Premium Camera Showdown: Blackvue DR900S-2CH vs Thinkware F800 Pro vs Street Guardian SG9663DC

AndrewL

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I bought a bunch of premium front-back dash cams and reviewed them. Everything was purchased by me, didn't get anything for free.

SUMMARY
Street Guardian SG9663DC - My great value pick for a premium camera. Has the features needed: reliable parking mode, heat resistance, good video quality, WiFi and strong customer service. Unfortunately, you have to use a third party WIFi App, an external GPS and there's no spoken notifications.

Thinkware F800 Pro - Great for parking mode. Better energy efficiency and parking functionality compared to the other cameras we tested. The video quality isn't very good, cloud features are rather useless (at least in Oct 2018).

Blackvue DR900S - Has amazing day video quality due to its 4K sensor and a solid cloud mode. Great app experience with fast WiFI transfers. It's also the most expensive camera at $480 USD with a slow 26 second startup (vs 12-14 secs), high power consumption and video frames are lost on the rear camera between files.

Cameras we Bought, Tested and Didn't Meet the Cut:
Blackvue DR750S - I might get this camera in hot environments if you need cloud parking mode. Otherwise the Thinkware F800 Pro does a better job.
Blackvue DR590W - Rear camera is really bad for 2018. I think the Viofo A129 will be way better.
Lukas AR790 - Realized way too late that there are so few distributors outside of South Korea and little investment by the manufacturer compared to Thinkware/Blackvue/Viofo.
 
Unfortunately, you have to use a third party WIFi App, an external GPS and there's no spoken notifications.

we're working on an app, takes time unfortunately, it's one of the reasons we don't actually promote the wifi functionality of the camera as a feature, we contemplated leaving it disabled in the firmware until the app was ready but feedback was that people still wanted it available since there is some functionality available using third party apps, personally I prefer a screen and the simplicity in operation that comes with that

external GPS we use purely because it delivers better results than an internal unit

not a fan of spoken notifications but I guess they may be useful when you have a camera with no screen and can't easily know the status at any given time
 
we're working on an app, takes time unfortunately, it's one of the reasons we don't actually promote the wifi functionality of the camera as a feature, we contemplated leaving it disabled in the firmware until the app was ready but feedback was that people still wanted it available since there is some functionality available using third party apps, personally I prefer a screen and the simplicity in operation that comes with that

external GPS we use purely because it delivers better results than an internal unit

not a fan of spoken notifications but I guess they may be useful when you have a camera with no screen and can't easily know the status at any given time

I completely understand why you would choose to omit mentioning the WiFI features until it was ready. I'm glad you kept it in as I think without WIFI, the SG9663DC wouldn't be a compelling pick. I had to mention the current state. Still I should have added a note stating that you were working on it. I know you guys have a lot going on.

Is the better GPS performance (I'm assuming signal strength or accuracy) a nice to have or need to have (ie. do most internal GPS units fail in cities)? I haven't seen too much discussion on this topic. I'm happy to learn more and update the review.

I also think status notifications helps let you know when the camera has been unplugged from power. On cameras, with spoken notifications, I noticed the issue right away because of the silence. On cameras with beeps, I've gone many days until I found out. I agree that with an LCD screen it's not as important. A continuous beep should stir the driver into taking action assuming there's a suitably descriptive message.

Edit: Also Jon told me that it's Street Guardian the company that handles distribution in the United States and Canada not OCD Tronic. He also brought up the higher 18/18 bitrate, discrepancies with power consumption during parking mode (could be the equipment - I tested the Thinkware F800 with the same setup).
 
a lot going on is an understatement, it never seems to end either, but that's a part of business, it's much the same in any industry really

there are compromises to be made with an internal GPS, it's prone to reception issues from the CMOS sensor and the processor which means you need to shield those components, which then leads to heat dissipation issues, it's doable but for what you get back for what you give up it's not worth it, I appreciate that internal GPS may be more aesthetically pleasing but it's a case of function over form, there are choices to be made for every design or component issue always but we choose to make choices with the head rather than the heart

don't think we will ever go to voice notifications, beeps are fine, and annoying enough to make you take notice when needed

yes Jon runs OCD Tronic also but it is a separate business from Street Guardian

what firmware version were you using? (probably should mention the firmware version used for each camera anyway as features and functions can and will change from what was used in a review)
 
don't think we will ever go to voice notifications, beeps are fine, and annoying enough to make you take notice when needed

I don't mind either way, but after having too many 'silent' cams and silent failures, I want both audible and visible indication when something goes wrong.

Or maybe a mechanical hand to mount on the seatback which will tap me on the shoulder and use it's finger to point at which cam is malfunctioning :D :ROFLMAO:

Phil
 
Nice video (y), only missing the firmware used information, and though you can see by UL date on youtube the time of creation.
Im not a fan of spoken warnings either, but some form of audio alerting at least in relation to errors are a must + i like a startup chime as for years that have been sort of the only indicator of your camera working ( though not always the case )
 
To me, wifi is not a "must-have" feature. More of a "good to have" thing.

I prefer to take out the microSD and put in an OTG card reader and view the videos from my Android phone. Way faster than wifi.
 
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