Is this the real F500LHD?

[Alex]

i also searching a real f500lhd

Hi Alex, a few days ago I bought two F500LHD with this seller, I read it very reliable seller. There is a $91 F500LHD also read that the seller is reliable, but in the first seller more positive feedback.

Hi Wlad,

Thanks for the suggestion.

I go through the saddle store on aliexpress, it seem they have more positive feedback. but the price $91 is high, I check this seller:

http://www.cardvrcameras.com/dod-f500lhd-camcorder.html price only $79.99, it's $11 less than $91.

I noted both them declared firmware is V5.12 T2L-GH, so I think they are the same and would like to have a try.

 

[Wlad]

Alex, I bought two F500LHD with old firmware (T2L-KH). Also thought to buy with the new firmware (T2L-GH), but did not find any feedback and bought T2L-KH. Waiting for feedback from Talontsi96, he was the first that I found who bought.

 

[Talontsi96]

So I got the cam today. I will post some sample video later. It looks good and it appears to be the real deal. The video is definitely 1080p and 30fps and its also wide angle. The menu structure is the same as the real F500LHD. When the camera arrived it was in the Russian language as default and I had to screw around blindly to change the menu language to English but after I did that all works fine. It looks like it may have been repackaged or something as I did not see any protective film on the lens or on the suction cup like in some other items I received. However there was protective film on the LCD screen and the camera has no scratches or blemishes that would suggest that it was used or anything. It came in a box and looks brand new. The only thing that makes me think that it may have been opened before is the lack of protective film on the lens. Not sure if they come with it though. So far this looks like the read deal to me. The videos look clear 1080p and the still feature takes photos at 8MP according to the menu. Looks like this is a legit seller. I'll post some sample video for you guys soon.

 

[DashCamMan]

Great that your camera is legit. Please share some videos. I wonder why this seller doesn't set up an eBay or Aliexpress account and sell there. Unfortunately from my knowledge of these Chinese vendors it is better to be suspicious than trusting.

 

[Talontsi96]

here is a link to a short vid...

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Talontsi96,

The video quality seems ok, perhaps a little bit worse than other F500LHD cameras I have seen for reading details but it may just be the lighting in the video.

The interesting thing is the bitrate of the video file. The F500LHD when recording 1920x1080p 30fps, has a bitrate of 8MB/s. Your video is recorded at 1920x1080p 30fps but only has a bitrate of 6MB/s.

What was the firmware that came with it?
You can take a photo with the camera (not video) and look at the EXIF information. You can see the EXIF information in windows by right clicking the image, choosing properties and then select the details tab. It should show you the make and model.

After doing more research, there are new versions of the F500LHD are coming from a different supplier with firmware ending in GH. The latest version is V5.12 T2L-GH. I am not sure if this firmware is compatible with the cameras ending in KH (I don't believe so, but am not 100% sure). I will keep trying to get more info on this and update the main F500LHD page.

 

[Talontsi96]

The firmware is : V5.12 T2L-GH

When I check the info on a photo taken with the camera (I'm on a mac by the way) it reports the device as:

Device Make: HDDV
Device Model: HDDV
The resolution is: 3200X2400

The video was taken with an EV of -0.3 and it seems too dark. I'm running it now with 0.0 EV and it seems to be brighter. I set the camera as per the recommended settings on this site and that is why I had the EV set at -0.3.

BTW. When I check the bitrate for the video I posted to youtube, it shows just over 8mbit/sec so I'm not sure where you are getting 6mbit/sec from.

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Talontsi96,

It appears your camera is from a different manufacturer than the original models. The old models typically said DeSheng or Transfluent. The question is whether this camera is better / same or worse than the old model. I have heard that the firmware is not compatible between T2L-GH models and the T2L-KH models. Hence they have slightly different hardware. Day video quality seems about the same. Do you have a night video?

For bitrate, I downloaded the video from youtube and checked with VLC and MediaInfo. See screenshot below.

Usually Youtube does not change the bit rate but perhaps it did in this case.

 

[Talontsi96]

I'll upload a night video soon. I checked the bit rate on the original video file not the one that youtube processed. I'm wondering if youtube changed the bitrate of the video when it was processed by them.

 

[DashCamMan]

Youtube must have changed it then. Thanks for sharing all this info on the cam.

 

[Wlad]

Talontsi96, thanks for sharing!
It is a pity that only T2L-GH, I would have bought if the firmware was T2L-KH.

 

[Talontsi96]

Night time vid as promised. Sorry about the delay... Had to hard wire the cam and had other stuff going on.

 

[DashCamMan]

Hi Talontsi96,

Looks like the typical F500LHD night time quality. A bit grainy but acceptable like most of the Ambarella A2S60 based cameras. Overall, I think the picture looks fine. Hope you are happy with the purchase, since it seems like good value for the money.

 

[Talontsi96]

Yeah I'm pretty happy with it. I installed permanently and wired it into the fuse box and it will be in the car all the time. I wish it was more vertical with a flip out screen as my other DashCam 720P that I put in the wife's car. That one is much less distracting but overall the F500LHD was a good buy.

 

[tony]

Hi, I also just bought this camera, it seems ok but still have to fully test it.

For anyone who should also buy it and doesn't understand russian, this is the exact sequence to get english or other languages:

power camera on with screen in front of you and joystick on lower side
press menu button
press joystick one time up
press joystick one time right
scroll down with joystick until you read "язblK" (that's 9 times down in case you're completely lost)
press joystick right until you see your favourite language

that's all, just my cent.

And thanks DashCamMan, this is a great forum.

 

[lkwan78]

Tony,

Thanks for the shortcut...

My f500l. If lucky should arrive tomorrow...

 

[tony]

On second thought I suspect upside down 720p recordings still need to be fixed on this firmware indeed.

I didn't notice that before but now I can see a distinct pixelation on them and that's not present on upright ones. It's like images are missing a filter or something even if resolution is the same.

 

[DashCamMan]

The upside down pixelation issue was a problem with the old T2L-KH but was resolved quite a while ago with the firmware. I'm surprised these new models have this issue as well!

 

[tony]

So, I did some testing today and I'm posting a couple of files. I chose a file sharing service because maybe youtube would re-encode the recordings. The files are reasonably small so there should be no problem downloading them.

I'm interested in the opinion from someone savvy to check if upside down 720p records do really suffer from pixelation bug. I also tried different EV values just out of curiosity.
Apart from this possible bug I'm very satisfied about this camera, the only downside is setting it upright under the windscreen is a bit more trickier than setting it upside down, especially if you don't want to include the suction cup into the image.

File 24 is 720p upside down EV -0.7
File 30 is 720 upright EV +0

h**p://dfiles.eu/files/khwy0fg6w
h**p://dfiles.eu/files/yvccpcf36

 

[tjani]

I also bought this camera.
Was a big disappointment when there is no file locking feature.
Another flaw is that the screen does not turn off by itself.
Otherwise camera is ok. The picture quality could always be better, especially in the dark.

I made a small comparison to Panasonic video camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy-Lm_niOOE

Dark, 720
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKhsHI7U5AU

Day, 720
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T43QTsloN8Y

Day, 1080, cloudy white balance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUsm0M0x4OA