Review - Vantrue E1 Pro - 4K Starvis 2 IMX678 - LTE Cloud Compatible - Smart Cube Dashcam

[LateralNW]

It would be nice to have a simple filter case to store the CPL when it's not in use.

Agree.

The filters coming to me are in little boxes granted they aren't ideal but would at least keep them secure.

 

[Karagandinez]

I bought a suction cup mount for the E1 Pro from Amazon: VANTRUE E1/E2/E3/E1 Lite Suction Cup Mount with GPS Receiver

Is it possible to install E1 Pro with this mount on vertical glass? (Bus, Truck).

 

[Julian23]

Is it possible to install E1 Pro with this mount on vertical glass? (Bus, Truck).

Yes, it is possible to mount on vertical glass.

 

[TonyM]

I like the E1 Pro as a compact single channel camera that performs fairly well in most situations. However, as a driver who has experience of being on the wrong end of a hit-and-run, I can say that I strongly value the ability to identify oncoming cars by their licence plate. And this is the main area where I'm not confident that the E1 Pro would capture the information required for the police and insurance companies.

See this example of driving on a city road at 30mph, half an hour before sunset. The sky is bright and clear, but the road is in shadow. This frame is the best detail I could get on the oncoming white car. I had PlatePix enabled, HDR disabled, and a CPL is fitted.

100% crop on the car:

By comparison, my Mobius SLL1 with only a 1080p resolution (but a fast lens and no CPL) has similar detail at the same distance (200% crop)

Moving forwards to the best frame from the SLL1 when the car is much closer we can now identify the car easily, whereas the E1 Pro is completely blurred (100% crop on both cameras)

Some of the difference in performance will be due to the CPL, some caused by the higher bitrate-per-pixel on the SLL1, and also the faster F1.0 lens on the SLL1. After reading a recent post by @Nigel perhaps I should enable HDR during the daytime alongside PlatePix for better results?

My point is that although the E1 Pro does a lot of things well and offers decent value for money, I will continue running a second camera alongside it to increase my chances of capturing oncoming car details should I need them in another hit-and-run incident.

 

[kamkar]

It is funny you should mention this, i have also noticed with a few newer 4K cameras, that what use to be the sweet spot for a plate capture, well with the new systems that is now quite a few M before that old point.
with a higher resolution sensor that is also quite doable.

 

[TonyM]

It is funny you should mention this, i have also noticed with a few newer 4K cameras, that what use to be the sweet spot for a plate capture, well with the new systems that is now quite a few M before that old point.
with a higher resolution sensor that is also quite doable.

Yes, the sweet spot for 4K sensors is often further away than it was for the old IMX291 cameras, and then you have a greater chance of picking up the oncoming car driving more 'towards' you than passing to the side which introduces more blur.

 

[TonyM]

E1 Pro - Low Light Night Vision in Parking Mode

One thing I forgot to look at in my initial testing was the optional Low Light Night Vision (LLNV) in the Parking Monitor Settings.

Tonight I was using the E1 Pro whilst doing some bench tests of a power station to use as a dashcam battery and I noticed the live view changing brightness when going in and out of parking mode. After moving the power station + wiring to the car, I recorded a static test on my driveway.

1. 4K 30fps, Normal Recording
2. 1080P 15fps Low Bitrate Recording, with LLBV enabled

I intend to do further testing of the parking mode settings on the E1 Pro after I get the power station installed so I can use the hardwire kit.

 

[Augustus]

E1 Pro - Low Light Night Vision in Parking Mode

One thing I forgot to look at in my initial testing was the optional Low Light Night Vision (LLNV) in the Parking Monitor Settings.

Tonight I was using the E1 Pro whilst doing some bench tests of a power station to use as a dashcam battery and I noticed the live view changing brightness when going in and out of parking mode. After moving the power station + wiring to the car, I recorded a static test on my driveway.

1. 4K 30fps, Normal Recording
2. 1080P 15fps Low Bitrate Recording, with LLBV enabled

View attachment 80776 View attachment 80777

I intend to do further testing of the parking mode settings on the E1 Pro after I get the power station installed so I can use the hardwire kit.

I presume this is Vantrue's version of super night vision that Viofo has, and 70mai also has (forgot the name of theirs but they have one too)

 

[Nigel]

I like the E1 Pro as a compact single channel camera that performs fairly well in most situations. However, as a driver who has experience of being on the wrong end of a hit-and-run, I can say that I strongly value the ability to identify oncoming cars by their licence plate. And this is the main area where I'm not confident that the E1 Pro would capture the information required for the police and insurance companies.

