This was posted 8 years 9 months 13 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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G1W-CB 1080p Black Stealth Capacitor Dashcam - USD $40.59 (~AUD $54.44) Shipped from everbuying.net

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Refer to my previous deal on the BlueSkySea version. These have basically become the unofficial standard for budget DashCams. Featuring an all-black stealth look so they're not as obvious to surrounding drivers (especially when rear mounted!) plus a capacitor instead of a battery these are great little DashCams and as long as you use a Samsung EVO MicroSD Card and follow the config below you will enjoy solid hassle-free performance. Buy one and cover the road ahead or buy two and cover the action ahead & behind! The cameras come with Power Supplies and Suction Cup mounts however there are loads of different solutions for wiring these up permanently and neatly so you wont even know they're there! Refer to my front & rear install pics from the previous deal. I have personally bought dozens & dozens of these (some plain, others 'BlueSkySea' branded) and have fitted them in cars for friends & family and have never had a DOA or a faulty unit and most have been in use for many many months now. Fingers crossed these will be the same :) Can't recommend them enough.

Note: These cams appear as $54.44 on the product link however if you've never shopped with 'EverBuying' before and register then confirm your email address & update your Avatar then you get a credit of 120 points. This is the equivalent of $3.22 so follow the instructions to claim those points to bring the price down to $51.22. As a new user you also get a 10%-off Coupon however it will only work with the original price so you'll end up paying more so best not to apply that for this purchase. Also, please be aware that paying via PayPal bumps that lower price back up to $53.13. Not sure why but I assume it's their OS currency fee and this may also happen with Credit Card payments. All very confusing but all in all these are still the cheapest I could find right now. The next closest is another $6 or more from an eBay seller. As per all Chinese sourced products please be patient as these will most likely take 3-4+ weeks to arrive.


Associated accessories (personally used & recommended!):


Best 'Hassle-Free' Config (personally used & recommended!):

1st Menu
Resolution - 1080FHD (lower res offers longer recording time but blurry footage)
Loop Recording - 3 Minutes (each to their own but smaller files are more stable)
WDR - On (close to pointless but slightly enhances low light recording)
Exposure - +0.0 (default but feel free to experiment with this)
Motion Detection - Off (can fill up your card with locked files when switched on)
Record Audio - On (up to you but may be handy to record indicator & horn sounds etc.)
Date Stamp - On (advisable)
Gsensor - Off (can fill up your card with locked files when switched on)

2nd Menu
Date/Time - Must change format to YY/MM/DD before setting date! Change back once set. May not stick first few times but check back and re-set after regular use.
Beep Sound - Off (can get annoying as makes sounds during bootup/shutdown)
Language - English
TV Mode - PAL (menu exits after setting this. Press ‘M’ twice to re-enter menu)
Frequency - 50 Hz
Screen Saver - 3 Minutes (best set short to avoid the distraction)
IR LED - Off (white LED on this model so this feature is pointless)
Car Plate - Use up/down arrows to scroll characters and ’M’ to progress. Press REC when finished to save data.
Format - Formats SD Card (not critical but good to do this every now & then)
Default Setting - Reverts to default settings if required. Not ideal.
Version - Software version Info.

Enjoy!

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closed Comments

  • +73

    Positive vote for the write-up! :)

    • +15

      Cheers Luztra. I thought that after the huge interest in the previous deal I'd get in with all details first this time ;) Hopefully I've covered everything but if anyone has any questions please ask away!

    • +1

      Take a look at the previous comments linked in the OP.

      • Oh, you know, read the notes the OP provided!

    • +2

      YouTube is your friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iYligjjaa8 … but note that I seem to get slightly better picture quality than this.

      • +3

        YouTube's compression noticeably affects quality, which is why reviewers like Techmoan provide raw clip sample links so people can accurately judge quality for themselves.

  • Would anyone happen to know how long the cable is that comes with it? I'm guessing I'll need to buy a longer one to mount it on the rear windscreen.

