Dash Cameras

Author
Discussion

rigga

8,730 posts

201 months

Tuesday 8th December 2015
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smithyithy said:
Guys, does this look okay? Not sure which 08xx model it's supposed to be?

I currently use my Drift helmet cam as a dash cam, so just need something to use as a rearview now.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Newest-Ambarella-smalles...
Says it's 0803 in the description

smithyithy

7,246 posts

118 months

Tuesday 8th December 2015
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rigga said:
Says it's 0803 in the description
My bad!

I think I'll pick on up then smile

rich888

2,610 posts

199 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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Rich135 said:
threadlock said:
Yes, thank you very much indeed. It seems there's little benefit paying double the price for the 0806.

I think I'll replace my 0801 with the same again, since they're not very expensive and (when they're working) they're very good. Mine has lasted almost two years. I'll get Dad the Transcend 200 and hope it's a more reliable unit generally.
Where's the best place to get an 0801 from, and what sort of price should I be paying?
Thanks
I purchased a couple of E-Prance 0801 dash cameras from Amazon in Sept 2014 and Feb 2015, though have checked today and E-Prance don't seem to be listing the 0801 any longer. There are various copies out there but some are worse than others!

One UK seller that does have a good reputation is Combi based in Leicestershire who you can actually phone for advice, website is: http://www.combi.org.uk/categories/6/Mini-0801-DVR they sell various other dash cameras and accessories including hardwire kits, etc. Not as cheap as Amazon or eBay but at least you know you will have some after-sales support if the camera starts playing up!

From memory I believe that the 0803 was quite unreliable in the early days so was replaced by the 0805, the 0806 was redeveloped to provide better cooling but suffered from reliability problems with the early generation units, not sure how good they are but my 0806 continues to give me grief whilst the 0801 just quietly gets on with the job in hand.

Only problem with the 080* range of cameras is that there is no easy way to strip them down to replace the battery as and when it fails.

threadlock

3,196 posts

254 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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rich888 said:
One UK seller that does have a good reputation is Combi based in Leicestershire who you can actually phone for advice, website is: http://www.combi.org.uk/categories/6/Mini-0801-DVR they sell various other dash cameras and accessories including hardwire kits, etc. Not as cheap as Amazon or eBay but at least you know you will have some after-sales support if the camera starts playing up!
Thank you for that tip.

rich888 said:
From memory I believe that the 0803 was quite unreliable in the early days so was replaced by the 0805, the 0806 was redeveloped to provide better cooling but suffered from reliability problems with the early generation units, not sure how good they are but my 0806 continues to give me grief whilst the 0801 just quietly gets on with the job in hand.
That Combi place is now selling the 4th version of the 0806. Do you know whether the problems might have been solved by now? (Or where I can look to find out for myself?)

Elroy Blue

8,688 posts

192 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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While I've not had it long, I'm very pleased with my 806. Check the contents before you order as I got a polarising filter included. I have read that this comes with the latest batch

rich888

2,610 posts

199 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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threadlock said:
rich888 said:
One UK seller that does have a good reputation is Combi based in Leicestershire who you can actually phone for advice, website is: http://www.combi.org.uk/categories/6/Mini-0801-DVR they sell various other dash cameras and accessories including hardwire kits, etc. Not as cheap as Amazon or eBay but at least you know you will have some after-sales support if the camera starts playing up!
Thank you for that tip.

rich888 said:
From memory I believe that the 0803 was quite unreliable in the early days so was replaced by the 0805, the 0806 was redeveloped to provide better cooling but suffered from reliability problems with the early generation units, not sure how good they are but my 0806 continues to give me grief whilst the 0801 just quietly gets on with the job in hand.
That Combi place is now selling the 4th version of the 0806. Do you know whether the problems might have been solved by now? (Or where I can look to find out for myself?)
My 0806 was 2nd generation which was better than 1st generation, however many of the added sales features don't actually work which kind of defeats the point of buying one. In the daytime the video quality of the 0806 at 1920 x 1080 is in my opinion a little worse than the 0801, it's only when you increase the resolution that it improves albeit at the expense of blurring number plates of oncoming traffic at higher speeds. The 0806 is definitely better in low light and night-time though still nothing like a proper CCTV camera.

