Thinkware F770???

[Gavin Austin]

Morning, looking to get a dash cam and have been looking at the Thinkware F770. Is there anything in the market currently that is better? The speed camera warnings appeal to me as does the front and rear camera capability. New to dash cams and this will be my first set up but not too clued up on what will give me the best set up.

Requirements:
good quality day and night recordings (able to read number plates if anything happens)
recording when parked (day and night)
Viewing real time via phone app would be a bonus
probably a myriad of other things I've not yet thought of.

Thanks in advance.

 

[kamkar]

The F770 is on par with all the best dual channel cameras out there, but they also all suffer from at least one drawback ( lack of bitrate )
It also have a good parking feature, but at night it will only capture anything if you are parked where there is light, so at least right under a street lamp.
I cant remember if the F770 have wifi, but that will not do anything better than looking out of the window will do much better.
If you are thinking well i can connect to my camera while it is parked, then yeah it might work with wifi cameras, but due to the camera being sort of inside a farday cage and have a limited wifi range, you probably will have to stand up and go to the window facing the street with your car on it, and then you might just look at it with your own eyes.

At home you are far better off having a CCTV camera on the car, i have a 1080p Ip camera on my 2 floor balcony door aimed at my car down below in the pitch black back yard, and in this case no light is no problem as my cameras build in IR lights just flood the car.

Also my camera is a PTZ camera so i can move it around from the comfort of my living room, and at the same time look at the footage on my 42" TV that my NVR ( Network Video Recorder ) is connected with HDMI.

Also such a system can have motion detect and alarms, i get a alarm if anything larger than a cat come within 1 M of my car.

Long time parking guard put a huge strain on a car battery that is not really meant to be discharged a lot, and you will have to drive a lot too to replenish the power used in the 8 hours at home and 8 hours at work the camera have been sitting there keeping watch.

 

[SawMaster]

IQ is Image quality and Bitrate is the speed which that data is processed to the SDcard. So a low bitrate will restrict the potential IQ to a level giving a less clear images in some conditions. You'll see that restriction most with oncoming traffic at higher speeds where the data can't be processed quickly enough to avoid blurring. Also the rear cam with this one is 720P, a lower resolution clarity that reduces the IQ, plus it has an even lower bitrate. But even with all this, this system is one of the best 2ch cams overall that you can get


No cam does a great job with number plates; every cam will miss some you thought they'd certainly get and get some you were sure they couldn't possibly get. This front cam is average or better at lower speeds, but this rear am is below average because of it's lower 720P resolution. At higher speeds the front cam blurs oncoming traffic so then it goes below average. When you're parked, the local activity is normally slow and number plates you need close, so for that this front cam does well enough in daylight or low-light but the rear cam doesn't do low-light well at all. Still, for a 2ch cam that's par for the course and overall this system is about as good as these get. About all that a 2ch system offers over 2 single channel systems is convenience when pulling the cards and when installing

If you need best images day and night the only solution is 2 separate cams that can equal or better the performance of the front cam in this system. Even then none will be perfect- every cam is a compromise in some way. Look at the vids which are made with this system and decide for yourself if they are good enough. Pay special attention to the rear cam in low-light. Compare to other high-quality 2ch systems like Thinkware, keeping in mind the other differences like form-factor, sizes, and mounting schemes. If you still can't be happy start looking at the single channel cams and buy 2 of those.

All cams are a compromise somewhere, so decide what is most important to you then choose from there. Somebody makes a cam that gives you what you need most bit nobody makes a cam that gives you everything you want.

Phil

 

[Gavin Austin]

Thanks for the replies. Will have to do more research.

 

[Maddog1974]

Just a reminder the F770 rear camera is also full 1080 hd. Not 720!

 

[Gavin Austin]

Still searching......any opinions on F770 vs X550?

 

[WA3PNT]

Still searching......any opinions on F770 vs X550?

I have both a X550 and a F750 (with the F770 Firmware).
I like them both equally, and each has their advantage.
I put the X550 in my work truck because I wanted the ability to view the videos without having to use my Cell Phone.
I think that they both have pretty much the same video quality, and both provide the buffered Parking Mode that is a must have for me.

RodeoGeorge

 

[iviax]

I have a stupid question about the parking mode of F770. After you turn off the engine, what's the power supply for the dashcam? do you have to hardwire it? can you just plug it in the normal 12v plug to use paking mode?

 

[flip9]

For parking mode to work it needs to be hardwired to a constant 12v supply and switched ACC source.

Normal 12v plug will not have parking mode.

 

[peterharvey]

For the very best in video quality, you must try to use two (2) single channel dashcams especially the:
1) Dodd LS470W+,
2) Vicovation Vico Opia 2, and
3) Street Guardian SG9665GC V3.

 

[Gavin Austin]

Holding off for the release of the F800. Does anyone know where I can find more info about this model? specs/release date etc?

 

[terminus]

Holding off for the release of the F800. Does anyone know where I can find more info about this model? specs/release date etc?

Here it is:
https://thinkwaredashcam.uk/product/thinkware-dash-cam-f800/

 

[Gavin Austin]

Brilliant, thanks

 

[Maddog1974]

I've had a play with a pre production unit we have here (front only as it won't work with existing rear cameras) and it does seem very impressive especially the Super Night Vision 2 part. Driving in my Smart Car along a country lane in Colchester just off of headlights was a brilliant picture. Even parked on my driveway after 1AM (when the streetlights go off) i could still see the outline of the house opposite mine, granted no real detail but to see the outline in pitch black was impressive!

As for a release date it was due the first week of July, now sometime in August but it has been put back for a few extra tweeks like:

At last it will work with a 128gb card officially!
The parking mode will use around 66% less power for longer recording times
Free software upgrade to work with Thinkware Cloud when available later this year.

 

[Gavin Austin]

Brilliant, thank you. So the F800 and F800 air are going to be the same hardware with just and updated firmware to allow access to the cloud? I want to make sure of that point as I wouldn't want to make a purchase only to find the hardware on the air model has been upgraded. I was planning on getting an F700 and then putting that in my partners car when the new one came out but think I will hold off till August and get the F800 and another a few weeks later for her if all is well. I also plan on connecting it up to a cellink B unit if they are compatible?

I have seen on another post somewhere, links to the video footage of the F800 but the links were dead, do you know where I would be able to view a sample?
Also, is there any indication of when in August it is due to be released?

 

[Maddog1974]

From the information we have been given from Thinkware the F800 & F800 Air are going to be the exact same unit but the F800 will be software up-gradable to the Air model. (I would wait until launch to confirm this as information has been known to change in the past!) Yes it will be compatible with the Cellink B or the Thinkware iVolt although in theory not quite as much need for them now as the parking mode will use a lot less power anyway. I will see if i can find any F800 footage i can't remember if i deleted it!

 

[Maddog1974]

Here is a link for some video i took for the Shows we have done but it shows all most models running in order. All with about 10 seconds of Day, 10 seconds of Night with streetlights and 10 seconds of night no streetlights. It's about 3.43 minutes in for the F800. Keep in mind this is a pre production model and in a 2008 Smart Car that has many small chips in the screen!!

https://chameleoncodewing-my.sharepoint.com/personal/spaget_chameleoncodewing_co_uk/_layouts/15/guestaccess.aspx?docid=027bc6c1369fd4902b8833ecb380ebe0a&authkey=AYWEWLQmCXdNDX4dGDjb_4Q&expiration=2017-09-07T23:00:00.000Z