This is not really a product review, but as a new dash cam user I wanted to jot down a few notes as to how my out of the box experience has been with this product. Just wanted to touch on first impressions, ease of installation and ease of use.
I had been looking for the Street Guardian products as they were at the top of my shopping list, but were not available in Canada at the time. I made a few missteps along the way and when I was returning a rig that didn't meet my expectations, the vendor (CDC Canada) mentioned they would be bringing in the Street Guardian line. After a short wait I had the SG9665GC in my hands and ready to begin the install.
In addition to the main unit, a nice selection of accessories were included in the box. GPS is a separate cabled unit that can be mounted on the dash, or, if you do a pretty minor modification it can be mounted on the windshield. A thin and a thick mount is included with ample 3M adhesive patches if you make a mistake and have to remount it (and there is also a string included for removing your mistakes). Other accessories include a good quality 32GB microSD card, a microSD card reader, a cable routing cover, 12 volt power cord, a nice micro fiber bag to tote the camera around, SG decals, windshield cleaning wipes, some cord clips and a clear plastic sheet that I'm still trying to wrap my head around.
Installing is pretty straight forward once you have your mounting location picked out and routing the power cable is simple once you see how easy it is to tuck the cable into the headliner and hide it in the 'A' pillar. I opted to use a hardwire kit so got everything all tucked away behind the kick panel and fuse compartment. Not much to change in the settings ... date and time, time zone, TV mode to NTSC, Frequency to 60 Hz and anything else you might want to change. Right now I have GPS and audio turned off, that may change in the future, but for now it works for me. OK, it's installed, cables are all tucked away and setting are the way I want them, for now. (Late note ... I did install the GPS and it works well, but still not sure if I will continue using it, still have no intention of using the audio though)
Video Quality is really quite good for both day and night video. Daytime video is sharp and clear with no problem reading license plates in front of the vehicle, also does a pretty decent job of reading plates on parked cars and street/road signs are quite legible. Colors look to be pretty accurate, neither washed out or over saturated. Night videos were quite impressive, I was really surprised at how good the image quality was, considering what a camera has to go through to get a decent low light shot. License plates were surprisingly sharp, and street signs are quite readable. Images off to the side were not as sharp and clear as the daytime shots, but impressive nevertheless. I expected the street lighting to have a more detrimental effect on the image quality, but this unit handled it very well. There are plenty of examples of day and night video available on the internet so it really would serve no purpose in me posting my samples, besides, as I said earlier this is not really a review per se.
Not everything worked out as I had hoped. As it turned out I was unfortunate enough to receive a defective unit which wasn't shutting down properly and some of the video files were being corrupted. Happy to say that CDC had a replacement in my hands very quickly. The GPS cable is a bit too short to mount it where I wanted on my dash, pesky speaker grill is sitting right in the way and I would have needed an additional 6 inches of cable to get over the grill. On this second install, I haven't decided if I'm even going to install it, just not as simple as I would like to get the speed and coordinate information (possibly a future firmware update may give some additional setup options). The microSD card reader is a bit flimsy ... works but pretty lightweight (this is being changed out in the second batch of units with a pretty awesome reader). Also, the thick mount I used looks like it could be problematic when the weather warms up, doesn't look like it is making good enough contact with the windshield (more good news, it is being replaced in the next batch of units with a redesigned mount).
I also had a bit of a problem with the CPUSB01 hard wire kit not powering the camera, but am happy to report that it was a problem with the user, not the kit. There is a low voltage cut-off on the kit and as I was in my garage installing everything, I wasn't starting the vehicle. The kit was sensing the low voltage and wasn't supplying any power. Thanks to CDC again for coming out with their multimeter to check everything out (I'm going to have to invest in one of those).
When I first started looking for a camera my criteria was that it must have exceptional image quality, be discrete and deliver all that at a reasonable cost ... I think this unit delivers on all that and more. All in all I am really happy with it and certainly would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for great performance at an affordable price. Oh, and support from CDC and Street Guardian have been stellar. And no, I am not being compensated in any way to write this, these are my impressions of the product, the service and the support I have received.
