Hey guys,
I found a really good deal online at JB that I thought would be worth sharing with you all.
Crash Cam HD normally $99 now $68.
Follow the link to check it out!
Crash Cam HD Only $68 at JB Hi-Fi
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$9 shipping is ridiculous considering the JB Hifi warehouse that they ship from is located like 3 km from me. >:(
Then walk there you fat bastard :p
Crash Cam HD: $68. Price of cleaning up the glass after lads smash your window to steal what they think is a GPS: Priceless.
Do people still steal Sat Nav units?
undoubtedly — it all depends where you leave your car parked overnight.
many of us remember the days not so many years ago, when junkies would routinely bust a $200 car window to steal your $50 piece of sh!t cassette-radio, which presumably they could swap for a $10 dealOne of my friend had his Melway stolen from his car after smashing a window.
Gov should think about lifting the punishments for theft. Otherwise it can become ridiculous when those morons can make up their minds to smash $200 glass of someone else's car and steal a piece of junk and sell it for 2 bucks. There should be a way to control that.
anyone found any feedback on these units? Laser products traditionally have been pretty sub-par.
I bought one of these from a computer store a few weeks ago.
The video output is very average, I wouldn't call it true HD/720p as the image appears to be simply upscaled. It'll record movements all around the front of your car but don't expect any finer details in the picture.
To show you an example, here's a screenshot during day time when the car is stationary - http://i49.tinypic.com/34sjmnc.png. You can see that it's quite blurry and you can barely read the licence plates in front, let alone the road signs. However depending on which way the light is shining, the picture may become a little clearer.
This could just be my unit being defective, given that there has been little feedback on it to date I wouldn't know, so if anyone else gets different results it would be interesting to hear it.
Probably about what to expect for something < $100…. how is it powered by the way… I assume cable down to dash?
that picture is worse than the sub $50 units off DX
Runs off a rechargeable battery, but you can always run it to the cigarette lighter for constant power.
It doesn't have autofocus I reckon.
So, if the car stops (engine off/no shake) - the pic will be clearPretty sure that these don't come focused and Laser expects the user to do it. I was told that the lens is on a thread and through rotating it, you can better focus for the image and get excellent clarity.
Yeah, the image looks out of focus to me, though it's hard to see from the JB pic whether it has a focus ring.
According to the Laser website at: http://www.laserco.net/support/downloads/NAVCAM-HD
Q: How to adjust the focus?
A; Slowly turn the lens clockwise or anticlockwise to adjust lens to suit your distance
Just tried your suggestion by rotating the lens around, then tried using it while walking around the house, and seems like this has fixed my 'problem'. Picture looks pretty clear and does look like real 720p now. Will need to confirm it when I drive out tomorrow.
It's just surprising because nowhere in the manual (including the troubleshooting page) did it mention you had to manually rotate the lens to focus the image…
cheers man, yeah..based off that screenie I think I'll have to give it a miss..
This is sweet as! Saw some vids of this cam and the quality seems pretty good. Cheers OP.
the 7th planet :)
lol
guys im missing an in joke here. please fill me in! Why are we hating this guy
Oops…sorry guys, it is an online only deal…so $9 delivery fee on top
I own this one -
http://www.ebdeal.com/super-slim-car-dvr-r280-1080p-30fps-72…
Full HD for $7.00 more,very good picture quality even at night.Lots of reviews on you tube.Just in case you guys want to compare picture quality, this is from my Blackve DR-400G HD which is a bit pricier but worth it because you can read number plates and it also has GPS to show location and speed.
http://i50.tinypic.com/23vnk07.jpg (I took this screenshot when trying to check my eyes weren't playing up on me with a crazy Hummer go past)
I did a lot of research before buying this unit, I found this website that has a good review on it.
http://www.carcamcentral.com/reviews/pittasoft-blackvue-dr40…I think for the price of this Laser unit, you can get one of the cheaper ones reviewed on here which contain GPS in them too.
http://www.carcamcentral.com/reviews/chinese-dash-camera-sho…I'm not in any way associated with Car Cam Central. I just found the reviews on there pretty comprehensive and very helpful.
I have tried many of those so called 720p or even 1080p from eBay as well. They are so disappointing in built and video quality.. Nothing beats dr400-hd and dod tec's gs600. Hence I use blackvue for the front and doc tec for the back. With power magic controller, the dr400 even records when the vehicle is switched off. It's trigged by motion or it's built in g sensor.
