Review of the Thinkware F750-2CH?

[Graham Beale]

That's an idea, something subtle tho! From inside it actually doesn't look bad at all, its barely noticeable, from outside what is letting it down is the grey sticky pad! Stupid idea that was, black or green would have been better.

I've brought a couple of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321727998529
It should now exit the camera and run up with the power line, its a small jiggle but the loop for the USB is a little annoying, just hope its long enough to get above the head liner!

Just a little warning for others. I bought one of these leads from eBay. It took about a week to arrive and failed to work with the F750. Not sure if this is a one off, but certainly there's a similar seller on Amazon with many reports of dud leads. No big shakes since you only lose a quid, but not worth sending back for a replacement either!

 

[Gael]

Thanks for the heads up, I'm still planning on doing left angle cables, I found a few sites that make custom ones, not the cheapest, but may be worth it if quality is good.

 

[humansoul]

I managed to install the unit this past Tuesday and am now awaiting for all my parts to arrive for a hardwire install. So far, I'm very impressed with the unit; mind you, it's my first unit so I have nothing to base my review on aside from the fact that I believe with all the features built in, it was worth the price. Here's my initial thoughts:

-Quality wise is very good. I like the metallic look and overall feel of the unit and the buttons
-As some have mentioned of the F550 boot up, the F750 is also slow in my opinion. After starting the car, the unit goes through some sort of POST, it reminds me of formatting the memory and says it twice, I presume the internal and external card, but they could have mentioned it only once. It then states GPS is enabled and that it will begin continuous recording; although I have not timed it, I would have at least started driving a kilometer or so when the recording starts. This would only be a biggy if I was to get an accident between this time, but an easy workaround would be is to wait for the car to start and recording to start before leaving my driveway.
-Install was simple and the cables provided were sufficient; I installed the unit in a Dodge Journey and wondered if I would have an issue with the rear camera, but with everything properly tucked away, I still had ample wire available that I eventually tucked in the rear. Bobby14, my unit came with straight USB cable, not angled.
-I've only installed the Android application to access the Thinkware software and I found it to be very simple to access. Not sure if it's a Thinkware thing, but I did find the 1min video reviews to be cumbersome, I wish you could continuously watch it via the app. From my understanding, the Thinkware video software on PC/MAC can do continuous review. The live video on the phone app is very pixelated, I was afraid that I had a lemon, but found that it was only in this view. Once I downloaded the video, the quality was in HD form.
-The features such as lane departure and collision warning are very good. I found the lane departure to be sensitive, even in the lowest mode. When changing lanes, the lane departure would chime, I think I would turn this off unless I plan on driving a long drive where fatigue may set in and save me from getting into an accident. As for the collision warning, it's not as annoying as the LD option, and I like that it chimes two different sounds when you are getting near and really near to the car in front! I may disable this option though as driving in rush hour, the unit is always going off...maybe it's my driving style
-I'm probably most please in knowing that I did not need to buy any further components to make the Parking mode work, aside from the hardwire kit. Having the hour option and/or the voltage option to turn off the unit is a great built in option!

Hope this helps for any others thinking on buying the F750! Btw...this is a great forum community, thanks for the help thus far!

 

[djsteve]

-As some have mentioned of the F550 boot up, the F750 is also slow in my opinion. After starting the car, the unit goes through some sort of POST, it reminds me of formatting the memory and says it twice, I presume the internal and external card, but they could have mentioned it only once. It then states GPS is enabled and that it will begin continuous recording; although I have not timed it, I would have at least started driving a kilometer or so when the recording starts. This would only be a biggy if I was to get an accident between this time, but an easy workaround would be is to wait for the car to start and recording to start before leaving my driveway.

The delay is not really very long in practice. By the time that I've put on my safety belt, put the car in reverse, checked the mirrors/backup cam and begun backing up the camera is usually live.

Also, the formatting reminder goes away once you've enabled parking mode, and is replaced with announcements of the number of motion and impact events recorded while parked.