    • very long, to my best memory

    • +1

      very long. dunno the exact length but i can find out tonight for you. i've got heaps of excess i have to stash under the passenger seat. Whether it'll reach the back, i'm not sure though. It's only a USB cable though so I'm sure you could find a long one on the cheap.

      • +1

        Thanks guys. Will get one and see how I go. Cheers!

    • +1

      Funnily enough I don't know the exact measurement but it's ample for running from a power socket on a dash or centre console around and up to a front-mount camera in every install I've done. Not long enough to feed a rear camera though sorry. You'll have to extend the cable for that.

      • OK sounds good, thanks!

        • +3

          A good solution is to use one of the DC-DC buck converters (link above) and use a single cable to feed the windscreen camera as you normally would… tucked up neatly through the A pillar and then up into the roof lining. All you then need to do is split the cable up near the roof using the 2nd cameras power cable to feed the rear-facing unit. No extensions required BUT please please please always be careful with polarity and always use a fuse on the 12V side of the DC-DC converter as it doesn't come with any protection.

        • +2

          @SteveAndBelle:
          This might be neater for power. Bought one for another car project recently, and got it within a week.

          http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-DC-Converter-Module-12V-To-5V-…

        • @Steptoe:

          Thanks for the link. I'm going to go this as it is definitely a more neat looking solution.
          However, I only need one usb output so I found a cheaper version that came with one usb output plug. Saves about 60 cents.

          http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-Converter-Module-12V-To-5V-3A-…

        • +1

          @Steptoe: If that works for you then yes but as I've already got the soldering iron out it's far easier for me to just hard wire the whole thing. No plugs, just solid & reliable hard wiring.

    • Long enough for you to hide the cable if mount at the front but for the rear not very sure.

    • I think the supplied cable is about 3m. It should be enough if you are using a front power supply. But if you are tapping into the armrest console it can be a bit short if you want to route the cable neatly under all the trims.

  • Good reviews/comparisons: https://dashcamtalk.com/g1w/#G1W-CB

  • +1

    I have the G1W-C and while the picture quality is great I've found the capacitor randomly doesn't last more then 8 hours for example, and more recently I've found the camera has been randomly not recording video despite it having the recording icon on the screen. I've also had plenty of other weird issues like it not automatically recording etc.

    This is after the camera worked perfectly 1-2 months.

    Hard to recommend any of these products without someone having used it for a year without issues as they seem to just create more and more issues every month.

    • Sorry to hear that Sam. Are you using a Samsung Evo card and the recommended settings above?

      • +3

        I have the recommended settings but don't have a samsung evo card.

        My logic is that if it worked fine for 1-2 months, why would changing cards fix it?

        • I agree with samfisher. Unless of course the card is failing, otherwise it should continue to work fine.

          I have read there are now several different manufacturers for G1W dash cams which resulted with variable quality control in this model.

          My parents' car has the G1W-c model which is still working fine after nearly a year, but I don't like it because it has big front façade and it is not discreet.

    • I also have the same issue with the black stealth model. It locks files randomly on the card and frequently runs out of storage.

      • Try re-format the card and I heard that for my last model some sdcard have problem with the cam I am using Kingston class 10.

    • +1

      try format the card as FAT32 on your PC.
      this eliminated random errors on my wife's G1W-CB
      with a 64GB Sandisk Micro SD.

  • Awesome, been looking for one for this price a while, anyone know how long shipping is?

    • +1

      As above, anything from China will take 3-4+ weeks.

      • Oops didn't see that part, thanks :) ordered one!

    • the one i bought from ebay arrived in about 10 working days

  • +3

    The A118C would be a very close competitor to this…

  • Thanks very much for the great write up. Just bought one.

  • I have heard these don't like the hot summer months here in Aus. Any truth to this>??

    • Haven't had any problems with mine… BUT in saying that I don't usually leave the car out all day every day either. Pretty sure some of the others I've installed would be treated far worse but I haven't had any reports of problems so far.

