

Any thoughts on this?

HF

 

[Dave-s]

I too ordered the DVR207GS from Vicky.
The first cam I got was utter crap. The video quality was unacceptable.
I sent it back to Vicky, and she sent me a replacement cam that worked fine until yesterday.
Yesterday the DVR stopped powering up altogether.
I just sent an email to Vicky 5 min ago, and I already got a response (at least their customer service is excellent ).
She suggested that I try removing the battery or format the SD card.
I'll give it a try, but I doubt it will work.
I think that these new DVR207GS cams do not have the same quality as their previous models.

 

[HangFire]

Surprisingly, the format + battery trick did fix my Amazon-cheap-DVR207 clone. Give it a chance.

Yes Vicky is working with me on my problems too. She is offerning an exchange for an older model 027. That will get me to a genuine 120 degree view (my Amazon clone is about 60 degrees) but I'll lose the G sensor. Hopefully it would also fix the EV/light balance/color saturation/contrast problem when driving towards the sun (which is pretty much most of my daily commute). I'll decide this weekend after I review video for the week. No rush I have 2 months to decide according to Vicky.

 

[HangFire]

Hmm... price on eBay just jumped from 69.99 to 169.99. Wonder if they are trying to surpress sales of a problematic model.

 

[jokiin]

Sellers normally put the price up when they have no stock, keeps the ad active

 

[AndreyCo]

I'm still trying to figure out my exposure problem as well. I have aimed the camera down so that only a tiny bit of sky is in the picture and it still focuses making sure the sky is exposed properly, leaving the road in front of me pitch black. If i use my finger to cover the top of the lens where the sky is, everything is properly exposed. I'm debating on whether I want to risk shipping something internationally and having it get lost in the mail.

 

[HangFire]

I tried everything suggested, pointed down for minimum sky, fiddled with EV, finally was offered an 027 which I refused. I gave up and returned it for refund. Can't complain about the customer service, got a quick refund, but I noticed that Vicky never answered the question- is there a firmware update? I ordered a Mini 0801, hope that goes better.

 

[jokiin]

I ordered a Mini 0801, hope that goes better.

the performance is worlds apart from what you had

 

[Hamsterdangler]

I have been trying to decide on which carcam to buy and after a lot of research and reading a lot of this site I decided to try a DVR-207, however after watching a few videos I was a little concerned about the white balance, now even more after reading this post. My other choice was the HP F200, but they did not have a g sensor but now I see they are available with a g sensor. My naive view was with so many fakes on the market and HP being a well known brand, it may be a good buy, was I wrong?

 

[jokiin]

the HP will perform ok I'm sure, it's a premium priced product though so in way comparable to a DRV-207 as I'm sure you'd appreciate