Here's the dashcam I want

[Leeper]

The Blackvue runs @$300 and can be had for even less. Eliminate the screen and that would pretty much do it the rest would be mostly just changing the design itself. The cameras themselves are VERY cheap and readily available no need to have a larger tube just look at your cell phone and you'll see how small the cameras truly are. The main things that would make this unique would be the main electronics not being attached to the camera itself rather in a small plastic box (cheaper and smarter than current designs)

 

[Leeper]

Yes and good point about the capacitor versus battery, add that to the list of desirables.

As for American or Japanese... I have and love my HTC and LG products so Korean made is fine, I just have no interest in lower-level Chinese stuff. Just looking at the reviews on Amazon shows a huge inconsistency in QC with most of the Chinese-sourced cameras. The Blackvue looks like it's almost there but there is still no need for the front camera to be anything more that just that... a camera, which couple easily be tiny while providing 1080P 30+fps just like the one in our cell phones or even the cheap Xiaomi Yi camera (which can be had for <$60). Give functionality (which is simply the chip) without the screen and being "pretty" and that can readily be produced for under $200. For crying out loud the Yi camera already has most of what I ask for just add the processing chip and give me a plug-in rear camera... so simple! Make it black so it hides, make it small, make it simple, make it now please

 

[jokiin]

a lot of crap cameras come out of Korea as well, country of origin is no surety unfortunately

 

[Module 79L]

Even though I don't own a smartphone (there's always one ),

+1.
Some people think that because they have one everybody else should too. I, for one, would never buy a smartphone just because I "wanted" a screenless dashcam.

 

[sludgeguts]

I remember the "Jap crap" but only ever applied to their cars.
That said, I think it was just a ruse to hide our own incompetent shirkers. Ford earned the nickname "the Dagenham dustbin" for its ability to drop to bits - usually the day after the warranty ran out!
Our gripe was more to do with stuff 'made in China'.
Of course, we were always encouraged to 'buy British' - although why anyone would want to in those days, God only knows. The workers in the factories were constantly wanting to strike for more money & were constantly churning out crappy products - then they wondered why they all got laid off!
Personally, my first car was an ageing datsun. Despite the body being made out of something resembling a sieve, the engine was sound.
I think the sad thing is that there's too many knockoff products out there & people will buy these for £1 less rather than go for the genuine - then they moan when it dies on them.

Back to the point. Innovv do a dual cam system. (aren't their remote cams waterproof as well?)
And there's the bikermate with the single remote cam - obviously waterproof.
No idea what either of these are like in terms of quality etc.

 

[9thousandfeet]

Not only do I remember when products which were labeled "Made in Japan" were automatically considered inferior, I'm a really old fart and remember seeing products labeled "Made in Occupied Japan".

But yeah, a 2 channel unit with tiny cameras connected to a remote DVR with both cameras giving 1080, along with an excellent park mode, capacitor instead of battery, and real good build quality is just about exactly what I've been looking for.
I live 30 miles from the nearest cellphone signal, so I don't even have a cellphone never mind a smartphone, but if such a camera existed and it didn't have a screen I'd buy a tablet or something just so I could enjoy one, but there's nothing on the market right now which would persuade me to do that.
Not even close.

And it's not like the developers aren't slowly creeping up on that concept, 'cos I guess they kinda are;

Add good build quality and park mode and wifi then drop the battery and the screen on the K1S and we're almost there.
Add another channel and good wifi and drop the screen on a SGZC12RC and we're almost there again.

What I don't get is why they're creeping up on it so slowly.

It's been obvious for some time that's where things are headed, yet even the upscale companies with decent R&D budgets are still bringing out expensive new systems which have just horrible form factor on the front camera.

Look at the QVIA for example. It's got the technical chops, but really now, what kind of a muppet wants to drive around with (speaking of memories of Japanese products) what looks like an all-black Asahi Pentax 35mm film camera hanging in their car window?
Well OK, it's not quite that big, but it's big, and it's butt-ugly too.

Ridiculous.

 

[jokiin]

Not only do I remember when products which were labeled "Made in Japan" were automatically considered inferior, I'm a really old fart and remember seeing products labeled "Made in Occupied Japan".

oh wow, that is old

But yeah, a 2 channel unit with tiny cameras connected to a remote DVR with both cameras giving 1080, along with an excellent park mode, capacitor instead of battery, and real good build quality is just about exactly what I've been looking for.

pretty much what we're working on, won't suit you though as we make our products in China, just a reality of business, would never be affordable for us to do it anywhere else

What I don't get is why they're creeping up on it so slowly.

the need has been there, the capable hardware has not been though, that's why what you do see is flaky

It's been obvious for some time that's where things are headed, yet even the upscale companies with decent R&D budgets are still bringing out expensive new systems which have just horrible form factor on the front camera.