    • Depends on what you are referring to? Do you mean this car camera specifically or in general? Being a capacitor (that is, no battery) version gives you the best chance of this one surviving the hot weather. The 'official' operating range for this goes up to 65 degrees which (given it only works with the ignition on) is likely to be as hot it gets assuming your car has an air conditioner and/or windows you can wind down.

      Mine (exact same model, bought from gearbest) has been fine through the past couple of weeks of really hot weather here in Adelaide.

    • Yes.. Mine died because of the heat.
      If parked in the sun, you should unplug the dash cam before starting the car so it won't turn on while it's too hot.

      • -1

        If parked in the sun, you should unplug the dash cam before starting the car so it won't turn on while it's too hot

        LOL WOT?

        That is the stupidest idea ever. The WHOLE idea of a dash cam is to always have it switched on.

        Manually unplugging it, then switching it on sometime later won't make the slightest bit of difference… the heat is from the sun, not the air inside the car.

        • Huh?

          Heat from the sun? Yes the radiant heat would be felt on the device, but that is not the only source, this heat is trapped inside the car increasing the ambient temperature.

          Cars parked in the sun can get much hotter than the ambient temperature outside the car. Consequently the temperature of any items in the car will eventually rise to match at least that of the internal ambient temperature. It would take some time to cool the device down once you are in the car.

          If it has reached a temperature outside of its design spec for operating temperature then damage could occur if you run it at this higher temperature.

        • @klownz:

          Solar water heaters have collectors that are painted black. The black surface is then mounted under a transparent glass surface. The black object absorbs the heat from the sun, and operates at far higher temperatures than the surrounding ambient.

          This Dashcam is also coloured black, and it also must be mounted under glass). It will absorb heat from the sun and will also heat up to a far higher temperature than the ambient temperature inside the car.

          Whilst I understand what you are trying to point out, what you are forgetting is that the temperature of this unit is largely dictated by whether it is in the sun or not, rather than the surrounding air temperature (even if inside a hot closed car).

          So, if you are driving with this on the windscreen and there is sun outside, it will get hot. Your proposal to switch it off when it is hot would completely defeat the purpose of owning it.

        • @llama:

          Agree. But wouldn't this devices ability to tranfer this absorbed heat to its surrounding environment be affected by the surrounding ambient temperature. i.e. Once you are in the car and your AC has kicked on - ambient starts to drop so even if the device is hot it should be able to pass some of this radiated heat off.

          They should be designed to work in a hot environment though. Perhaps they should have made it with a white exterior.

          Do you have one of these? Found any issues with heat?

        • +1

          @klownz:

          Do you have one of these? Found any issues with heat?

          No, I don't have one. I'd say that any device which is black and in the sun is going to heat up like absolute buggery during Australian summers.

          I have a black iPhone and it cannot be used as a camera or a GPS when sitting in sunlight (in front windscreen), even in an air-conditioned car. It simply absorbs more heat from radiation (from the sun) than it can get rid of by convection (via the air). However the big difference is that the iphone is generating considerable amounts of internal heat, especially when running GPS.

          They should be designed to work in a hot environment though

          Yes, that's right. A Dashcam should be fit for purpose. In other words, it should reliably work when mounted in the front windscreen of a car, irrespective of the circumstances.

          Which why I made the comment to samBee in the first place. If the device needs to be switched off when you first start the car (in order to "handle the heat") then it's a POS.

    • Had this through this Summer, car parked outside everyday. Often forgot to unplug it after a hot day and it sometimes won't turn on, but it worked fine the next day, had to set the date & time after it "died" - this kinda bug me, as I had to do this quite often (not just because it "died" because of the heat).

  • +1

    possible noob question but are these things designed to delete the oldest file once it reaches capacity? i have two and I've noticed they play up when capacity on the memory card is reached, which requires a format every time to fix. can't seem to find any setting to fix it..

    • +1

      Yes, that's how they're supposed to work but I've never had that problem. You using a Samsung Evo Card? I keep asking this because I know others have had all sorts of problems when using different cards. I took that advice on early and have never used anything but the Samsung Evo cards in all of the units I've installed and have never had problems like this.