 

[Dee_82]

The right angle connectors I linked to before are perfect, great quality and the right length to get above the headliner, makes a nice improvement to the look of the device, no more looping cables poking out, just nice straight cables


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321727998529
Obviously can't comment on all of them but the ones I had worked without bother, no shoddy moulding and connections, they just worked with firm fitting connections

 

[Tourman40]

Hi there, i like to hear if someone already have bought the Thinkware F750(-2CH) and the experience of this product.

I like to buy one.

I recently purchased a Thinkware F750 plus rear camera for one car and a H50 Thinkware for another car. I wanted to ensure I purchased a quality made product and so far these both appear to be well made devices. Video is very good daytime and not bad at night. They are expensive devices and it's likely there are better units on the market for less money, but I wanted to make sure that what I bought, I wouldn't be replacing tomorrow. This is solid technology.

The 750 has quite flexible software allowing you to establish the settings for the various recording modes. However, most settings must be at the lowest point otherwise they trigger too easily. I really like how this can be controlled from my ipad or tablet, for instant viewing at the scene of an accident.
The F750 is fairly large when mounted but the H50 is much more discrete; however, I have yet to hear of a car break in to steal a dashcam (but give it time)

Generally, these are "set it and forget it" devices. But it gives me a feeling of comfort knowing that the next road rage driver will be recorded, although too late for the last unhinged driver that deliberately tried to murder me on the road awhile back.

Only problem I had was using a Lexar 64 gig micro SD card. It wouldn't work in the camera. Their tech support is real, and is very good, but their suggestion was to buy their card of course.

Short term, I'm very pleased with both units.

 

[jokiin]

no matter how set and forget any dashcam might seem the memory card is always a point of failure, best to make a habit of reviewing footage occasionally to make sure everything is in order

 

[TwistedSpirit]

May I ask why you want to use Lukas hardwiring kit vs the Thinkware hardwiring kit? The F750 voltage detection/timer is built into the cam I believe. Btw if you are in Canada, Best Buy has the F750 front and rear for $349.99 until July 30. Not sure if the rear cam come with the updated L shape cable or not though. The harwiring cable can be bought for $39.99 at London Drugs.

There's a package with the rear camera? I've been digging the bestbuy website (canada) and they're sold separately

 

[TwistedSpirit]

It'd be good to make a list of working Memory cards with it? What are you guys using?

 

[Dee_82]

The list of cards really won't make any difference, from a lot of experience cards differ greatly even between batches, meaning two cards, same brand and model, may behave differently. You might be able to improve your chances with a list but as with all statistical probabilities, there is always a chance it won't work. I wouldn't want to be responsible for someone buying a card thinking it will work and it doesn't, potentially leaving them out of pocket.

 

[tim14]

I bought the 750 a week or so ago for my Merc, the one thing that bugs me is the white mounting pad used, also it seems to have air trapped in it & looks ugly on the screen, i mounted mine with the lens at the centre of the screen but moved it so the unit is in the middle as it looked better, I actually fitted the spare pad, but fixed the pad to the screen & then the mount, so no bubbles now.
It doesn't seem to effect the quality of the video been off centre.
The quality of the unit is very good & video footage is great.
I hard wired mine as I wanted the parking facility, but this stops after an hour or so even though the battery level is set to its lowest, unless I have a fault with my battery.
The Wifi works great with good connection to my iPhone, i cant seem to find an app for the iPad which would be useful.

I wondered if anyone knows where I can get replacement 3M pads in Black?

 

[Dee_82]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121773315992
Not completely black but darker than the originals, if your parking mode is turning off it might be because its not connected to an always on circuit, quite often the ECU or other modules will off various things after period of time, I know my aux power sockets always stay on so I used that.

 

[cynix]

I wondered if anyone knows where I can get replacement 3M pads in Black?

I'm not sure about black, but you can get transparent ones: https://www.amazon.com/gp/B007Y7EXTQ

 

[tim14]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121773315992
Not completely black but darker than the originals, if your parking mode is turning off it might be because its not connected to an always on circuit, quite often the ECU or other modules will off various things after period of time, I know my aux power sockets always stay on so I used that.