Hey, Andrew here founder of Car Cam Central. Thanks for the mention and glad you like my reviews! I honestly believe I do the most comprehensive testing out of everyone I've seen.
Honestly I've been busting my ass to find cameras in a low, mid and high end range. I think currently the DR400G-HD (version II) is a great purchase at $200 especially compared to many others in it's range. I'll be honest and say I haven't looked at everything but support from Pittasoft (the manufacturer) has been excellent (from my home forum redflagdeals.com we did a group buy with them). If you buy off eBay however most sellers are grey market and the manufacturer won't cover you with their warranty (you'll have to trust the seller + you'll have to ship it back often at your own cost). The Itronics ITB-100HD has some great reviews so far and is very reliable.
Make sure you get version 2 (season II) of the DR400G as it fixes overheating problems some people have encountered as well as improves the clarity. You won't find it locally however (as far as I've seen, only on eBay).
At the $100 I'm rather split. I think the unlabelled DOD-TEC cameras make a great purchase (although they are rather bulky if you are concerned with looks and if someone has a thieving eye on your electronics). The Russians have made two great guides on the F500 and F900 (use chrome to auto translate).
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&key=0AvvapV…
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&key=0AvvapV…At the lower end $60, I'm really liking my K2000 purchased from estore009 on EBay (edit looks like it's been replaced with something newer, have to investigate) http://myworld.ebay.com/estore009. I mention his store specifically because there is a narrow selection of retailers who don't sell "counterfeit" stuff (vetted by Russians who purchase a lot of cheaper dash cameras, I'm not associated at all with the store). If you see the link from above I did a review on 5 cheaper models (no GPS though!), I think the two pentagon shaped cameras are good for the price and won't let you down.
Haha wow.. never expected a reply from you of all people! How did you find your way to an Aussie bargain site?
Anyway, keep up the good work on the research and reviews, your video reviews are very clear and well spoken too which I like.Shame I just got the DR400G version 1 a few months ago after seeing your review. Didn't expect a version 2 to be out otherwise I would have waited :( especially with the Australian summer coming up!
I keep an eye on my traffic! If someone is talking about my website it's always good to respond whenever I can. There is some cool stuff coming up, besides the cameras that are rolling in, Dod-Tec that has an office 30 minutes away I'm starting up a forum. The outline is up I just need to populate it with content, advertising for the launch and all that jazz.
I think they had to react quickly to the negative reviews on the DR400G. I think they overestimated the amount of heat recording at 1080p would cause and some materials they used weren't compatible and probably cracked under the heat.
Thanks again!
I'm just curious but why do you need a so-called 'crash camera' in the car?
For the slighest possibility that you happen to have an accident at the front of the car(where the camera can see) there will probably be other witnesses around and if someone runs up the back then the camera is blind. This is presuming that the camera actually survives the impact of the crash sitting atop your flimsy glass dash, as well as your corpse. Perhaps you might fortuitously witness an accident as it happens and be lucky enough to sell the footage to the media. These would be super handy for PIs or detectives but I just can't see the point in buying one. Convince me why I need it and I might splash the cash.People can reverse into you too. If someone runs into the back of you, the video can show you were stationary before an impact pushes the car forward (at least its not your fault).
If the cam doesn't survive, the sd card might.If you can save having to fork out for just ONE accident or fine because you can prove you weren't in the wrong, you've already paid off the cost of the camera.
Take a look at this example here. (Watch from the 6:00min mark of the youtube clip)
http://ambler.patch.com/articles/ex-lansdale-man-fights-law-…
The police officer accuses him of not coming to a complete stop at the lights. It's his word vs the officer's. In most cases, you can't argue that situation and have to cop the fine on the chin..Or take this other video as an example which is kind of like sublemon's example above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9fSPnVNF50
You get hit from behind and pushed in to the car in front of you. The car behind could argue that you hit the car in front first, which left them with no where to go.
This video serves as proof that you weren't the one that caused the accident.As mentioned by wilson1b, the Blackvue has a parking mode which turns on when it detects motion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBxVM2xaGII'm just linking videos from the Blackvue, but as I mentioned in my earlier comment above, that review of the cheaper Chinese dash cams brings up a couple of good devices with inbuilt GPS in them too.
