Mini 0806 Dashcam - Review and comparison against G90.

[Pottsy]

Here is the full resolution screenshot @ 2560*1080:

Mini 0806 (Click to enlarge): has fisheye effect in the corners.
Mini has soft focus all over, worse in left side.

Another user on another forum reported exactly this:

http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/...4&mid=77883&i=2340&nmt=Dash+Cameras&mid=77883 (look for post by Pesty)

and it was this that stopped me from buying.

I took a screenshot and compared left and right here (traffic light on the left, "highcross" on the right, speaker near the bottom):

All taken from a 1:1 screenshot, car was stationary, so no blaming it on motion blur!

 

[Sunny]

sorry, which camera is this from again?

The filename starts with AMBA... so it's from mini.

 

[unkdct]

I have three 803's bought from two vendors and they range from slightly blurry to razor sharp. The first one I had for two or three months or so before I ran across Techmoan's reviews, and his videos, even on Youtube, were much sharper than my first camera's pics, which seemed fine to me but I was a newbie. Ordered a second 803 from Amazon and it was much better video quality sharpness. The third one was very sharp across the field. I'll probably pick up an 806 for the daughter's car unless something better, and just as small, pops up on the market.

So there might be/are variations in the quality of the 80_ lens assemblies. From my experience the 800 series -can be- sharp across the entire field. Swap it out and keep your fingers crossed.

I'd pay 20 or 30 bucks more if they'd make these better in lens, battery and overall quality.

 

[Sunny]

You will find that it works just as well with it at the top

Your focus issue doesn't look like a focus issue to me, it looks like you have got a fingerprint on the lens. The sharpest image should be from the 21:9 mode.

Tested again and it only works when the white line is on the bottom. White line on the top is probably the worst for reflection.
Maybe you have the mount/camera flipped as it rotates all the way.

I cleaned the windshield outside/inside and then cleaned the CPL and lens with microfiber screen cloth. My windshield has small sand blast dots so sunlight shines/sparkles on them sometimes.
Left the CPL there halfway in the drive and removed it so I'll have videos with and without CPL from this morning's drive.
Will upload videos in the evening.
One thing is for sure, mini is much darker with the CPL so may work for bright sunny days and not so much for other times.

 

[mocklatmachsad]

Btw, I tested mine and I do have slight blurriness on my as well on the left

 

[Nigel]

Tested again and it only works when the white line is on the bottom. White line on the top is probably the worst for reflection.
Maybe you have the mount/camera flipped as it rotates all the way.

That doesn't make much sense, if you set the polarizer up so that only allows vertically polarized light through and blocks horizontally polarized reflections and then rotate it exactly 180 degrees then it will still allow vertically polarized light through. Vertically polarized light is vertically polarized, it doesn't have a top and bottom.

Maybe you aren't being accurate enough, or the line is not perfectly at the top - if you park with your dashboard in the sun, then put your hand on the centre of the dashboard you will get a bright reflection off your skin which should be easily visible on the mini screen if the polarizer is slightly out and disappear when it is perfectly aligned. (if you have dark skin then use a bit of white paper)

 

[Nigel]

Btw, I tested mine and I do have slight blurriness on my as well on the left

That is slightly blurry, but I can't see the point where it is perfectly focussed so maybe it is fingerprints on the lens and not out of focus?

One of these does a much better job of removing grease from fingers than a plain cloth since it absorbs the grease into the activated carbon rather than just smearing it around:
http://www.lenspen.com/?resultType=category&params=13&tpid=0&tpid=323 (There are lots of cheap copies about too which also work well but don't last as long.)

It doesn't take much in the way of dirt/grease/water on the glass to make a real mess of clarity:

 

[Sunny]

I have lens pen from my DSLR camera somewhere.
If today's videos still come soft, I'll take the camera out and rub it good on the lens.
Does the camera slide out easily from the mount?

 

[Nigel]

I have lens pen from my DSLR camera somewhere.
If today's videos still come soft, I'll take the camera out and rub it good on the lens.
Does the camera slide out easily from the mount?

Should come off easily - that is the point of the mount. But some people have been finding that the first few insertions are a little difficult.

 

[Sunny]

Looks like this forum has some issues.
The thumbnails posted inline don't show up for some reason.
It used to work fine.

Now the inline image has proxy address like this:
'https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/proxy.php?image=https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/attachments/p1050710-jpg.10875/&hash=e3aadaa0fa1bc02c8d43f6b134628550'

Instead of correct address like this:
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/attachments/p1050710-jpg.10875/

Link works but adding as image or tag shows up as red x instead of the full image from the thumbnail.

Not good.

 

[Pottsy]

Some blurry 0806:

 

[Nigel]

Some blurry 0806:

That one clearly needs refocusing.

If you prefer to do it yourself it is not too difficult if you can manage a bit of DIY. The lens adjustment is the same as for a mini 0803 or just about any other dashcam.

This is what is inside:

 

[reverend]

It's starting to feel like either costs have been reduced where possible in manufacturing or they've just ****ed it up and it's resulting in nothing but bad news.

It's a shame as the prototypes were great and it's a shame to hear lots of problems with the widely released versions and I keep reading of lost sales because of these. The Techmoan comments seem to have cut the hardest.

I really feel sorry for Rayman as he really worked (and is still working) hard on these.

 

[Nigel]

It's starting to feel like either costs have been reduced where possible in manufacturing or they've just ****ed it up and it's resulting in nothing but bad news.

It's a shame as the prototypes were great and it's a shame to hear lots of problems with the widely released versions and I keep reading of lost sales because of these. The Techmoan comments seem to have cut the hardest.

I really feel sorry for Rayman as he really worked (and is still working) hard on these.

Question is, can they sort out all the quality issues they have had with the sample batch for the first proper production batch?

 

[Sunny]

This is my 1st mini and when I watched Techmoan's review of 0803 last year, it was pretty good.
That review does have some fisheye effect in the corners that make it not as sharp as the middle but not as bad as what we have here.
Looking at the screenshots here from 3 different users that have soft image on the left side, I don't think it's dirt or smudge related.

Will let you know soon about today's video.
Still few hours to go at work.

 

[Mtz]

That one clearly needs refocusing.
If you prefer to do it yourself it is not too difficult if you can manage a bit of DIY. The lens adjustment is the same as for a mini 0803 or just about any other dashcam.

At the end of first post is how to keep the camera rotated and how to open it.

enjoy,
Mtz

 

[reverend]

I've not heard anyone mention the purple tinge on card A so that's good - all these focus issues are just manufacturing faults and I hope that Rayman and co will get a kickback for all the ones that have had issues so far

 

[Pottsy]

Nigel,

Pretty adept at a bit of DIY, but what worries me is the fact that it's focussed to one side - indicating a possible angular alignment issue that would be impossible to adjust. I need 4 cameras, and potentially pulling 4 apart and failing and then having the issue of returning them where the supplier sees that I have taken them to bits - not worth bothering with.

I'm holding off until the next batch come through....

 

[Pottsy]

I really feel sorry for Rayman as he really worked (and is still working) hard on these.

If I were the manufacturer, I'd address the issues and rename the product something like 0806a, so at least we knew we were getting the fixed one and confidence would be maintained.

 

[mocklatmachsad]

If I were the manufacturer, I'd address the issues and rename the product something like 0806a, so at least we knew we were getting the fixed one and confidence would be maintained.

That would be V2, but so are these are isolated issues.