Hawkeye Q5 Pro Review - 1440p + 1080p Tube Dashcam

[DrekiTech]

Please note: Hawkeye provided this camera for review.
(The company is not related to the Hawkeye action cams)
I'm also doing some samples of their 4K U1 camera soon.

What I Liked:
- Overall decent plate readability even at speed, provided lighting is good
- The camera picks up a ton of details
- Night footage is competitive with major dashcam brands
- Overall basic dashcam functions worked
- Super capacitor
- Speaks out loud for power on, memory error, wifi, etc

What I Did Not Like:
- The camera creates a file with 30FPS metadata, but was only filming at 25FPS
- The front camera is a bit noisy/crunchy even in the day (could use some noise reduction)
- No adjustment for exposure, HDR mode or video quality adjustment
- Missing rear camera rotate setting
- No CPL filter to reduce glare

Conclusion: In my opinion this camera has potential, but it needs some firmware adjustment to fully take advantage of its sensor and hardware. The build quality is decent overall. I'm glad that it has a super capacitor, since the main market for this cam appears to be Thailand and the super capacitor should hold up better long term over a battery. It does the dashcam thing just fine, start and stops with the car and records video.



Front Camera:


Rear Camera (facing forwards):


More Front Camera:

 

[Agie]

Please note: Hawkeye provided this camera for review.
(The company is not related to the Hawkeye action cams)
I'm also doing some samples of their 4K U1 camera soon.

What I Liked:
- Overall decent plate readability even at speed, provided lighting is good
- The camera picks up a ton of details
- Night footage is competitive with major dashcam brands
- Overall basic dashcam functions worked
- Super capacitor
- Speaks out loud for power on, memory error, wifi, etc

What I Did Not Like:
- The camera creates a file with 30FPS metadata, but was only filming at 25FPS
- The front camera is a bit noisy/crunchy even in the day (could use some noise reduction)
- No adjustment for exposure, HDR mode or video quality adjustment
- Missing rear camera rotate setting
- No CPL filter to reduce glare

Conclusion: In my opinion this camera has potential, but it needs some firmware adjustment to fully take advantage of its sensor and hardware. The build quality is decent overall. I'm glad that it has a super capacitor, since the main market for this cam appears to be Thailand and the super capacitor should hold up better long term over a battery. It does the dashcam thing just fine, start and stops with the car and records video.

View attachment 69011

Front Camera:
View attachment 69007

Rear Camera (facing forwards):
View attachment 69013

More Front Camera:

View attachment 69008

View attachment 69009
View attachment 69012
View attachment 69010

Nice review first of all, love the work you put into this

What s hits me off though is these companies just doing so-called 4k dash cameras or in this case, correctly labelled 2k cameras. Sony IMX335 is old news here on the forums, it was on the Viofo A119 v3 from a few years back.

It's nothing new, I see it with normal dash cameras, with rear view mirror cameras, and the exorbitant prices these companies are charging customers for quite old tech is horrendous. We have Starvis 2 sensors now in the decent brands now.

Again, absolutely nothing against you or your channel, but when i see these products it's another case of "move along boys and girls"

 

[DrekiTech]

Nice review first of all, love the work you put into this

What s hits me off though is these companies just doing so-called 4k dash cameras or in this case, correctly labelled 2k cameras. Sony IMX335 is old news here on the forums, it was on the Viofo A119 v3 from a few years back.

It's nothing new, I see it with normal dash cameras, with rear view mirror cameras, and the exorbitant prices these companies are charging customers for quite old tech is horrendous. We have Starvis 2 sensors now in the decent brands now.

Again, absolutely nothing against you or your channel, but when i see these products it's another case of "move along boys and girls"

I guess the benefit of the older sensor is that it is "Tried and Tested" per say, but for the older hardware the price has to be right. I was a bit surprised at the noise (and/or lack of noise reduction) - since this sensor has been on the market a while it really should be fine tuned even if the firmware they are using is basically straight from the OEM with minimal tweaks. I did provide my feedback to the seller, but as always it's a coin flip whether they can implement firmware fixes.

 

[Agie]

I guess the benefit of the older sensor is that it is "Tried and Tested" per say, but for the older hardware the price has to be right. I was a bit surprised at the noise (and/or lack of noise reduction) - since this sensor has been on the market a while it really should be fine tuned even if the firmware they are using is basically straight from the OEM with minimal tweaks. I did provide my feedback to the seller, but as always it's a coin flip whether they can implement firmware fixes.

Yeah dunno what extent Sony has in things but I doubt it would be much, so up to OEMs to optimise with what they're given. If it was much cheaper than fair enough for the price, but it doesn't look like this is the case which in my eyes makes the whole product a non-starter

 

[DrekiTech]

HAWKEYE U1 Pro 4K Samples

The camera body is virtually identical to the Q5 Pro (the 4K version is a bit heavier) so I skipped most of that and went straight into the video samples.

 

[Agie]

HAWKEYE U1 Pro 4K Samples

The camera body is virtually identical to the Q5 Pro (the 4K version is a bit heavier) so I skipped most of that and went straight into the video samples.

What Sony Starvis sensor though? Is it interpolated, or is it a true 8MP 4K sensor like the IMX415?

These cameras hold up nothing against Starvis 2 sensors that are on the market now. Unless they are priced cheaply, there's no comparison.