Vantrue E2, slightly disappointed

[Skylar132]

Full disclosure this camera was given to me free of charge by vantrue in exchange for a review. After my positive experience with my E1 I was relatively excited to receive this camera. Although it is the main camera in my car now I am slightly disappointed and underwhelmed which I will get to later.

First of all the video quality, the E2 has the options to record in:

1944P+1944P
1440P+1440P
1080P+1080P
720P+720P

Personally, I opted for 1440P with the WDR disabled. The video quality is more or less the same as the E1, i failed to notice any difference but I could be wrong about this. Good video quality during the day and acceptable at night. The video quality is suitable for my purposes as I only really have the camera for insurance reasons. But for people desiring the best possible video quality I would search elsewhere.

Mounting: The E2 has the exact same mounting system as the other element cameras, this does make it quite easy to remove and swap cameras but it also makes the camera more susceptible to vibrations which I have noticed in the recorded footage at times.

Parking Mode: There are a four different options for parked recording: Motion detection, Collision detection, Low bitrate or low framerate. Personally I use the low bitrate recording option as it provides the most coverage. In the future I would like to see buffered motion detection and impact detection as in their current state these only start recording after the motion is detected, as a note the camera does need to be hardwired to a constant 12v or external battery to utelize parking mode.

The issues: I have had a few small issues with this camera which I never experienced with my E1. First off, endless memory card issues. I decided to buy a samsung pro endurance 256GB card for this camera, I bought it from argos (a reputable UK retail company) and within a week it was cooked, but it was recording sometimes then flashing up memory errors but when these errors came up there was no audible chime even though I had this enabled. Then tried 2-3 more SD cards (Sandisk/Nextbase) both of my sandisks died on me but the nextbase **seems** to still be going strong although im still unsure. The hardwire kit voltage cutoff also seems slightly unreliable where it seems to cut off at different levels but this isnt to do with the camera just the HWK

Overall thoughts: I think this camera has the ability to be excellent but in my testing there do need to be software refinements made to improve the camera and its reliability.

 

[kamkar]

I have not yet have my E2 fry a memory card, actually i have 2 memory cards it like, which any of my Viofo cameras absolutely will not use, i have only used 256GB cards in the system.

Image quality, yes i think could be better, then again i feel so with any dashcam. i would love to see modders get in on the E2.

Mount, well not a favorite of mine, and i have seen Jello too, if i look very closely on the pieve of dash in the footage. but in the footage in general i have not noticed it, but of course it must be there.
But in General the Danish roads seem to be fine to not have the issue.

Other than a short failure to record on first drive of the day ( lasted 2-3 days ) when temperatures was at or just below 0 deg C i had no problems, when it became colder or warmer the issue also went away.
Also the temperatures have been sort of the same in the past week or so, and there have been nothing to complain about.

E2 dont seem memory card fuzzy, and in general do what i would expect of a dashcam, so i do not feel its a waste of money ( unless it cost a lot more than i think, i too was sent the E2 to test for free )

 

[Jeff_Vantrue]

And for the Front Camera only:2592x1944P 30FPS; 2560x1440P 30FPS; 1920x1080P 30FPS; 1280x720P 30FPS. Why not try to choose the 1944P+1944P 24FPS and turn on the WDR mode? WDR was created for conditions that have a considerable variation in background brightness levels. It enables your dash camera to achieve a balance between darkness and brightness. And record videos at a uniform brightness level without losing details.

For the motion detection. Here comes E2 updated version: E2_VT-ECB141. The most fabulous upgrade function is that increases the recording time of the pre-recording, from the existing 5 seconds, to 15 seconds.

For the SD cards, please do not use bad cards or low-speed cards on the dash cam, as it is easy to stop or lose the recording due to the failure of a memory card.