Jomise K7 1600p Dashcam Review - A Camera that Looks/Feels Great, but was Unreliable

DrekiTech

Active Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2015
Messages
273
Reaction score
239
Location
Vancouver, BC
Country
Canada
Dash Cam
A129
Early access to this video here for Dashcamtalk friends. Now I am asking for your help. Am I missing something here? I've never had this kind of trouble with any camera, and I want to know if I'm just being stupid about these problems before I post the video publicly. Please see below for a write up of what the issues I found were.

Jomise sent me this dashcam for review. We spent a month back and forth e-mailing about issues and sending files, until their support just went in circles telling me to download their app to playback video. My computer would not let me install it.

Watch the video to see more about this camera:


Specifications
- Sony IMX415
- HiSilicone Chipset
- Touch screen only no buttons
- Battery
- 1600p video (not 4K despite this sensor being true 8MP)


Build Quality
Probably one of the nicest build quality I have ever felt. Very solid plastic, slightly rubberized, heavy. Permanently mounted to a ball joint. The camera is meant to be visible when driving so it should not be hidden behind the rear view mirror. This camera is not coming out of the car easily. There's no buttons, only the touch screen.

Problem #1: Set-Up
Required for set up is downloading an app from the vendor Hikvision. At time of writing there is <100 downloads and 0 ratings. Nobody has independently verified this app is safe and does not send data back to the vendor. There is no way to bypass this with alternative apps. This app is 100% required to use the camera on set up, and without it the camera will not operate. If the app goes off play store, there are no 3rd party options that I tried to work. Also there is a security concern with Hikvision products as they make surveillance products.

Problem #2: File structure
This is the biggest reliability problem for me. This camera pre-fills the memory card with blank video files then adds to them as it goes. This in itself is not a problem however I noticed often thumbnails would become an incomprehensible mess because the camera was not properly writing the duration of the files, resulting in them reporting 2h+ duration. Then it would not let me skip through the files to find the part of the video I need, nor could I edit them. Handbrake refused to convert these ones so I was left with a situation where, if I wanted a specific part of any video file I would have to use screen capture software to find it.

Jomise suggested using their player but the files they sent me would not open on my PC because Microsoft Antivirus reported it as containing a virus, and an upload to virus total had enough AV programs flagging it that I was not going to try and bypass and let it install even if it is a false positive. Jomise does not have a website, only a FB page, with no download link on it so I cannot find their software elsewhere.

I tried:
- Windows built in video player (does not work at all, required codec to buy)
- MPC-HC (plays back, no audio)
- Dashcam Player (plays back, no audio)
- VLC (plays back, no audio)

Playback in the app does work although there were still issues with skipping to different parts of the video sometimes.

For an average user this is a big problem seeing that they will not necessarily have the technical knowledge to download and use these other players on the PC, let alone editing the file to send it to an insurance company or the police. Even those companies may not go through the work arounds required to play it and will ask for the file in specific formats. One necessity in my opinion of operating a dashcam is ease of use when grabbing files, how simple it is to get the file off the dashcam and playing back, and we are not yet there with H265. Unfortunately the duration problem persisted even if the camera was set to H264 mode, and even across multiple memory cards (some worked better than others, although even on the best cards I own it would have this issue for maybe 20% of files).

Furthermore when the camera turns off and back on, it does not start a new file. It keeps going on the last file it was writing to. It makes it a pain in the ass to find any specific point when I started/stopped driving with the issue skipping through files present in any video player I tried. Also, I think as an aspect of the H265, I often noticed that the first 1/2 second of any video file would be blocky/blurry before becoming perfect. This is likely a result of the player and how it starts to decode H265, however it meant that I would have transitions between files with these noisy artifacts and I could not seem to get rid of them, so that meant every 3 min, 1/2 second would be unusable. I do not recall this being present in the cameras H264 mode, but it is by default set to H265 and I expect many users will have this same experience.

And finally I had one file with studio ghibli movie as the audio, I had used the card to transfer earlier the movie to my tablet and even through the format it seemed to persist in some readable state. This is the only file that had playable audio. Weird!

