I bought this cam to use during custody exchanges with the ex because it is sleek and simple and doesn't stand out (we all gota protect ourselves somehow). I received it and laughed at the box since it's written in mostly Russian. Just found out that over 1,000,000 Russians have these in their cars, that's how they caught so many clips of the meteor crashing. Anyway, the camera works well, 1080p ISN'T as clear and defined as I thought it would be... seems more like 480p in a widescreen format but hey, I'm not looking to make home movies with it. In 1080p mode and doing a continuous 10 minute loop recording it records about 2GB per file (2 files needed). So at minimum a 4GB SD memory card should be bought with this.... I recommend just maxing it out to a 32 GB card so you don't ever have to worry.
If your car cigarette lighter olug power turns OFF with the ignition you can set this up to record loops and start the car and have it automatically START recording and turn the car off and have it automatically STOP recording.
The product is made of plastic so don't expect some durable camera or anything... it's made pretty cheaply but with a price at around 50 bucks on Amazon what do you really expect.
Overall it is a very good camera and it serves its purpose well but I don't think that it is actually 1080p or that it should be advertised as 1080p since it is DEFINITELY not clear like a 1080p video should be.
F900 Box arrives quickly with many accessories. Camera weighs next to nothing, has shiny toylike look and feel of cheap plastic. Even so, tiniest screws all around suggest carefully put together. First problem: how to get battery into camera no help from Manual or from examining camera body. Finally figured it goes in fattest part and resorted after much effort or fruitless fumbling to another rough method: use a knife blade to pry open line around case where battery clearly must go, put blade into crack and twisted and lo, cover slid back. This has to account for some misery among buyers. I like this camera, will keep it, now list its faults.
SD CARD a struggle to get into tight area blocked by handle and harder to pull out with not enough room for fingers. Suggest file a groove on card edge so fingernail can grip and yank out.
MANUAL for English section has pictures so tiny as unreadable, even though next section for ?Japanese language shows much larger picture printed with a clear part number. Had to flip back and forth over three sections to follow instruction. Solution: use 3.5X reading glasses. Easier than interpreting Manual, I decided to just fiddle with each button and toggle post to learn how to operate just enough for my purpose to set language to English (why can't they do this before shipping to avoid horror of opening menu to foreign text?), adjust date and time and resolution, and turn off irritating beep.
PHOTOS on computer look fuzzy and distorted from bowing.
VIDEOS look fair, though good for this price, have obvious distortion, such that every straight line has a bow to it.
TESTING. I played with camera at my desk and pointing out window till comfortable with button operation and screen display, then did live field test now in attached video. Press On/Off button on top to turn on, getting blue working light, A second later, upside down display of nifty red automobile quickly righted itself. Press down on slightly raised joystick on top to begin recording, proved by red dot on screen.
For second test, I plugged into car battery for power. Camera did not turn on when engine started. It started recording when On/Off button pressed, eliminating need to again press down on Joystick.
Date and time appear thoughtfully at lower left corner in large white font. Time countdown appears upper right during recording, though oddly not visible on computer playback.
RECORDING, press joystick forward turns on Night Light recording -seems to make no quality difference except to put reflective glare on window. Joy to Left or Right zooms jerkily in or out with significant range on street and closeup desktop images. Zooming from 1X toward 4X got more grainy and fuzzy, obvious in video playback. To start or stop a recording, pressing the Stop Button seems to do same as pressing Joystick. SCREEN goes blank for a second or two at end and at start of recording. Zoom function useful by allowing closeup recording to enlarge detail on any object. [cc see house number and garage lamp in my sample video] In car test plugged into cig lighter bottom right of display showed flashing sign of power plug camera did not turn on or off with engine. I needed to press Power button, and once pressed, it started recording within a couple seconds.
Handheld test: DAYLIGHT recording has faint bluish tint and near objects not sharp. NIGHTTIME recording atest shows camera can record object with light on it and can get some detail within about 18 feet. At night it failed to show green or red or yellow color of street and car lights except as white spots. Moving camera slowly caused light to streak.
Car driving test: DAYLIGHT recording fairly sharp, showing wide view. Later playback confirmed cloudy day recording produces much better video, almost impressive. Street lights distinctly red, yellow or green though on playback appear pulsing or shimmering.
PLAYBACK, press Forward Arrow button on top. Use joystick to navigate thumbnails of combined video and photo images. Down goes forward, Up goes back. Press joystick to play. For still images fullscreen, Up and Down move backward or forward. Recording quality can show distinct letters on license plates when close, even better enlarged during playback on computer monitor. Camera lens makes nearly true sizes, without apparent stretching or squeezing image as do other cheaper cameras tested by me. I left camera in 720P setting for my tests, though maybe better if set to "1080". Camera produced huge AVI file that filled my monitor screen. Camera assigned my 4pm video in afternoon daylight number 164101 and my 4am video in dark night number 0434001, suggesting video naming may relate to time of day (16 as 16 hours on 24-hr clock or 4pm, and 04 as 4am), then 001, 002 for sequence.
BATTERY takes bizarrely long time to charge. After 5 hours mine only charged with 2 bars out of full max 3. Overnight still not full. And it wears down fast.
CONCLUSION? Good carcam for amount money paid and would recommend it as not too hard to use, producing clear enough images and good audio on computer playback. Showed sharp image of other vehicles on street, often making plate readable. Sound loud enough when playback on computer though barely can hear from camera speaker. My audio samples had a frequent grinding noise, not sure if camera or my car. Slight blue tinge to recording. Jerky zoom not a real concern. An important feature for fighting a traffic signal ticket, camera showed show true-enough color of street light during day (though poor color at night), Mount on windshield problematic as would not stay attached, while grip for camera does not allow easy positioning to film and view display at same time.
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i like the camera works good,has a good mount,been using it about three weeks,still working good.for the price it was a good deal.
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All I did was undo two tiny screws to take off the handle (which, presumably, is for a lanyard). Did no setup. Just turned it on and got going ...
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I owned this for literally about 30 days. That's how long the product lasted before it broke.
Something electronic inside prevented the camera from turning on again. It wouldn't work with battery or usb power.
I enjoyed it while I had it. It definitely took some getting used to having a screen on my windshield. You can't close the LCD with the camera on. This will shut the camera off immediately.
The mount broke from over-tightening... which i needed to do to keep it from bouncing on every little bump.
I lost my charger and couldn't believe how much it cost at stores to buy a replacement. This one is a bit slow, but it does the job. It was worth it to me to just buy a cheap one because I don't use my camera that often.
