- Mini full HD 1920 x 1080P@30fps portable DVR car camcorder. 2.0" LTPS TFT LCD display. Recording resolution: 1920 x 1080 (30fps); 1440 x 1080 (30fps); 1280 x 720 (30fps); 848 x 480 (60fps).
- Video reverses recording 180 degree (Menu setting). Loop recording, time and date stamp. Still Image (jpeg) Resolution 2592 x 1944 JPEG 3200 x 2400, 4000 x 3000.
- Video Codec MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. Video output: HDMI: CTS1.2 Compliant. Audio Mic and Speaker (Mono) Equipped. Port USB 2.0/HDMI/TV OUT. Shutter Button Electronic shutter.
- Recording format: Mov. 4X digital zoom (Full HD resolution non), Sensor: 5 Mega pixels CMOS, Lens: 7.0mm (4.5mm optional), Focus: 10cm - infinity.
- Supports 1080i/720p output mode, Composite: NTSC/PAL. Connection ports: USB 2.0 / HDMI / TV. External SDHC/MMC card (Max 32G SDHC Card). Battery: 3.7V 1000mAh Rechargeable Lithium-ion Battery.
UPDATE: After five weeks of constant use with this product, I've had no problems. The thing doesn't miss a beat. I record an average of 29 gigs per day, looping constantly.
...This is a long review because I believe potential buyers need to know all of this...
This product is exactly what I expected -a true HD looping dashcam (1920x1080) that I can (and do) run continually while I'm driving, for a very low price. I have been using the f500l every day in my car, even when I'm parked, for a few weeks now and have had no problems. I've captured a lot of fun video so far, though no accidents or anything really exciting.
Pros:
1. Real HD at 1920x1080. Fantastic quality videos.
2. Numerous options to tailor the camera to your needs.
3. Comes with a lot of accessories, except SD card.
4. The included windshield mount produces no vibrations or other degradation of video, even though it's cheaply made.
5. Good quality audio recording, which can be disabled.
6. Date/time stamp optional.
Cons:
1. Cheaply made. It seems quite fragile and light weight, so I have been treating it very carefully to prevent mishaps. So far so good. I picked up a small case at a local Radio Shack to protect it when transferring between cars or bringing inside the house. Cheap build quality is not a deal killer, especially for the price they're charging.
2. Menus are in Russian out of the box. Three minutes of fiddling (and laughing) fixed it. Not a deal killer.
3. Night shooting is grainy. This is to be expected for a $100 camera. The videos are fairly good at night, though. They're still HD and capture plenty of detail to enjoy watching the clips. This is not a deal killer -it's plenty good.
4. Battery seems to last 5 minutes. This might be a menu setting for battery conservation. I really haven't dug into this because I have mine plugged in at all times. Not a deal killer.
General Info:
I highly recommend this camera if you want something to continually record in your car (looping / recirculating) for the purposes of catching insurance fraudsters and liars, or just want to capture interesting driving incidents. I've transferred many of the clips to my Windows PC and edited them without too much trouble (see below for details). They look really, really good.
THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO BUY
1. Because the videos are .mov natively, Windows Movie Makers need to do the following to edit the clips: download Freemake Video Converter from download.com and convert the .mov files to .wmv. To view the clips, without editing, download Apple Quicktime for PC. Warning: use Freemake to convert to .wmv or be prepared to have Windows Movie Maker choke on the files, causing hours of frustration. Trust me.
If you have a Mac or use Adobe Premiere or some other quality video editor for the PC, you can probably skip the conversion steps.
2. The camera is cheap, even though its specs are impressive and the quality of the video is high. If you buy, I recommend being very careful. Cover it with some kind of scratch-free, lint-free cloth and keep store it in a rigid case when transporting. Buttons are cheap, so set the camera the way you want, then resist the urge to fiddle.
3. Buy the fastest SD card you can afford. I bought a Class 10, 32 GB card and it is flawless. Card below class 10 cause large gaps between videos. Don't be cheap on the SD card or you'll miss a driving event.
4. The menu button stops working when the camera is plugged into the cig lighter. I almost returned the camera because I couldn't access the menus, until I discovered that the menu button works fine under battery power. Very strange. I can picture an engineer named Igor or Zheng shrugging and saying, "Good enough."