Video Quality

Overall video quality is very good with high dynamic range and decent sharpness. I don't think there is quite as much detail as some Viofo and Blueskysea 1440p cams I have tested but I notice comparing side by side there is better dynamic range so that makes up for it in some cases where the Viofo would have too bright on white cars the Jomise managed to keep in some detail.

Video is also quite yellow/orange in some cases, the camera will white balance too much based off of the blue sky before figuring out what it is doing and correcting it. In practice this does not hurt legibility of plates or use of the camera but it is noticeable.

Overall plate readability at speed is average. When stopped it is high.

Audio quality I did not get to test as no player would give me audio samples.

Night video is very bright with some noise in the sky at times. It's overall pleasing howver.

Smart Features

This camera has some smart settings that tell you when a light is green or to "keep up with the car". They have false positives and in my opinion should be turned off. It was kind of funny at first when it would tell me to keep up with the car in front of me but then I realized it was dangerous when the car in front of me actually had not moved at all...

Conclusion

This camera's build quality is fantastic. It is a solid piece of kit. However the reliability issues make it highly problematic for me. Am I missing something here? I tried all my basic troubleshooting but still could not get it to work as intended. Mostly everything else about this camera was rock solid. But what is a dashcam if it is not reliable? Not something I would recommend buying that's for sure.
 
Last edited:
Specifications
- Sony IMX415
That is a 4K sensor, as used in the Blueskysea B4K, why does it not give 4K recordings?

The image actually looks a little like the B4K, maybe go for that instead!
 
Last edited:
Problem #2: File structure... This camera pre-fills the memory card with blank video files then adds to them as it goes.
Maybe trying to improve card performance by not having to delete files before new ones can be written, but that is unlikely to work well, flash memory has to be deleted before it can be written, and it is that deletion that causes problems with some cards/camera combinations.

Problem #2: File structure... (plays back, no audio)
That's no good, may need to be able to play original files in court, having to use a specific player may not be possible, there is no way my police force would accept them!

Smart Features ... They have false positives and in my opinion should be turned off.
Yes, these are not jobs for a dashcam, possibly for the car's driver assistance system, but really the driver should be making these decisions, if not the human driver then you need a full auto pilot built into the car.

Does it do the speed limit sign reading? That one also seems fairly useless due to false "positives".


Good video :)
 
Conclusion

This camera's build quality is fantastic. It is a solid piece of kit. However the reliability issues make it highly problematic for me. Am I missing something here? I tried all my basic troubleshooting but still could not get it to work as intended. Mostly everything else about this camera was rock solid. But what is a dashcam if it is not reliable? Not something I would recommend buying that's for sure.
the problems you found are going to be reliant on a firmware update, troubleshooting won't sort that out
 
That is a 4K sensor, as used in the Blueskysea B4K, why does it not give 4K recordings?

The image actually looks a little like the B4K, maybe go for that instead!
Aha, you are right. I misspoke on that respect, I thought it was only 1440p sensor for some reason.

Maybe the processor cannot handle it without too much heat?


Maybe a brand new fresh out of the box memory card could work better. However I suspect this reliability issues will pop up after 1-2 full writes onto the card as it starts going over old data.


Those smart features, I think it detects the brake lights turning off, so if the car in front gently removed from brakes it would tell me to KEEP UP WITH THE CAR even if they went right into braking again. The "Texting and Driving Attention" feature more like.
 
the problems you found are going to be reliant on a firmware update, troubleshooting won't sort that out
I figured as much. Jomise has a couple cams for sale but no internet presence except for Amazon and Facebook so I don't think they'll do much in the way of FW updates. They said they would send my concerns to their engineer. I'm not sure what to make of that.
 
