Spy Tec G1W-CB Black Capacitor Edition Dash Camera| Full HD 1080P H.264 Car D...

Unfortunately a dashcam needs to work well ALL of the time...So this camera has been okay, but I've had enough problems that I've decided it is malfunctioning. I've already had few times where I've needed it and it didn't record or there was some other problem. I continually get corrupt files that cannot be opened or read. (yes i've got a quality, brand name high speed card in there) Maybe once every 20-30 files (I record continuously in 5 minute clips). In one instance I have an entire folder (which represents one day of recording) become corrupt and unreadable. In another instance it just stopped recording once it filled up even though it was set to continuous record mode. I didn't realize it until days later. There is also an issue with leaving it overnight or for long periods of time. When I start the car it says "Inset SC Card". I have to remove the card, and reinsert it. It then powers off, and I have to power it back on again to start recording. This happens almost every morning, but only started about two weeks after I got it. I'm sending this one back in the hopes that the replacement I get works better. If it doesn't then i'm sending that one back too and i'll update my rating and review.No matter who you buy it from it's still cheap Chinese made crap. It all basically boils down to Quality Assurance. In China every unit that is produced is put in a box and sold no matter how well or bad it's made. This corner cutting on QA means that getting a good functioning unit is a crap shoot. Since Amazon make returns/exchanges painless, I'll shoot a couple of time to see if I can get a good one. If not, i'll get a refund and throw $70 into a quality camera made somewhere outside China.

I bought this (yes purchased outright, not a demo or promo deal for review) to replace another camera that had a lithium battery built in and couldn't take our south Texas heat. This unit uses a super capacitor instead of a battery and is supposed to have better heat resistance. Time will tell. The actual temperature has already cleared 100 in the shade, and inside a car in full sun, I have measured dashboard temps over 160. I digress.... This camera takes beautifully clear video, and with a class 10 memory card the videos are seamless, meaning that when one video ends, the next picks up exactly where the first left off. The field of view is decent, you can expect it to record just about anything you can see through the windshield, but it can't pick up the vehicle in the lane next to you unless that vehicle is a few feet ahead of yours. When playing back the video on a computer, you can make out license plates from a max of about 40 feet, much better than my old camera. Nighttime videos are good too. Granted it doesn't pick up much outside the headlights, but if there's a street light down the street it works just fine. Then again, I can't see in the dark either. The camera is all black, and if placed judiciously, (ie. near the mirror), it is very unobtrusive from the outside. Only drawback I have found, without a battery, you can only use the camera when it is plugged in, you can't take it out and walk around to take pictures outside the vehicle. The capacitor stores just enough energy to allow the camera to save the current file and shut down correctly when power is removed. When you have the camera connected so it goes on and off with the key, it works out just perfectly and you don't have to remember to turn it on or off. All in all, I like it. I've had it about a month and it has performed flawlessly so far.

*Update 12/2022 - Ended up using a 32 g card instead, worked as advertised thereafter and came in very handy. It just finally dropped off the windshield in October of 2021, when the sun had finished degrading the mount. Camera still works. Will probably look for a two way, front and rear, cam set next time with a bigger capacity. 32 g is a lot but it won't record an entire one way trip home, so keep in mind if anything important happens, you will want to manually save that segment. Overall, 6 years of use minus the little blip with the 64 g card at the very beginning. Not too shabby, for the price. Changed from 2 to 4 star.--Bought this item in August, and it already has quit working. Won't record, no matter what is done, just says memory error. Have tried formatting the sd *64* and pressing the reset button, changing the loop times, you name it. Simply refuses to do what it's there to do. Will be contacting Spy Tec this week, and will update as the process develops.

I bought 2 and have been using them in my car for well over a year now with no hassles. You just have to be sure when you order from this link that you get the camera people recommended. There is no brand marking anywhere on the shell for you to be sure you bought the same software inside as your friends have, and my husband had to return one he ordered from them, as it didn't match the screen of his other one and was a lower quality. Even though both had the same identical casing and instruction booklet!It was worth the risk, and both of mine matched the software desired.Update to say the plastic part connecting the camera to the suction was flimsier than expected and broke off one of the cameras. Also, neither sits securely in it, and audio has a terrible rattling sound from jiggling on the seating. Rigged to work, but the flimsiest part of the whole thing is the one part that has the camera able to be a dashcam!

Pros: relatively inexpensive, decent image quality, uses capacitors instead of batteries, can be hardwired with an additional hardwire kit.Cons: died in less than a yearThis device was really good for the better part of a year. I had it hard wired to my car and pulled many different clips from it over the months I had it. Unfortunately after about a year the unit was skipping or missing recordings. It got to the point of only recording the beginning and the end of the drive. Kind of defeats the purpose of a dash cam if it misses half the drive. I know not everybody has had issues with this model and for some people it works very well, however the issues I and other users have reported reflect a quality issue with the product.

I've seen various mentions online that the "orange box" model isn't the official one - however after talking with SpyTec customer service they have assured me that it is, and this is just the new packaging.I always enjoy playing with new technology and I figured that a dash cam is something that would be fun to play with and might also come in to save the day if I ever get in a questionable accident.I bought this as a relatively budget friendly way to enter the dash cam game. Right off the bat I had two issues:1) The manual wasn't very easy to follow, and not very in depth2) The LED light (which seems useless) would come on sporadically after I shut my car off, and then stay on for about 20 minutes.Both of these issues were solved thanks to the excellent customer support by SpyTec. They would usually return my emails within 2 hours, even on the weekends. However, try as they might to solve the LED issue, they couldn't quite figure out why it was happening. Eventually I ended up opening the case and just snipping the wire that goes to the LED - as I don't really see the use of it anyways.Since doing that I have installed it more permanently in my car. I bought an "add-a-circuit" kit on Amazon at the same time as I bought this, and plugged it into a fuse that is only powered when my key is in the ignition.I originally considered having it run all the time on motion detection, but then vetoed that as I noticed that it would significantly drain my battery after a day of sitting in the parking lot at work.Another issue I found is that if you do enable motion detection it will override the 5min loop setting. This means that you will get videos that randomly cut out with extremely random video lengths. The way I solved this was just by disabling motion detection and only enabling the 5min loop setting.Now I get numerous 5:01 videos that will automatically purge the oldest one once the memory card is filled up.This camera has an excellent FOV. It can cover basically my entire front window while still hiding behind my rear view mirror.The suction cup that comes along with this unit is INCREDIBLE! I'm extremely impressed with it!I have only ever used this in 1080P, and the 32GB microSD card I bought holds about 5 hours worth of driving history. More than enough to dispute an accident/review recent driving footage.I would have rated this product 5 stars if only the weird light issue didn't happen and the manual was a little bit more thorough.

Great product and excellent company to deal with.Product arrives very fast, shipped expedited.The videos produced by this dashcam are very clear during the daytime, and nighttime videos are very viewable.It accepts 64GB card out of the box. Using an Adata 64GB with no issues. Also have used it with a Kingston 32GB and no issues as well.I've recommended to many friends who have also been impressed by the quality of the videos produced.

for what you are paying for - excellent quality (brand name units are double or triple the price) - I have 2 (one for front and one for rear) and no complaints now for over 6 months. It works well and is reliable. I got the ones in the orange box and have no problems with them

This is probably the best camera you could buy for such a low price. The build quality feels cheap. The max image quality is 1080p at 30fps.