    • +1

      Yes, especially when the capacitor is out, and the date is reset. It will play up when older date try to delete new date. I'm using evo card

      the capacitor normally lasted 2 and half days (keeping the date)

    • That happens with my g1w-c. After using it for 1-2 months, footages start to mess up, including footages from the same day. Footages from the same day would just be either not recorded, or be corrupted. So i started to format around every 2-3 weeks so it would function normally. Think Im using a Kingston or Sandisk card for it.

  • The buzzing sound from the chipset is a pain in the playback and when loop recording stops working. Quality is good and saved my ass in an insurance claim.

  • +1

    I bought one from the last eBay group buy deal.
    Only negative so far is that the date resets if you don't drive your car for a day or so.

    • I second this. It's a pain to have to keep setting it. The date is important too, as it's used to determine what gets overwritten when the card gets full. Otherwise, great for the price.

    • Oh really. I want one but i tend to only drive on the weekend.

      • +3

        Then you'll have to chance in improve your speed in setting the date from 7 minutes, down to 2 minutes within a few months!

  • +1

    I have a non-capacitor version of this one, and it's fairly ok. You might want to use a smaller bracket, eg http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/121670195159.

  • +2

    Anyone have any experience with Everbuying? A brief google shows unfavourable reviews here and there, but would like to know what other ozbargainers think.

    • I would also like to know.

    • this was my first time. was worried as lots of neg reviews here as well. but very quick and easy registration and checkout. got the $10 off as well as $3. item got delivered in about 8 days (looks like sent from china to somewhere in sydney and then forwarded on). followed instructions in post to set up and seems to be working perfectly and came with recent (2015.1109) firmware. might be hit and miss but its been a brilliant experience for me so far.

  • +8

    I read your post with a Techmoan accent in my Head.

    And as always, thanks for watching.

  • Hey SteveAndBelle, I bought this dashcam last time you posted it and its been great but I have noticed a few times it stops recording automatically. The fix I have found is to go into the menus and format the sd card a few times. Have you come across this before? I am worried I won't notice it isn't recording and I will miss something. Thanks!

    • It happened to my second one and seems OK after I reformat the card.

      Also remember I heard there are some card not working very well with it. I bought the Kingston class 10.

    • You using a Samsung Evo Card?

      • I am using a sandisk

  • +2

    Have been using these for 5 months. Working absolutely fine. Excellent dashcams for the price.

  • +5

    I own one of these (exactly the same, capacitor 'stealth' [all black] version) and also bought one for my parents.

    In my experience, I agree with the tips and tricks listed by the OP. Quality (uncompressed) is actually a notch above any footage you see on YouTube due to the compression or whatever. It's pretty easy with some play-pause review of footage to identify number plates of most cars under most conditions.

    In summary:
    Pros:
    - amazingly cheap
    - video quality surprisingly good (night time isn't awesome but haven't seen many carcams at any price that are)
    - capacitor version takes the worry out of the 'Aussie heat' factor
    - fairly intuitive (which is good as the manual sucks)

    Cons:
    - setting the date (as indicated by OP) is a bit harder than it should be
    - data transfer is slow if you plug in the USB cable to the device (maxes out at about 10MB/s whereas if you take the microSD out and put it in a reader you can get the full card speed - can be a factor if you have ~30GB of files to send over)
    - build quality is not encouraging
    - one of the two I bought is quite finicky and gets stuck at 'welcome' occasionally requiring a reset

    I'd also recommend thinking carefully about the mirror mount. It's cheap enough to take a chance on it but depending on your car's mirror setup you may or may not be able to use it. The suction cup is surprisingly strong (and the camera is very, very light).

    • I use the mirror mount in two cars (we have two of the non-stealth "silver ring" versions of this camera), and they work well. :)

    • Thanks for the write up. I have a question, does it automatically start recording when you start up the car?

      • Yes.