See this example of driving on a city road at 30mph, half an hour before sunset. The sky is bright and clear, but the road is in shadow. This frame is the best detail I could get on the oncoming white car. I had PlatePix enabled, HDR disabled, and a CPL is fitted.

View attachment 80378

100% crop on the car:
View attachment 80379

By comparison, my Mobius SLL1 with only a 1080p resolution (but a fast lens and no CPL) has similar detail at the same distance (200% crop)
View attachment 80380

Based on the resolution, the E1 Pro has 4x the number of pixels, so should have 4x the detail.
Looking at the image, the E1 does have more detail in the hedge.
The license plate doesn't obviously have more detail, that is likely to be because of extra motion blur on the E1 Pro, the car is closing at 100Km/h, while the hedge is only closing at 50Km/h, and is further away so has less motion blur. Probably the lower bitrate also has an effect, but looking at the car's grill, the horizontal lines are better on the E1, while the vertical lines have far more motion blur on the E1. The motion blur is mainly horizontal.

Moving forwards to the best frame from the SLL1 when the car is much closer we can now identify the car easily, whereas the E1 Pro is completely blurred (100% crop on both cameras)
View attachment 80381 View attachment 80382

Some of the difference in performance will be due to the CPL, some caused by the higher bitrate-per-pixel on the SLL1, and also the faster F1.0 lens on the SLL1.

The difference in those two images is the motion blur, the hedge in the top left is decent, with roughly the same detail on both, but while the grill on the SLL1 appears completely free of motion blur, the E1 Pro has at least 10x the motion blur.

The motion blur is caused by a longer exposure time, I don't think we can see a bitrate difference in these images.
A CPL will double the exposure time on the E1 Pro,
The F1.0 lens compared F1.8 will give 3x the exposure time on the E1 Pro,
The sensors are about the same size, so with FHD vs 4K, the pixels on the SLL1 are 4x the size of those on the E1 Pro, so it would be reasonable to expect the pixels on the SLL1 to collect 4x the amount of light, and so work with 1/4 the exposure, giving 4x the exposure time on the E1 Pro,
so that is 2x * 3x * 4x = 24x the motion blur when measured in pixels, however the pixels on the E1 are half the width, so when measured across the image, it would give 12x the motion blur.

They are different sensors, and probably different quality lenses, so there is probably a further difference in sensitivity, but it is likely insignificant compared to what we already have.

After reading a recent post by @Nigel perhaps I should enable HDR during the daytime alongside PlatePix for better results?

While I believe from my testing, that turning both PlatePix and HDR on together, would reduce the motion blur on the E1 Pro, it is clear that the SLL1 is still going to win by a fair amount on the closer comparison!

For the distance comparison, generally a 4K dashcam will easily beat an FHD dashcam, but the SLL1 is not a dashcam, it is a specialised camera designed for low motion blur in low light, so it would be interesting to see the outcome. It may then come down to the difference in bitrate. For brighter conditions, assuming there is sufficient bitrate, the E1 Pro should win easily at a distance, but the bitrate could be a problem in some situations, it does have a low bitrate for 4K video.

If you really want to get low motion blur on a second front camera, you also want a narrower lens, or a telephoto lens; the SLL1 seems to have a rather wide lens for use as a second front camera, but at that light level, it is still doing a very good job.

My point is that although the E1 Pro does a lot of things well and offers decent value for money, I will continue running a second camera alongside it to increase my chances of capturing oncoming car details should I need them in another hit-and-run incident.

Although I don't think the low bitrate has had much effect on the above images, at times it is an issue for the E1 Pro, so that is another reason for having a second camera with a different specification.

However, I think the purpose of the E1 is to provide a cheap 4K single channel dashcam, so presumably most people will use it on its own, and at the moment I think it is probably the best cheap 4K single channel dashcam available, but it doesn't have much competition! I think it's real competition is currently from 2K dashcams such as the Viofo VS1, which does have a few advantages over the Vantrue E1 Pro, but is not currently 4K.

 

[TonyM]

E1 Pro Parking Mode - Temperature Observations

It has been a moderately warm day here in the UK. Ambient midday temp was 22°C.

The car was parked south-facing. The E1 Pro was partially shaded, in low bitrate parking mode (1080p15fps)



Measured temperatures after 3 hours of parking :
Screen (off) 73°C
Memory card 85°C
LT01 module 59°C
Dashboard 73°C

Camera was still operating normally. I then turned the car around so it was north-facing, away from the sun.

 

[TonyM]

E1 Pro Parking Mode - Temperature Observations

It has been a moderately warm day here in the UK. Ambient midday temp was 22°C.

2 hours later, parked facing North, the shade temperature is now 24°C.



