Module 79L
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 17, 2015
- Messages
- 3,792
- Reaction score
- 1,504
- Country
- Portugal
- Dash Cam
- AT11DA, SG9665XS, G1W-H
Let me start with some background history, for those who are not familiar with how or why this camera came into my possession:
A friend of mine bought it without knowing the first thing about dashcams (he wanted to put it on his bicycle...
) and after I explained to him that "these things" don't work as he thought, he gave up on the idea and gave me the camera.
I didn't know much about it, apart from the obvious Novatek-style menus. I had already seen Techmoan testing a similar camera, on a dual-camera setup, but his video didn't provide much information about its brand or model except for the name Car Camcorder, so I searched for that name and eventually found some videos and a link to an Aliexpress listing, where I found the camera's model and specs.
It looked like a nice, "sober" black camera, with no shiny chrome-like stuff all over the front, no useless LEDs and no big lettering. I only had to paint the gray sides of the back frame with a black permanent marker.
The first things I noticed were a slightly wider FoV than the G1W-H, smoother image, although very clear and well focused, but no audio. I mean, it was there but I had to crank up the computer's audio system's volume almost to the max to hear it. I had to replace the mic.
The back frame is made of zamac and is screwed to the plastic front with 4 screws, so it's very easy to open. The camera is a bit heavier than the G1W-H but it's sturdier and built better.
When I opened it I took the opportunity to confirm that it has the 96650 and to check the sensor (the specs said OV0330 but I never believed it had an OV sensor ), but I couldn't see much of it because it's attached to a somewhat large copper plate on the base of the lens barrel. The lens/sensor assembly is screwed to the PCB with two screws and connected to the main board with a flat cable. The PCB behind the copper plate is perforated.
The camera hardly heats up during recording and the battery still lasts the same ~5 mins when recording on its own power as when it was new. This year it went through hell with the hot weather and I've never had any focus shifting, no battery problems, nor the camera has ever refused to work. I admit I take good care of it by never letting it directly exposed to the sun, but despite that it could've been affected by just being exposed to the extremely high temperatures inside the car until I got the chance to cool it down with the A/C.
Despite having good daytime video quality it's an average camera and the night quality is what you'd expect from an average camera, but I really can't complain, can I? After all, I didn't buy it. Nevertheless, it doesn't wash out the image when recording towards the sun and reacts very quickly to lighting changes, much quicker than the G1W-H.
The firmware is still the original one and I never bothered to search for updates because, honestly, it doesn't need them.
The mount is similar to the G1W-H's, therefore I kept the suction cup and just screwed the AT's T-bracket in it. The only time so far that I had to put the camera in a different car I just used the other suction cup. The T-bracket is attached to the camera since day one and I never needed to remove it again. One good thing the camera has is that the T-bracket's slot is part of the back frame, so it doesn't wear out like the plastic ones if you're one of those people who like to remove the camera from the mount all the time.
I'm still using the power adapter from the G1W but that's due to some "laziness" on my part. I installed it so neatly that I didn't bother to replace it with the ones from the other two cameras. In a way I'm glad I didn't, because it has been powering the cameras one after the other without a single problem for 18 months now. I bought an extension cable with a 90º angle mini USB connector from @niko last year because the power adapter has a straight plug and the cable was sticking out in front of the RVM.
Here are some pictures of how it's mounted in the car:
I never took any photos of the camera because, tbh, I've always thought of it as a provisional solution until I had enough money to buy a better (and hopefully more definitive) camera and I never thought it would last this long, but it has been very reliable and hasn't given me any problems.
I would also like to mention my 32GB Class 10 Kingston card, which has been working flawlessly for 18 months now and in 5 different cameras.
A friend of mine bought it without knowing the first thing about dashcams (he wanted to put it on his bicycle...
) and after I explained to him that "these things" don't work as he thought, he gave up on the idea and gave me the camera.I didn't know much about it, apart from the obvious Novatek-style menus. I had already seen Techmoan testing a similar camera, on a dual-camera setup, but his video didn't provide much information about its brand or model except for the name Car Camcorder, so I searched for that name and eventually found some videos and a link to an Aliexpress listing, where I found the camera's model and specs.
It looked like a nice, "sober" black camera, with no shiny chrome-like stuff all over the front, no useless LEDs and no big lettering. I only had to paint the gray sides of the back frame with a black permanent marker.
The first things I noticed were a slightly wider FoV than the G1W-H, smoother image, although very clear and well focused, but no audio. I mean, it was there but I had to crank up the computer's audio system's volume almost to the max to hear it. I had to replace the mic.
The back frame is made of zamac and is screwed to the plastic front with 4 screws, so it's very easy to open. The camera is a bit heavier than the G1W-H but it's sturdier and built better.
When I opened it I took the opportunity to confirm that it has the 96650 and to check the sensor (the specs said OV0330 but I never believed it had an OV sensor
), but I couldn't see much of it because it's attached to a somewhat large copper plate on the base of the lens barrel. The lens/sensor assembly is screwed to the PCB with two screws and connected to the main board with a flat cable. The PCB behind the copper plate is perforated.The camera hardly heats up during recording and the battery still lasts the same ~5 mins when recording on its own power as when it was new. This year it went through hell with the hot weather and I've never had any focus shifting, no battery problems, nor the camera has ever refused to work. I admit I take good care of it by never letting it directly exposed to the sun, but despite that it could've been affected by just being exposed to the extremely high temperatures inside the car until I got the chance to cool it down with the A/C.
Despite having good daytime video quality it's an average camera and the night quality is what you'd expect from an average camera, but I really can't complain, can I? After all, I didn't buy it. Nevertheless, it doesn't wash out the image when recording towards the sun and reacts very quickly to lighting changes, much quicker than the G1W-H.
The firmware is still the original one and I never bothered to search for updates because, honestly, it doesn't need them.
The mount is similar to the G1W-H's, therefore I kept the suction cup and just screwed the AT's T-bracket in it. The only time so far that I had to put the camera in a different car I just used the other suction cup. The T-bracket is attached to the camera since day one and I never needed to remove it again. One good thing the camera has is that the T-bracket's slot is part of the back frame, so it doesn't wear out like the plastic ones if you're one of those people who like to remove the camera from the mount all the time.
I'm still using the power adapter from the G1W but that's due to some "laziness" on my part.
I installed it so neatly that I didn't bother to replace it with the ones from the other two cameras. In a way I'm glad I didn't, because it has been powering the cameras one after the other without a single problem for 18 months now. I bought an extension cable with a 90º angle mini USB connector from @niko last year because the power adapter has a straight plug and the cable was sticking out in front of the RVM.Here are some pictures of how it's mounted in the car:
I never took any photos of the camera because, tbh, I've always thought of it as a provisional solution until I had enough money to buy a better (and hopefully more definitive) camera and I never thought it would last this long, but it has been very reliable and hasn't given me any problems.
I would also like to mention my 32GB Class 10 Kingston card, which has been working flawlessly for 18 months now and in 5 different cameras.
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