5. I found it useful to change my cig lighter socket so it's always powered, even with the engine off and key out. I wanted it to record while I'm shopping, at work, or parked on the street. Never know when somebody parallel parks, crashes your car, then speeds off. You can nail them if you're always recording, even away from the car. Licenses plates are clearly readable up close.
CONCLUSION
Don't hesitate to buy this camera if you want really great looking driving videos at a very low price *AND* you're willing to be gentle with a cheaply made product. This camera is very unique because the videos are fantastic, and the price is so low. Honestly, if you get unlucky and yours breaks, you can get another for $100. It's an easy sell, really. Seller / vendor was good and reliable and no problems.
Buy Mini Portable Car Dashboard DVR Camcorder Camera F500L HD Full 1080P with LED Light Now
I am not professional driver. Luckily I had not accidents until now unlike my friends. I paid attention that the biggest problem is to prove that it was not your fault. The camcorder is always an unbiased witness of an accident which will save lots of your time with police. As a bonus, you may use it to record your recent trip and share most interesting moments with your friends :)
I should admit that camera by itself is very light weighted and can be easily cared in the pocket. Unlike other camcorders which are difficult to setup/remove, this one uses special locks, which allows you to setup/remove it in seconds. The lens is pure wide angle and because of that, some videos may look unusual or even funny :) Camera uses regular Nokia phone battery, so it can be easily replaces if needed. It can make high resolution photos (I noticed that photos are NOT wide angled and looks as normal ones). The only thing it is really missing caring bag, to protect lens from scratches (if it could be scratched of course).
I will give 5 stars to day time recorded video quality. There is a little bit more white color but you can easily fix that via settings. Gadget has option to rotate video upside down, so that allows you to setup camera on top or bottom of window. There were not delays, jumps or even waves (which usually can be found on cheap camcorders). The video looks Full HD 1920x1080 pixels.
Camcorder also records the sound but I personally did not test it. It has nice option to start recording automatically (when camera is powered) but I personally prefer to have feature to start recording once it notices voice inside the car.
UPDATE: I just found a motion detecting feature, so now the camera starts recording automatically, when it detects motion!!! AWESOME!!!
BTW camera comes without SD card, so do not forget to order it separately. I personally will suggest buying min class 7 SD card or SanDisk with 30 or 45 MB/s writing speed. This is needed to prevent any time gaps between video chunks (videos are recorded in small chunks, which allows circle recording).
As an overall this is really stable gadget. I forgot to say that camera has option to mark any chunk as 'interesting' and in that case, it will not be overwritten automatically. That's useful if you recorded something really interesting and you prefer to keep it on camera.
Read Best Reviews of Mini Portable Car Dashboard DVR Camcorder Camera F500L HD Full 1080P with LED Light Here
Unlike other reviewers, everything was already in english. It was really easy to setup and I am really surprised at how well everything works. I was expecting a lot of bugs but the thing is solid. I have it recording non-stop and it gets really, really hot in my truck and it doesn't skip a beat. 3 or 4 days after I bought it, an accident happened right in front of me. Got the whole thing on dashcam. Take a look. Quality is much better before youtube compression of course.I will probably ending up buying 1 more for my boat.
UPDATE: The camera stopped working after a week. I just sent it back to them. Sucks because now I'm out an extra 10 bucks to ship it back :( I'm rating it 2 stars until I get a unit that lasts more than a week!
UPDATE 2: Got the camera back and have had it for a while. It's been working great. The only issue is that it shuts down on it's own sometimes. It seems to shut off when it's really hot and that might be a on purpose so the unit does not get damaged. I leave it on 24 hours a day so when I get in the car, I just check to make sure it's running and if not, just turn it on. Overall satisfied.
Want Mini Portable Car Dashboard DVR Camcorder Camera F500L HD Full 1080P with LED Light Discount?