Dashboard (in the sun) 71°C
E1 Pro (in shade) in low bitrate mode:
- Screen 71°C
- Left side (memory card and power button) 85°C
LT01 module 57°C

So, turning the car round to face north has not significantly changed the camera temperature. I see the camera still gets a bit of sunlight, but I was expecting the camera to be cooler than that.

I can confirm it was rather warm in the car - my phone overheated and shut off the 5G internet connection whilst I was typing this!

I will review the footage tonight to check for any focus shift or other heat-related issues.

 

[lufa6977]

Interesting temperatures, I also would have thought there to be a bigger drop once the car was moved around. Vantrue has this little blurb in their manual about temps...
.
.

The E1 Pro operating environment temperature is -4°F to 140°F (-20°C to
60°C). We recommend selecting Collision Detection within this temperature
range, as it will automatically turn off once the temperature exceeds the
normal operating temperature range. If the temperature outside is high,
turn off the camera when parking.

.
.
With the screen temp at 73c, no doubt the internal temp was that or higher. The E1 Pro held up pretty well it seems.

 

[TonyM]

Interesting temperatures, I also would have thought there to be a bigger drop once the car was moved around. Vantrue has this little blurb in their manual about temps...
.
.

.
.
With the screen temp at 73c, no doubt the internal temp was that or higher. The E1 Pro held up pretty well it seems.

It looks like the forecast temperature will be similar on Friday. I will try Collision Detection mode to see if the camera runs cooler, and if it shuts down to protect itself.

 

[Augustus]

It looks like the forecast temperature will be similar on Friday. I will try Collision Detection mode to see if the camera runs cooler, and if it shuts down to protect itself.

Didn't shut down in my heat testing , so wouldn't expect it to either over there: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...8528bg-wi-fi-5-gps-4k30-hdr.52767/post-637204

Good to see that it's holding up as well with some backup anecdotal data

 

[Augustus]

2 hours later, parked facing North, the shade temperature is now 24°C.

View attachment 81138

Dashboard (in the sun) 71°C
E1 Pro (in shade) in low bitrate mode:
- Screen 71°C
- Left side (memory card and power button) 85°C
LT01 module 57°C

So, turning the car round to face north has not significantly changed the camera temperature. I see the camera still gets a bit of sunlight, but I was expecting the camera to be cooler than that.

I can confirm it was rather warm in the car - my phone overheated and shut off the 5G internet connection whilst I was typing this!

View attachment 81139

I will review the footage tonight to check for any focus shift or other heat-related issues.

That's pretty bad for a phone lol, what phone is it?

 

[TonyM]

That's pretty bad for a phone lol, what phone is it?

Pixel 4A5G
I was only in the parked car for 5 minutes, and holding the phone at the time which didn't feel particularly hot in the hand. I've not seen this message in the few years since buying the phone. Maybe it's a new self-preservation feature in the OS?

 

[TonyM]

Didn't shut down in my heat testing , so wouldn't expect it to either over there: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...8528bg-wi-fi-5-gps-4k30-hdr.52767/post-637204

Good to see that it's holding up as well with some backup anecdotal data

Do you remember what parking mode were you using in that test?

 

[Augustus]

Pixel 4A5G
I was only in the parked car for 5 minutes, and holding the phone at the time which didn't feel particularly hot in the hand. I've not seen this message in the few years since buying the phone. Maybe it's a new self-preservation feature in the OS?

hmmm doesn't sound like it's an issue with the processor cos should be ok with that Snapdragon. If it's a stupid Google feature that wouldn't surprise me. No other manufacturer has those issues and messages though.

 

[TonyM]

Dashboard (in the sun) 71°C
E1 Pro (in shade) in low bitrate mode:
- Screen 71°C
- Left side (memory card and power button) 85°C
LT01 module 57°C

I will review the footage tonight to check for any focus shift or other heat-related issues.

I'm pleased to report that I found no temperature-related issues with the E1 Pro. All the parking videos remained crisp and clear.

 

[TonyM]

E1 Pro - Parking Mode Temperature Observations

I recorded the temperature of the E1 Pro after being parked for 3 hours (9am-12pm) facing towards the sun. I did this on 3 separate days with similar weather to compare the effect of different parking mode settings, including a baseline with the camera turned off:

1. Camera turned off, not recording, to get baseline cabin and dashcam temperatures
2. Collision detection parking mode, with quick-start enabled
3. Low bitrate parking mode

In collision detection mode, the screen and microSD card slot are approx 10°C and 15°C higher than the baseline
In low bitrate mode, the screen and microSD card slot are approx 20°C and 30°C higher than the baseline