North American vendors?

jokiin said:
What we have on screen is what we felt was needed, beyond that can always be viewed on a PC, what we have is individually selectable as well, each item is selectable on or off, it's not all or nothing, there's some practicalities of having too much data on screen, think about where you're viewing the file, on a smaller display like a phone screen it's not so practical, if you need to use a larger screen like a computer then it negates the reason to have all the data overlaid anyway
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I disagree with your premise. The point of having the data on the screen is so that it can be immediately accessed from any computer on any operating system at any time for any reason, not just the windows desktop you have at home with the specialised software that came with the camera. That's what standards are all about. I like your idea of doing it as closed captions/subtitles although I'm not sure the practical considerations of that.

And as the developer don't make decisions for me that don't need to be made. If I want to fill 40% of the screen with textual data, that is my prerogative. All the data that is available to the camera should be available to the user to be printed directly on the video by menu. The defaults don't have to have them on, but don't deprive me of the option because you wouldn't like it on your setup.

jokiin said:
not sure what you mean about dancing values??

there's a couple of approaches to doing the data overlay and it's not easy to find something everyone likes, I agree it would be nicer if the font could be a bit smaller, some don't use an outline on the font which makes them smaller and neater but it also means the detail can get lost in the background at times, it also makes them near impossible to read on a small screen, these I can still read when played back on an iPhone

adding an outline and a high contrast colour like we have is for practical reasons, for this we needed function over asthetics
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I also agree that the font in your screenshot is very ugly. It reminds me of a 1980s sci-fi's interpretation of how technology would look today. But the font isn't important, the information is. I think having a black band with a simple 6-point font across the bottom is all that's really needed. If I can use a unix shell with enough resolution to function on my blackberry's small screen there's really no excuse for not being able to fit huge amounts of data in a small amount of space in the image on a video. But even font size/colour/position/face can be a menu option.
 
cdlu said:
I disagree with your premise. The point of having the data on the screen is so that it can be immediately accessed from any computer on any operating system at any time for any reason, not just the windows desktop you have at home with the specialised software that came with the camera. That's what standards are all about. I like your idea of doing it as closed captions/subtitles although I'm not sure the practical considerations of that.

And as the developer don't make decisions for me that don't need to be made. If I want to fill 40% of the screen with textual data, that is my prerogative. All the data that is available to the camera should be available to the user to be printed directly on the video by menu. The defaults don't have to have them on, but don't deprive me of the option because you wouldn't like it on your setup.
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any product you manufacture is a compromise, you can never please everyone no matter what you do, although it's Windows only the specialised software is not at home, it's on the memory card every time you take it out

that aside though if all the information were on screen and regardless of placement it would need to be something that could be turned on and off like subtitles as the amount of information would be excessive otherwise, generally the more important evidence is what is actually going on in the video

we're not depriving you because we don't like it, there are practical limitations and you can't cater to everyone, the product would never see the light of day if you tried to please everyone unfortunately
 
If you sell cameras as official business you have to pay warranties and aftermarketing and get some profit too
 
Over anything else, I would want a GSM module and a configuration that can automatically upload to a youtube, dropbox, or some other online storage.
 
Like all products, there is give and take. Lots want all the info stamped on screen and other prefer to keep on the basic Time&Date stamp and all other GPS and G-sensor data is viewable through a custom player. Personally I prefer basic info on the raw video and all other data through the player. Reason, why give up all the extra data if you don't need too?
 
I ordered my Vico-WF1 from a Vancouver, BC company: http://www.blackboxmycar.com/
As soon as I receive my shipment, I'll post to let everyone know how it went. They had free North American shipping for December (ended yesterday). Authorized dealer for FineVu, Blackvue, Lukas and VicoVation stuff.
Also came across this site, also in Vancouver, when doing my research, but haven't used them: http://www.kmph.ca/

The price at blackboxmycar was $259 without the card versus $299 at kmph.
http://www.kmph.ca/
 
What was your deciding factor on purchase? Certain camera or price?
 
Decided on a camera first. Was debating WF1 vs Panorama II. Actually thought the TF2 was the best bang for buck for video quality, but wasn't keen on the large form factor. Didn't see a need for GPS, so finally chose WF1. Then went looking for North American vendors after checking Amazon, which was out of stock. Was going to order from US (Spy Tec), but found a Canadian dealer so I didn't have to pay extra on exchange rate and possibly customs.
 
I would like to see a dash cam that comes in two parts. One part being just the camera. The other part, the brain, would be where all connections are made. Built in fuse and terminals for power. Offer options so you can customize your system. I was thinking about using my Pioneer backup camera at one point. There's probably such a system out there.
 
Transaction completed with BlackboxMyCar: http://www.blackboxmycar.com/

Order was placed Dec 31, 2013
Order received Jan 7, 2014

Received e-mail confirmation of order and e-mail when order shipped the same day from the vendor. Then received e-mails from the shipper (Canada Post, which is the government run mail service) including expected delivery date. No complaints at all, especially given it was free expedited shipping. 5 - 7 days shipping is very good service. Received e-mail from vendor today asking me to review my purchase, so nice of them to follow up.

Packaging was sufficient, although ideally, I would have liked to see more bubble wrap. There was a thin layer of bubble wrap at the top of the box, but it wasn't protecting anything really. The product box was wedged between two wads of packing paper, rather than wrapped in bubble wrap. Some photos of the packaging below with a coffee cup for scale. No issues with damage or anything, just knowing how mail sometimes gets thrown around, it would be nice to see a bit more protective wrapping.

I have not yet installed the unit or had to deal with customer service, but as of now, I would have no reservations about recommending this vendor. Everything went very smoothly. They also gave me some discount codes for future purchases (between $25 and $50 off my next purchase of a BlackVue or Lukas camera).

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Packaging looks good. Canada post is great (same service we use), standard insurance is $100, and you can add more. If you get a beat up box/camera its totally insured :). Glad to hear of good Canadian vendors doing it right!
 
I purchased my cams around the same time as tofurkey also from blackboxmycar. Alex was very pleasant to deal with & has always responded fast to my questions. I asked for & received a quantity discount when I purchased 6 additional power cables & 2 more mounts for my Finevu Pros.

I've only temporarily installed the cams & tested them for an hour, so I can't comment on any support issues I might need. There have been a couple of minor hiccups from the cams, but at this point I don't know if it was my inexperience, the temporary installation or the cams themselves.

edit....forgot to add (since the original poster asked about No. American vendors). I found a site closer to me then Canada, finevuusa.com, located in Bencia, CA. I sent them an email asking some questions & received a nonsensical response, so I didn't deal w/ them.
 
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Can also say that Alex at BlackBoxMyCar was great when I needed support with my WF1. My Android 4.2 phone was not connecting to the camera and he got in touch with VicoVation for me, e-mailed me every day with status updates and suggestions to resolve the issue, kept me informed of his conversations with VicoVation, and genuinely seemed to care about my problem and wanted to help me solve it as fast as possible. The issue resolved with the Android 4.3 update. So, my experience with them as a vendor has been very positive.
 
Regarding making mony, here in Denmark the warranty period it is 2 years.

Again we lead the World :p ( or whatever you want to call it )
 
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