Its deffo connected to an ignition source & a permanent feed when off, as it lets me know its going into parking mode, I checked the battery when it was off for a bit & the voltage dropped to 11.3v, so I am guessing I might need a battery.
Will look up the pads thanks.

 

[Dee_82]

Its deffo connected to an ignition source & a permanent feed when off, as it lets me know its going into parking mode, I checked the battery when it was off for a bit & the voltage dropped to 11.3v, so I am guessing I might need a battery.
Will look up the pads thanks.

11v off is a little low, you would expect it to be more than that,between 12-13, and over 14v when the engine is on. Do keep in mind tho that some features in a car may remain on but eventually turns off. For example, the fuse to my instrument cluster remains live for about 30min, after then it would turn off, as far as the camera would know, if you used that fuse, it would work for a while and would enter parking mode, but then turn off its self half hour later. It does also turn off after several hours depending on your settings which is kinda cool for extended periods of inactivity.

 

[RobS89]

Hello
I've read all posts and someone mentioned that you can turn the volume to 0. Does this turn off every sound or just the womans voice as I would only like to mute her but keep the warning beeps.

 

[egonvdv]

I wondered if anyone knows where I can get replacement 3M pads in Black?

bought this on amazon france (but from a german seller):

https://www.amazon.fr/gp/B00EDLPG7Y
Ref = 3M VHB 5952F

 

[-Pizdys-]

Thinkware F750 (dual channel Car-Dvr)
(Ambarella A7 unknown HW/IC version, but doesn't looks like LA85....) + Sony IMX122

Pros:
- Very High build Quality (nr.1 ?)
- Dual Camera Front + Rear
- WiFi - Real View from front and rear camera live + download any video file by smartphone...
- Real WDR (Sony IMX122)
- camera stick very close to the windscreen - due to this picture quality is better when your windscreen is in poor condition (scratches etc)...
- Dual Save feature (backup copy of the video in the internal memory when G-Sensor detect shock e.g accident, so you got two copies of accident -> in Memory Card and Internal Memory)
- Internal memory 512MB for about 3 complete video copies (front and rear)
- awesome motion detection with 10sec pre rec feature (I've never seen that before - Full 10sec before movement happen!)
- Built-in Super Capacitors (charging very fast and provide enough power for switch camera off safety) 2 weeks tests and none of the video files are corrupted (well done Thinkware!)
- camera starts recording automatically even when WiFi is disconnected for transfer files (with voice alert)
- Speed Camera Alert feature - very accurate and looks like no false alerts so far... (very nice) speed camera database is updated every 3months by Thinkware UK Distributor
- Samsung and Adata 128GB memory cards: "so far so good"
- any fake memory cards are recognized by camera !!! with voice alert > "memory card error, system restarting" so looks like camera monitoring recorded files!

cons:
- No LCD
- When WiFi is connected to smartphone camera stop recording immediately (unable to record Video and stream Picture at the same time)
- WiFi can be ON only for about 3min
- bitrate is just 10mbps for front and 9 for rear....(looks like Vicovation Marcus 5 Dual with A7LA70D with dual stream by IC Ambarella S3D series)
- camera can be install only in central place of windscreen
- Parking Mode and Motion Detection works only with "Hard-Wire" versions.
- price 259GBP is quite to high...like for dual cam without LCD....
-stupid light strip on the front (for what is it?) lucky that can be off, look below:

By Hardware:
Marcus 4 - A7LA55 + OV4689 (HDR)
STREET GUARDIAN SGZC12SG - Zoran 12P + Sony IMX322 (WDR)
Thinkware F750 - A7LA (possibly 70D with NAND on uBGA + Ambarella S3D) + Sony IMX122 (WDR)

Night:

 

[Dee_82]

excellent review, to my eye, it appears the only thing letting down the f750 is its bitrate,

 

[jokiin]

excellent review, to my eye, it appears the only thing letting down the f750 is its bitrate,

it's hard to say, plucking a single frame and dissecting it doesn't really tell the whole story, better to see raw video and see the camera in action