LateralNW
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2016
- Messages
- 1,128
- Reaction score
- 684
- Country
- Australia
- Dash Cam
- VArious
First, let me acknowledge and thank @Jeff_Vantrue for sending out this production unit for me to play with.
The Dashcam came well packed including the 3 wire hardwire kit and fuse adaptors that are suitable for most fuse types. Very nice addition to the kit.
The Vantrue Dashcam was well packed in a white box with Vantrue graphics front and back with QR codes to assist in finding the app of the app stores both Android and Apple.
The front dashcam has two cameras in it one facing forward and the other pointing into the cabin complemented with Infrared
light for night footage or when the cabin is dark like an underground car park.
Unlike other dashcams I have reviewed I didn't bench test it and just fitted it to the car without any firmware updates or anything else as I wanted to see
what the experience would be, imitating what most would normally do when they purchased it, and was excited to get it up and running ASAP.
The front camera is a large unit and can only be fitted in one way so it is very important to work out where it is going to be mounted.
In my car, I mounted it directly under the rear vision mirror mount as it was the only sensible place mainly due to its large size.
I had to mount it a second time as the location I picked happened to be just under the wiper blade sensor also which prevented the rear camera cable from being able to be
plugged in without excess pressure on the connector. Trial and error I guess.
Unfortunately for me even after highlighting the well-explained graphics wrapped around the rear camera, I still managed to stuff it up so I also had to refit the rear camera!
So the lesson here is both cameras can only be mounted one way. You can't rotate them due to the method of cable fitting and the amount of twist the lenses can move.
The front-facing camera has this large "dish" circling around the lens. It makes the dashcam obvious when viewed from outside of the car. I do wonder if it has a purpose other than
looks and perhaps is also used to dissipate heat. Pure speculation of course.
While it hasn't done much recording yet I have run two types of memory cards in them and neither were rejected. Further use will highlight any problems that may arise from them.
The way the dashcam mounts to the windscreen means that it only has a small amount of adjustment on my car. I have it a full tilt so I can get some of the cars bonnet in the shot.
The ball pivot method it uses may be an issue for cars with longer/steeper angles.
The front mount connects to the windscreen with 3M tape and the dashcam mounts to the windscreen mount using a magnetic interlock. Surprisingly it is quite stable and would require
a hard impact for it to dislodge I believe.
Night driving video Quality.
In the area I drove for the first video test results I pick an area that becomes very dark in places.
I found the front camera did an alright job but seemed to have a problem with it when I attempted to pause the footage. There was image blur or multi frames looking like a blur when I attempted to capture the license plate of the card beside me.
Remember this is an early release of this dashcam and I haven't looked at any firmware updates at this stage.
The following Youtube video was recorded in 1080P so the driving footage near the end of the video is not in true native configuration. It is just a teaser to see what all the cameras do at the same time.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I had completed my testing that the rear window was smudgy/dirty.
The Dashcam came well packed including the 3 wire hardwire kit and fuse adaptors that are suitable for most fuse types. Very nice addition to the kit.
The Vantrue Dashcam was well packed in a white box with Vantrue graphics front and back with QR codes to assist in finding the app of the app stores both Android and Apple.
The front dashcam has two cameras in it one facing forward and the other pointing into the cabin complemented with Infrared
light for night footage or when the cabin is dark like an underground car park.
Unlike other dashcams I have reviewed I didn't bench test it and just fitted it to the car without any firmware updates or anything else as I wanted to see
what the experience would be, imitating what most would normally do when they purchased it, and was excited to get it up and running ASAP.
The front camera is a large unit and can only be fitted in one way so it is very important to work out where it is going to be mounted.
In my car, I mounted it directly under the rear vision mirror mount as it was the only sensible place mainly due to its large size.
I had to mount it a second time as the location I picked happened to be just under the wiper blade sensor also which prevented the rear camera cable from being able to be
plugged in without excess pressure on the connector. Trial and error I guess.
Unfortunately for me even after highlighting the well-explained graphics wrapped around the rear camera, I still managed to stuff it up so I also had to refit the rear camera!
So the lesson here is both cameras can only be mounted one way. You can't rotate them due to the method of cable fitting and the amount of twist the lenses can move.
The front-facing camera has this large "dish" circling around the lens. It makes the dashcam obvious when viewed from outside of the car. I do wonder if it has a purpose other than
looks and perhaps is also used to dissipate heat. Pure speculation of course.
While it hasn't done much recording yet I have run two types of memory cards in them and neither were rejected. Further use will highlight any problems that may arise from them.
The way the dashcam mounts to the windscreen means that it only has a small amount of adjustment on my car. I have it a full tilt so I can get some of the cars bonnet in the shot.
The ball pivot method it uses may be an issue for cars with longer/steeper angles.
The front mount connects to the windscreen with 3M tape and the dashcam mounts to the windscreen mount using a magnetic interlock. Surprisingly it is quite stable and would require
a hard impact for it to dislodge I believe.
Night driving video Quality.
In the area I drove for the first video test results I pick an area that becomes very dark in places.
I found the front camera did an alright job but seemed to have a problem with it when I attempted to pause the footage. There was image blur or multi frames looking like a blur when I attempted to capture the license plate of the card beside me.
Remember this is an early release of this dashcam and I haven't looked at any firmware updates at this stage.
The following Youtube video was recorded in 1080P so the driving footage near the end of the video is not in true native configuration. It is just a teaser to see what all the cameras do at the same time.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I had completed my testing that the rear window was smudgy/dirty.