I think the problem with the 080* range of dash cams is that the manufacturer continues to rush to produce newer models with more gimmicks, rather than properly testing the existing units and production lines, and this is resulting in problems for customers who buy them, I believe that an 0826 is on the cards, as well as the 090* range of dash cameras. If they just knuckled down to iron out the existing issues rather than focusing on the next 'new and improved' models then reliability might get better. Am sure the 4th generation 0806 will be better than the 1st, but I'm guessing that many of the gimmicks still don't work as expected.

Unless you need the low light / night-time improvements, and the ability to record onto SD cards bigger than 32GB in size I would go for the 0801.

The dashcamtalk.com forum is perhaps one of the best places to research dash cams, alternatively have a chat with Lee at Combi.

andy-xr

13,204 posts

204 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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I've got a mini 080something, the £35 one off Amazon which has been great. But, in my new to me car it's too tall with the suction mount on it

I just had a look at the Halfords and they have Nextbase stuff in, about £90 for a 1080 one that doesn't seem to hang too low

The problem I have is the suction mount clip is about 3 inches and behind the mirror is a unstrap and some webbing type non sticky stuff so I need to move the camera to the left of the rear view mirror

I've seen a dash cam that's mounted straight to the windscreen but can't remember what it was - any pointers?

M4cruiser

3,640 posts

150 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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rich888 said:
Only problem with the 080* range of cameras is that there is no easy way to strip them down to replace the battery as and when it fails.
On that note, has anyone actually succeeded in repairing an 080*? My earliest one has died, my best guess is that the battery has expired, because the unit is still trying to work but gives up after a few seconds with a red icon on the screen.
As it's useless I may as well try to take it to bits and see what I can do, just thought I'd ask for advice first. Since it was "assembled" it must logically be possible to "disassemble" it unless they glued it together with resin.


rich888

2,610 posts

199 months

Wednesday 9th December 2015
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andy-xr said:
I've got a mini 080something, the £35 one off Amazon which has been great. But, in my new to me car it's too tall with the suction mount on it

I just had a look at the Halfords and they have Nextbase stuff in, about £90 for a 1080 one that doesn't seem to hang too low

The problem I have is the suction mount clip is about 3 inches and behind the mirror is a unstrap and some webbing type non sticky stuff so I need to move the camera to the left of the rear view mirror

I've seen a dash cam that's mounted straight to the windscreen but can't remember what it was - any pointers?
Are you sure you have an 080* dashcam because as far as I'm aware they aren't available with a suction mount. The actual 0801 windscreen mount used is very compact indeed.

Pic shown below of E-prance Mini 0801 with windscreen mount:


rigga

8,730 posts

201 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
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M4cruiser said:
On that note, has anyone actually succeeded in repairing an 080*? My earliest one has died, my best guess is that the battery has expired, because the unit is still trying to work but gives up after a few seconds with a red icon on the screen.
As it's useless I may as well try to take it to bits and see what I can do, just thought I'd ask for advice first. Since it was "assembled" it must logically be possible to "disassemble" it unless they glued it together with resin.
Around the on/off switch on the side is a plastic ring, pop that off and there's 4 screws underneath, remove those and the camera comes apart.

Good luck putting it all back together,.

Negative Creep

24,980 posts

227 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
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Ordered a G1W DVR in the end. Paid a few quid more at carcamerashop but figured it would be worth it to avoid ebay fakes and have some backup

superlightr

12,856 posts

263 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
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Negative Creep said:
Ordered a G1W DVR in the end. Paid a few quid more at carcamerashop but figured it would be worth it to avoid ebay fakes and have some backup
its good to support local businesses in the high street.

M4cruiser

3,640 posts

150 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
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rigga said:
Around the on/off switch on the side is a plastic ring, pop that off and there's 4 screws underneath, remove those and the camera comes apart.

Good luck putting it all back together,.
Many thanks, I'll give it a go!


rich888

2,610 posts

199 months

Thursday 10th December 2015
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M4cruiser said:
rigga said:
Around the on/off switch on the side is a plastic ring, pop that off and there's 4 screws underneath, remove those and the camera comes apart.