I have been happy with the performance of this video camera. It is relatively easy to use. The videos look clear well, except for at night, and except for the substantial black spot on the lower middle of all videos. That is the one complaint I have about this video camera. It came with a foreign object somewhere internal to the lens assembly. (I know, I know. Someone will say, in that annoying, whiny tone, "Did you try cleaning off the outside of the lens?" Yes, my complex, highly sophisticated thought processes were even able to fathom both of those possibilities that it could have been something EXTERNAL as well as internal.) If it bothered me that much, I would return it. However, I only bought it to document any incidents that occurred while I am driving. And for that purpose, I just don't care that much about the black spot.
The sound quality is very good, except when the level of sound being recorded gets too high for example, loud music that I am listening to while I drive. For loud music, the playback sound is very distorted because of limiting (clipping) during recording. However, for conversation in the car, it sounds very clear.
When the device is plugged into a computer (in my case, a Mac), there are 3 options that come up on the video camera screen: 1) MSC, 2) CHARGE, or 3) OPEN. It wasn't obvious to me, but the 'MSC' option is what causes the video camera to be recognized by the computer. After selection of 'MSC', the 'EOS_DIGITAL' icon appears on my desktop and 2 folders below that level are the video files in .mov format.
The size of the video files is determined by a menu option on the video camera. You can select 512, 256 or 128 MByte. Thus the maximum file size is 512 MByte, which is a recording time of 8 minutes, 49 seconds for the highest image quality (1920 x 1080). So, while the camera is recording, when that file size is reached, the video camera automatically creates a new file. So, for example, say I record for one hour. That is 3600 seconds. A 512 MByte file is 8 minutes, 49 seconds in length, or 529 seconds. So if I divide 3600 by 529, the result is 6.805293. That means that my 1 hour recording will result in 6 files that are 8 minutes and 49 seconds in length, and 1 file that is (0.802593)x(529) = 426 seconds (or 7 minutes, 10 seconds) in length. So using a 32 GByte SD card, for highest video quality, the total recording time would be approximately:
(32 GB)/(512 MB/529 seconds) = 33062.5 seconds, or 9 hours, 11 minutes (if I did my math correctly).
What I haven't verified is that the camera will delete old files when the SD card becomes full. As I now look through the not-so-easy-to-understand manual, I see an option for 'RECYCLE'. The options are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15 minutes, or OFF. So it may be the case that once the SD card gets full, the video camera will stop recording (if the OFF option is selected).
So in conclusion, except for the black spot on all of my videos, I am happy with the purchase. It does what it was designed to do for a good price. If it wasn't for the foreign object in the lens assembly, I would have given it 5 stars.
10/21/2012 Update:
Last night when I simply tried to attach the suction cup to my windshield, the suction cup assembly broke. There goes my 4 star rating. I think I would have to rate it 2 star now.
12/19/2012 Update:
I contacted Yorktek LLC, asking if they could send me a new suction cup assembly. They did not have the suction cup assemblies apart from the video camera, so they graciously sent me a new video cam unit, including suction cup assembly (after I returned the original). Well, I have been using it for close to 2 months now, trying to be gentle when mounting/dismounting the suction cup assembly. Well, last night the second one broke while I tried mounting it on my windshield. My conclusion is that the strength of the plastic assembly right at the suction cup is inadequate to perform the intended function. It is very thin and fragile. Now I have to figure out another way to mount it possibly on my rearview mirror. There goes my 2 star rating down to a 1 star.
Camera bought from seller "Loftek" is a fake. The version on the manual is HDC-500. The settings in the menu are also different from the real F500LHD.
The real F500LHD has a firmware that ends in "T2L-KH" that can be updated. The company has released about 10 updates total for this camera model, the newest being V8.9 T2L-KH.
The F500LHD is a good camera, maybe the knock off version is also good. But with the price point of the knock off the same as the original, I rather just get the original version. Would recommend trying another seller on Amazon other than Loftek and maybe you'll get lucky.
The Durucell Inverter 1500 watt works just great. I had no problems at all. I saw in reviews that some people had the inverter begin to smoke as soon as they hooked it up. That's what happens when you don't hook possitive terminals to possitive and negative to negative. You need to be real careful and double check before you hook up and turn on. Plus don't use any cables that are smaller than the ones provided. I add a 40 amp fuse link to the possitive cable just to be on the safe side. This will avoid any possible electrical fire.