Aha, you are right. I misspoke on that respect, I thought it was only 1440p sensor for some reason.
On the front of the camera it says 2560x1600, which would be better using an IMX335, doesn't make sense to use the IMX415, although that is what is in the advertising!
Those smart features, I think it detects the brake lights turning off, so if the car in front gently removed from brakes it would tell me to KEEP UP WITH THE CAR even if they went right into braking again. The "Texting and Driving Attention" feature more like.
Wouldn't be much good in the UK where we are supposed to turn our brake lights off while parked waiting for the green light!
 
that's a real rule?
Yes, rule 114 of the Highway Code, we even have to wait until there is a camera behind to be caught out!:

Rule 114​

You MUST NOT
  • use any lights in a way which would dazzle or cause discomfort to other road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders
In stationary queues of traffic, drivers should apply the parking brake and, once the following traffic has stopped, take their foot off the footbrake to deactivate the vehicle brake lights. This will minimise glare to road users behind until the traffic moves again.
 
never would have thought that was an actual rule
I think it is really guidance to take your foot off the footbrake rather than law, although the "must not dazzle" is law, so the police could give you a fine for it in some way if you upset them.

Maybe more important here than in sunny Oz; we have a lot of dark days when bright brake lights do dazzle, there are also a fair number of people complain when people don't do it, although it is quite common to ignore the rule. Also, unlike most of Europe, we generally don't use headlights until it gets genuinely dark, so a bright brake light just in front of you can destroy peoples dark adaptation leaving them unable to see clearly when they set off again. I've never understood why we don't put our lights on sooner!
 
In the 90ties, back then the #3 brake light was just catching on, and so you could get aftermarket ones.
I got 2 of those and mounted them in the Back of my Opel, no one was ever in doubt when the Opel was braking after that, but police ASO never complained even if the two 1 foot or so LED bars was pretty bright.

On the flip side i saw a fast and furry kid in his Audi a few days ago, with tinted lights you could barely see :rolleyes: and which is of course also illegal here.
 
Not sure I trust the specs. The JOMISE / VVCAR / JADO D530 claimed to have a Novatek NT96675 processor and Sony STARVIS IMX415 sensor but actually has a Novatek NT96670 processor and Sony STARVIS IMX335 sensor. This is based on some internal photos and checking the firmware.

https://dashcamtalk.com/jomise-d530/#D530_Hardware_Deception

Seems like a new low to completely lie about the hardware in the dash cam. Perhaps they are lying about the specs on the K7 camera. Maybe it is the IMX335 which would explain the 1600p video.
 
Not sure I trust the specs. The JOMISE / VVCAR / JADO D530 claimed to have a Novatek NT96675 processor and Sony STARVIS IMX415 sensor but actually has a Novatek NT96670 processor and Sony STARVIS IMX335 sensor. This is based on some internal photos and checking the firmware.

https://dashcamtalk.com/jomise-d530/#D530_Hardware_Deception

Seems like a new low to completely lie about the hardware in the dash cam. Perhaps they are lying about the specs on the K7 camera. Maybe it is the IMX335 which would explain the 1600p video.
Sometimes I wonder if the seller is intentionally misleading or if it comes from their supplier. I have a feeling many people who sell dashcams on Amazon actually know much about the products they are selling, beyond the specifications given to them by their suppliers. In fact I know this is true because my friend sells dashcams on Amazon and they're pure garbage. When I told him how bad they were he replied, "but the package says 1080p" lol
 
Sometimes I wonder if the seller is intentionally misleading or if it comes from their supplier. I have a feeling many people who sell dashcams on Amazon actually know much about the products they are selling, beyond the specifications given to them by their suppliers. In fact I know this is true because my friend sells dashcams on Amazon and they're pure garbage. When I told him how bad they were he replied, "but the package says 1080p" lol

I suspect the sellers know about it. On the Amazon.ca listing, their first "warm tip" is: Arbitrarily disassembly is NOT in maintenance warranty coverage

A pretty strange statement to include up front in an Amazon listing but makes sense when disassembly will reveal the specs are false.

1614571863626.png
 
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
TechTronic9000 Dash Cam Reviews 20
Similar threads
Jomise F2S 4K Dual Lens
Back
Top