Good luck putting it all back together,.
Many thanks, I'll give it a go!
Step by step pics here: https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/disassembly-...

It's probably not a problem taking it to pieces, it's putting it back together and discovering a few spare components that might be the issue.... Good Luck smile

acme

2,971 posts

198 months

Wednesday 16th December 2015
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Finally I've taken the plunge and purchased a 0805 from Combi. Many thanks for all those who contributed to this thread, appreciated.

One final question, any hints & tips to fitting? (seem to remember the one about placing it to the left of the mirror, sticking it on to then find out you can't slide out from the base unit as the mirrors in the way!)

Cheers

Podie

46,630 posts

275 months

Wednesday 16th December 2015
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ash73 said:
My Dad's asked me to fit a dashcam in his new car, but it looks a bit of a bugger to fit one discretely. Any suggestions?

Mobius with remote lens sticking out at the bottom of the rain sensor?

Shnozz

27,475 posts

271 months

Wednesday 16th December 2015
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ash73 said:
My Dad's asked me to fit a dashcam in his new car, but it looks a bit of a bugger to fit one discretely. Any suggestions?

Mine has a similarly large area in the middle of the screen that is a no-go. I have just stuck mine further over on the passenger side as close to the centre that isn't covered with built in aerial and rear view mirror.

superlightr

12,856 posts

263 months

Wednesday 16th December 2015
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ash73 said:
Anyone tried the KOONLUNG K1S? Techmoan review looks pretty good, expensive though.
that's the one that floats my boat as well. Looks good although a fair few wires. Did like the Halfords nextbase top range one looked neat - thought about getting two of them just for the ease of installation.

rich888

2,610 posts

199 months

Thursday 17th December 2015
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acme said:
Finally I've taken the plunge and purchased a 0805 from Combi. Many thanks for all those who contributed to this thread, appreciated.

One final question, any hints & tips to fitting? (seem to remember the one about placing it to the left of the mirror, sticking it on to then find out you can't slide out from the base unit as the mirrors in the way!)

Cheers
Haha, yup been there done that!!! TIP: Best thing to use to remove a badly positioned mount on a windscreen is cheap and nasty dental floss in a sawing action, then clean off the adhesive using isopropyl alcohol which is available from Amazon.

Make sure you clean the windscreen with isopropyl alcohol, once you have done that remember that you will have but one chance to stick the mount where you want it because the adhesive is very very sticky.

If the mini SD card you are using is 32GB in size or less then you can format it in the camera before use, if larger than 32GB then format it FAT32 using Disk Utility in any Apple Mac desktop or laptop computer, if you don't have a Mac then find someone that does because it's a lot less hassle than trying to format using Windows!

And finally, buy your SD card from a reputable supplier like Combi, PC World, or perhaps Amazon, though only if dispatched from and sold by Amazon, eBay has too many fakes being sold so unless you are 100% confident of the reputation of the seller then avoid.

rich888

2,610 posts

199 months

Thursday 17th December 2015
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ash73 said:
My Dad's asked me to fit a dashcam in his new car, but it looks a bit of a bugger to fit one discretely. Any suggestions?

The 0801 dashcam is very compact and fits behind most mirrors and records pretty impressive 1080p video in normal driving conditions, is available from Combi.org.uk or Amazon or eBay depending upon how much level of risk you wish to take with buying a dud. It's very compact with a small LCD screen which switches off after a few seconds. There are more expensive dashcams available but few offer the same level of high video quality, reliability and affordability. Alternatively the Mobius is very good in this respect, but not so compact, and needs more initial set-up for use as a dashcam, though will probably be the more reliable camera longer-term.

I currently use an 0801, 0806 and a Mobius in my cars and have to say that the 0801 and the Mobius have performed brilliantly, whilst the higher resolution 0806 suffers from continual teething problems.

Most dashcams come supplied with a length of cable and a cigarette lighter charger so are very easy to power up, alternatively go for the hardwire kit which involves wiring in to a suitable supply by a qualified electrician if you don't know what you are doing.