      • yes and turns off when the engine goes off

      • +2

        Your question was already answered but just wanted to add that it's awesomely 'set and forget' - I don't even bother anymore to check if it's recording (with a quick glance) as it hasn't failed me yet.

        • +1

          Too right Troy. These are definitely 'set & forget' however it's best to check the footage once in a while… just in case ;)

    • Cheers for the extra comments Troy and good point about the data transfer performance. I've just added the link to the description to a mini USB/OTG MicroSD Card Reader (damn it, the only thing I forgot!). I've bought loads of these and they work really well. Handy to have around the house for fast access to data on cards from other devices but most importantly VERY handy to have permanently in the car too just in case you witness an accident and want to share the Dashcam video file with others at the scene then & there! The OTG works perfectly with Android but not sure how Apple people would do it sorry.

    • In addition:

      • the two I have randomly reset their dates back to the year 2000
      • both display "SD card not found" around 40% of the time on power-up (fixed by power cycling them)
      • one of the suction mounts broke after about 4 months

      Still good for the price though.

  • +1

    I bought two, thanks!

    Paid with PayPal so should be fine if this lot aren't reliable.

  • anyone have experience or a good comparison of the new Xiaomi dashcams?

  • What is the dc-dc duck converter?

    • "DC-DC Buck Converter to DIY convert 12V to 5V"

      • -3

        I can read.
        What does it do, where does it get connected to?

        • That would be so you can do away with the big cigarette adapter and power it off your cars 12V supply. Can be used for a more integrated setup, but will require extra work.

        • +3

          I'm an electronics n00b, but anyway.

          The two inputs on the DC-DC converter (+ve, -ve) can connect to the car battery (12V), wiring not provided. The output is to eventually connect to the dashcam, wiring not provided. The trimpot (blue thing on the board) is used to tweak the output voltage, required before connecting the dashcam to the converter. You would use a multimeter to confirm the converter's output voltage is 5V.

        • +4

          @stebie: Bang on Stebie. Very DIY and requires soldering ability but one thing I cannot stress enough is to include a fuse on the '12V' side of the converter. We don't want a dodgy Dashcam, Converter or OzBargainer wiring to cause a fire now!

        • @pasadala:
          Ok thanks mate!

        • @stebie:
          Wow way out of my league but thanks!

        • @stebie: sounds like something on the government's next to ban list

    • +2

      Converts ducks to chickens I think…

  • Thanks OP, bought one to replace my Blackvue DR550GW-2CH which was frustrating me.

    Is anyone able to show a pic of how the camera looks mounted with the mirror mount?
    I have some safety sensors and not sure if it'll be blocked by them or not.

    • What was frustrating you about Blackvue?

      • It would stop recording at times and just freeze up, corrupting my memory cards to the point it wouldn't be recognised in my computer and wouldn't let me format it.
        Mind you I did it have it hardwired to a Power Magic Pro and while I would disconnect it on hot days, sometimes I forgot.

        • Did you have it hardwired?
          Can you PM the settings as know a guy that has this and would like to compare settings and info please

        • @PLANT: What settings did he need?
          I set my Power Magic Pro quite a while ago and it's pretty much set and forget. I followed the instruction booklet to set the voltage limit.

    • Try google image search but still very depends on how is your mirror attached to the windscreen?

      I tried it with my corolla it is a bit to low and cannot hide it behind the mirror.

      • Thanks, I might just go with the adhesive mount to be safe.

        • I may also need one currently I put outdoor mounting tape directly on the suction cup.

  • Thank you.

    Purchased the camera as well as the adhesive mount.

    Anyone have a nice DIY write up for this for wiring diagram behind a dash?

    • +1

      I assume you want to go down the DIY DC-DC Buck Converter path for a super neat & tidy install? Easiest thing I did was to simply tap off the Negative & Positive wires that feed the Cigarette Lighter socket. Same power, just taken from the back of the socket instead of the front! Again, even though the cigarette lighter socket feed is already fused elsewhere in the car it's still a good idea to add another just for the Buck Converter. Better to be safe…

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