Wow, thanks for all this info. After watching the first case I'm sold on the idea already. It's a very affordable kind of 'insurance policy' that every motorist should have.
These are also very common in Taiwan — every taxi driver has one. Maybe China as well. It's really a form of insurance, not just against lousy drivers but also against the police.
I already had a bad experience with Cops 2 years back which made me think so hard and I will feel bad for the rest of my life in here. I was given a fine and I am still thinking why. I was dropping my kid to the school on my way to work. It was in front of a Train station where speed limit was 40. I was driving at about 25-30 as people were crossing the road from everywhere as it was rush time.
I saw a police car watching me on the side of the by road next to the station and they saw me clearly. Don't think I was presenting bad with the cloths, I do a professional job and was on my way to work. I have to agree that I look similar to Indians even though I am not and have never had any relation to India. I don't think the way you look should matter for anything especially with law and cops who suppose to help maintaining the law.
It was a T junction and I had to make a 90 degree turn at the end. I was the first car to go and I started moving when the signal light became green. I was the only one to turn right. It was a big junction and it quickly became amber and then Red before I finish the turn but I was on the main road at that time. In that place it's very normal as the lights always give the priority for main road and only one or two car can move at a time. Then I was the Police car came behind me and the cop came to me and asked what's my problem. Then I politely asked have I done anything wrong. Then he said when I was in middle light became red. I said I came out from that by road when light was Green. Then he agreed to that but said that it became red before I finish the turn. Then I said that I had to go as I am late to drop my little one to school. Cop said that they will send the fine home and let me go. I came to work and told my colleagues. They all said he wouldn't send it but might have just tried to scare me. I went home and there was a fine of $299 and 3 demerit points. That was the first fine in my life which I ended up paying. Later my friends said I could have written a letter to them and they might reconsider as it was my first fine.
In my life I was stopped by a police cop when I was living in US and I drove 10 miles above limit as all others were doing the same. He some how came behind and I didn't tell anything. He came to me, checked my license and said drive carefully and don't exceed the limit and went away.
Everyday when I drive to work I see many places where you can not finish the turn before it becomes Red even if you are the first car to go on green unless you have a racing car. btw, I was driving a Corolla at that time. :)
It would have been great if I had a video camera at that time at least I could show it to the authorities later and request to fix the light to allow enough time to cross the road.
I still don't know what you should do when you see the light becomes amber and you are in middle of the junction and it's a big one. you can not stop in middle. Can you? That gives cops a definite chance to fine as many as they want. They just have to go and wait at a wide intersection.Interesting story. Considering the advanced fixed red light and speed camera technology and proliferation of use these days I think your chances of getting caught by one of them is much higher than by police. For the sake of red light cameras, once you have crossed the double white lines on amber then you are in the clear and not in violation. Drivers get stuck in a cue at the intersections all the time. Sounds like the cop had a quota to fill that day and you were one of his victims.
It was a big junction and it quickly became amber and then Red before I finish the turn but I was on the main road at that time.
I suspect he got you for entering an intersection before your exit was clear…..
I'm highly doubtful about China - it's a police state. You can't even access Youtube over there.
good question.. and responses.
thanks for all the links unco
Awesome - I have one of these cams and never realised it had a focus ring on the lens! - Doh!
Thanks for mentioning it, I would have never found it. :)
Why not just mount your phone and have it record te trip?
There's nothing stopping you from doing that.
Depends if you want a dedicated black box recorder style setup or not.The phone will stop recording when someone tries to dial you.. and the memory won't be looping like it is with the proper recorders.
ROFL good one. My phone records video at 176x144 pixels (i.e. 1/12th VGA res), which is barely higher than the resolution of the screen itself.
So while you're walking that 3KM to the JB depot, drop $49 at Australia Post for a phone built after 1999
They don't allow pickups - it's their warehouse. And secondly, my phone cost me $79, and is less than 1 year old.
You were ripped off my friend. Also i was just continuing the joke from earlier, it's all good.
Nope, it's a Nokia 2690 and it was the best price available at the time. You'll find that the current entry-level Nokias probably do the same video resolution, although they are a bit cheaper I think.
can someone who owns one of these tell me how long the unit runs with no power cable plugged in from a full charge?
ok another question then - does this record like crap at night or is it decent?
Great first post OP and thank you. Would be nice if you can update the price to $77 delivered or $68 + $9 shipping. Cheers