SJCAM as a Dashcam

Being a car enthusiast should also entail that you are concerned about road safety. Not only for yourself or your car, but also to all other motorists, pedestrians and road users. As we all know, countless of vehicular accidents happen on the road on a day-to-day basis, with a lot not accounted for. Whether or not you are involved in such accidents, getting this on video will surely be helpful, aside from getting a lot of likes and shares on Facebook :)

So, you bring out your smart phone to get it on video, right? Of course not! This is where a dash cam comes in very handy!

For this post, I'll be sharing to you what I use for my personal dash cam. This is part of my advocacy to promote the use of dash cams.

Installed on my car is an SJCam 4000 Wifi. This is not a new product since a lot of other newer models of SJCam has already been released in the market. But if you're scouting the market for a camera that will do the job (nothing more), the 4000 model is good enough.

Here is a picture of the SJCam 4000 model:

The SJCAM 4000 Wifi is actually a sports camera with a dash cam function. The standard package you get when you purchase this camera has all the attachments needed for you to install this to your car. For me, I used the bike handle mount installed to the arm of the rear view mirror so it sits perfectly just at the back of the mirror. Then, a usb cable is used to power it up which you can connect to a car charger attached to your car's cigarette lighter port.

Here are some of the pros and cons of this camera:

PROS:

1. Dashcam Mode - when this is set to ON, the camera will turn on automatically once it senses power when you turn on the car.
2. Video Quality - quality is good enough to see details of other vehicles like plate numbers.
3. Wide Angle - this allows to capture a wide angle to be recorded ensuring that we capture the whole view as you see it while driving.
4. Loop Recording - file recorded to the memory card (micro SD card up to 64GB) is on a FIFO basis (First-In-First-Out). This means that the oldest file are over-written by the current video being recorded. IT has a setting for 3 minutes, 5 minutes and 10 minutes.
5. Phone App - both for iOS and Android, SJCAM has an app which you can use for transferring the recorded files from camera to phone without connecting the camera to a computer anymore. (NOTE: This only works for SJCAM models with Wifi capability.)

CONS:

1. Night Mode - this seems to be a flaw for earlier models of the camera. There is little contrast and sharpness when shooting low light. Higher models have managed to improved this.
2. SD Card Capacity - this specific unit only holds up to 64GB cards. This amounts to an estimated 10 hours of video (on high settings). This means you need to copy the videos (should you need copies) before the day ends or the morning after. Some units are capable of reading higher capacity cards.
3. No Impact Sensor - an impact sensor allows to automatically lock a certain file when an impact is felt on the car. This file can only be deleted via a computer. Some impact sensors even allow to turn on the dash cam upon impact when you are parked and the engine is not started (no active power source).

With the pros and cons above that I have noticed, I honestly think that this camera does the job. Again, nothing more. It may not be loaded with all the fancy features, but that's alright with me.

It's available here in the Manila at roughly US$ 65. Check your local suppliers for prices in your area.

That's about it. Again, let us advocate road safety and the use of dash cams. One way or another, I'm sure it will be useful for your daily grind.

Ciao!

Treb

Image Source: https://tinyurl.com/yd2kxhfs