unimpressed with the Garmin dash cam 35

Sierra757

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I decided to recently purchase my first dash cam, which I decided would be a Garmin Dash Cam 35. I knew of the other dash cams (the 10 and 20) and I was hoping this would be a step up but I must say I'm sadly disappointed in it. For one thing there are barely any settings on this thing! I cant adjust the colors and what little options I have are limited. Additionally I have to say the video quality was very, very, very disappointing, I would think that in a day and age where I can get beautiful video quality on my smartphone that a dash cam dedicated to recording video could at least read license plates from a good distance away or it would focus better in various lightning conditions but this...this is just terrible. it says it records in 1080p but honestly this is far from it, I have trouble reading a persons license plate that is 30 feet ahead of me on a perfectly sunny day with the sun NOT in the face of the camera? oh and they then decided that the european version would have a microphone but the north american version wouldn't!

Sorry if I sound like I'm rambling but I'm just very frustrated, what would you guys recommend around the 200 price range? I mean I'm essentially worried about reliability(i would like to leave it in my car on the hottest days or the coldest nights) and video quality, I didn't want something that would die on me a year or two from now with zero support or warranty.
 
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thank you I will be returning the garmin and purchasing this dash cam along with the protection plan on amazon, by the way I couldn't find the link to buy that filter on amazon, is it out yet?
 
Excellent welcome aboard. I only have about 5 remaining pre-order slots for the new CPL. (We should receive our first batch in about a week)
They are being made in small quantities (see complete story in CPL link above) at this time so can't list them on Amazon yet without risk of having late orders.
We'll gladly list them on Amazon after we catch up with production and have enough inventory. They will be popular for sure, really love the results.
 
I just wanted to mention that I am also not a fan of the Garmin camera. The bitrate is rather low, it records in .avi so the files can be a pain to deal with and Garmin refuses to mention the chipset used. I have asked more then once. These are all stay away red flags. I would imagaine that all the chipsets used in DashCams are known (Amb,Ntk, Zoran, TI.) That makes me feel like if Garmin is not willing to say it must be a low end chipset.
 
that is not the dash cam 35, i'm speaking of an entirely different dash cam. I am speaking of this one.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the-road/533/garmin-dash-cam-35/prod517726.html

and for that price it deserves way better video quality, i'm not saying it was bad, but not for that price, for that price I expect damn good quality and way more software options.

and its unfortunate Garmin not only refuses to speak more about its specifications, but that it just seems to be throwing sub par hardware at a market that is just dying to burst here in the u.s.a.
 
I just wanted to mention that I am also not a fan of the Garmin camera. The bitrate is rather low, it records in .avi so the files can be a pain to deal with and Garmin refuses to mention the chipset used. I have asked more then once. These are all stay away red flags. I would imagaine that all the chipsets used in DashCams are known (Amb,Ntk, Zoran, TI.) That makes me feel like if Garmin is not willing to say it must be a low end chipset.
yeah I checked the bit rate at around 8000 kbps which to me was just damn sad for a camera in 2015, this model JUST came out, it should be better.
 
Oh okay.
I searched for garmin 35 that came up with garmin 33 + rear channel so thought it's the same.
 
yeah I checked the bit rate at around 8000 kbps which to me was just damn sad for a camera in 2015, this model JUST came out, it should be better.
I also thought you meant the one Sunny mentioned.

Does this one save in AVI as well? The GDR33 does.
Can you take a still picture with the camera before you send it back and look under the properties and see if it happens to mention chipset? Sometimes if you take a picture and look through it will. Like this

qtRiaPn.jpg

Sometimes where it says Camera Maker it will have the chipset name
 
and its unfortunate Garmin not only refuses to speak more about its specifications, but that it just seems to be throwing sub par hardware at a market that is just dying to burst here in the u.s.a.

If someone knows the FCC ID we can check out detailed internal PCB/chip photos via:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm
(Warning very slow database)
FCC ID is usually stamped on the product or on a sticker sometimes. I couldn't find one searching google images alone.
 
I also thought you meant the one Sunny mentioned.

Does this one save in AVI as well? The GDR33 does.
Can you take a still picture with the camera before you send it back and look under the properties and see if it happens to mention chipset? Sometimes if you take a picture and look through it will. Like this

qtRiaPn.jpg

Sometimes where it says Camera Maker it will have the chipset name
it saves as an mp4 file and no, it doesn't show anything with those properties, they're pretty much all blank
 
it saves as an mp4
That's good at least AVI files are a pain to deal with. That was another reason I didn't like my 33.
Thank you for checking.
 
Man, I was really looking forward to the 30/ 35 series cameras. I didn't consider the 10 & 20 series cameras as they were too big and bulky.

From the owners manual of the 30/ 35 series:

Record Audio: Turns on and off audio recording. This feature is not available in all areas or for all product models.

What in the world does that mean?
 
The UK version of this camera has audio. I'm wondering if the US version has the microphone, but is just disbaled in the firmware. Could it perhaps be enabled somehow if it does become equipped with a mic?
 
that just says you can turn audio on or off

Yeah, you're correct, but it only applies to the Euro/UK models. I guess they just use the same owners manual for all versions of the same camera.

At any rate, no audio recording is a deal breaker for me.
 
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