Look at the QVIA for example. It's got the technical chops, but really now, what kind of a muppet wants to drive around with (speaking of memories of Japanese products) what looks like an all-black Asahi Pentax 35mm film camera hanging in their car window?
Well OK, it's not quite that big, but it's big, and it's butt-ugly too.

Ridiculous.

They make what works in their market, not my idea of suitable either but I guess the Korean market has different taste so they market toward that, Lukas/QVIA do have a smaller version coming which might be a bit (ok a lot) more suitable to western tastes than anything else they've done so far

 

[9thousandfeet]

....won't suit you though as we make our products in China...

Um, where do I say anything about being opposed to Chinese manufacturing?
Or Chinese anything?
No, I don't care about nationalities at all.
I do care about worker's rights, and would rather not trade with people who treat their employees like crap, but that's a completely different issue and there's plenty of manufacturers right here in the US whose record on worker's rights is just awful.

 

[jokiin]

apologies for that, it was the OP that wrote no China product, my mistake

we don't work with any supplier with bad work practices, under age staff etc, it does happen but not something we will ever support

 

[9thousandfeet]

apologies for that, it was the OP that wrote no China product, my mistake

we don't work with any supplier with bad work practices, under age staff etc, it does happen but not something we will ever support

Oh, no problem.

Glad to hear you're sensitive to the worker's rights issues. There's really no excuse for treating other human beings like crap, and as I said there are plenty of companies here in the US who do exactly that. In fact it's a problem all over the world, and sure as heck not just in China.

 

[jokiin]

Oh, no problem.

Glad to hear you're sensitive to the worker's rights issues. There's really no excuse for treating other human beings like crap, and as I said there are plenty of companies here in the US who do exactly that. In fact it's a problem all over the world, and sure as heck not just in China.

yeah I shake my head sometimes when I hear people talking about workers rights in other countries when their own countries have their own issues, it happens everywhere unfortunately, generally the more price sensitive the product the bigger the problem as so much focus is put on making things cheaper all the time

 

[mollydog]

I remember sometime in the early 80’s (as manufacturing costs were rising in Japan) one of the Japanese camera manufacturers was opening up a factory in China to produce a range of their cheaper 35mm lenses,

Talk in the UK photography magazines of the time from subscribers (and a few magazine staff) were all about just how bad would these lenses be and could we tell if we were buying a lens made in China as opposed to being made in Japan

and the fear that this was the thin edge of the wedge before full cameras were going to be made in China

I remember when seeing “Made in W.Germany” the feeling was it was a well made product (how true this is I don’t know) and if one saw the “Empire made” meant it was cheap Hong Kong made item

 

[jokiin]

there are brand snobs everywhere that only want to buy products from certain countries because of the superior quality, plenty of these superior products still come out of China and just final have assembly done elsewhere, plenty of crap comes out of China, it's not all like that though, people that think it is are just ignorant to reality unfortunately

 

[kamkar]

The problem is "made cheap in China", but they have the tools and know the standarts / tolerances as good as the rest of us, but if you ask them to make your product to those standards and tolerances, well then you might just as well have it made at home, cuz the only difference then is the labour cost, and if most is made by CNC machines and robots thats little gain then.

I am sure some one here in Denmark could make a awsome dirt cheap broom, the problem is like a simmilar broom made in China first time you try to sweep somthing with it the handle break.

 

[Module 79L]

I remember the "Jap crap" but only ever applied to their cars.

I really don't understand where people got that idea from. Japanese cars where always seen as the more reliable ones, as far as I can remember. Even nowadays, if one buys a late 90's/early 00's Toyota, for example, they know they have a car for the rest of their lives. Fiats, Lancias and Alfa Romeos were the "real" crappy ones.

 

[jokiin]

60's Japanese cars were always referred to as Jap crap locally

 

[Module 79L]

60's Japanese cars were always referred to as Jap crap locally

They weren't the only crappy ones at that time...

 

[jokiin]

yeah a lot of pretty rubbish cars back then, no mystery why not many survivors out there

 

[Dashmellow]

yeah a lot of pretty rubbish cars back then, no mystery why not many survivors out there

1936 Toyota AA sedan



Of course, that was before the war.

 

[Module 79L]

1936 Toyota AA sedan

View attachment 22701

Of course, that was before the war.

Of course.