2021 - Page 5 of 6 - Car Camera Shop

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

Mini 0801 Car Camera Review

We’ve been road testing the Black Bullet Mini 0801 car camera for some time now. Putting it through its paces and seeing how it fairs over an extended period of time. So often dash cams are reviewed after only a brief test, but we feel that to give a truly informed opinion you need to use a camera for a significant period.

Key Features

Full HD quality video (1920 x 1080) at 30fps.
135° wide angle lens.
1.5″ LCD screen.
GPS maps for speed and location tracking (optional).
Photo mode.
G-shock sensor to detect sudden and severe movement.
Parking mode for protection when parked.
Adhesive windscreen mount.
Micro SD cards up to 32GB.

The first thing that impressed us about this car camera was the size. At just 2.8″ wide it’s ultra compact, but it’s bullet design ensures that it makes use of the space well; squeezing a 1.5″ LCD screen in along with the regular features such as the lens, a speaker, a microphone, a status LED and the usual controls. Build quality might not be to the same level as some of the more premium cameras, such as the BlackVue DR550GW-HD, but it’s perfectly acceptable given the cost. A power button on the end of the camera has a distinctly plasticky feel to it, but continues to work perfectly.

Once installed, it’s hidden completely behind the rear view mirror and remains very discrete when viewed through the windscreen, which offers peace of mind when leaving it mounted in your vehicle. The mount is another pleasant surprise; not only is it very small, but the power cable plugs directly into it, meaning that if the camera is ever removed from the car, as we choose to do sometimes, the power cable remains neatly attached to the mount, rather than dangling aimlessly.

The mount houses the GPS unit (optional), which brings us to the first issue we’ve had while testing the Mini 0801. Sometimes the GPS unit either doesn’t record our location or registers it incorrectly. However, this could be due to the heated windscreen in our test vehicle. This can sometimes impact a dash cams ability to locate a strong GPS signal.

The screen, while small, enables you to manage the camera easily and view your videos and photos. While you might not be able to make out the finer details on this size screen, it’s often enough to give you on indication that you captured the incident you’d hoped to. From this point it can easily be viewed on a computer using the software provided. The quality is impressive and at full HD 1080p it delivers sharp, crisp video which captures details such as registration plates well.

In low light conditions it struggles slightly, but in built-up areas with adequate street lighting, it still picks up a good level of detail.

The menus are easy to navigate but aren’t immediately intuitive and the manual supplied gives instructions in the most basic form. But, given that this is a budget camera, supplied from the Far East, it’s better than most that fall into this price bracket. With only three buttons to control the camera, it makes use of single and extended button presses to navigate various options that might not be as obvious as they could be. Having said that, we had our camera set up as we wanted in no time at all. We had to tweak the G-sensor sensitivity a few times to find the desired level but that is the case for all dash cams we’ve tested.

Overall, it’s easy to see why this camera proves to be so popular. It’s compact yet fully functional, delivers full HD video and, available from just £89.99, makes a great entry-level car camera. It’s not without its faults, and is lacking slightly in terms a build quality, but these issues can easily be overlooked for the cost.

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

Mi-Witness HD – Product of the Year 2013

Mi-Witness HD - Product of the Year 2013

This month, the popular Mi-Witness HD car camera won Product of the Year at the inaugural 2013 Vehicle Electronics Professional (VEP) awards. The awards, hosted by Pollyanna Woodward of The Gadget Show took place on the 19th November and is a ceremony that marks the achievements of the vehicle electronics industry.

The Mi-Witness dash cam is one of our most popular cameras, partly due to the range of options available from a 2nd rear camera, WIFI, case, and integrated smart power.

We’re currently running a Winter Special on the Mi-Witness camera which includes the camera, additional 2nd camera, soft case, smart power, and the WIFI dongle – all for £299.99 (saving you £64.99).

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

Dash cams make for safer drivers

It’s long been thought that when being filmed, you change your behaviour – whether you realise it or not. We’ve found this to be true when you have a dash cam in your car. For some reason, when you know that your driving is being recorded you become a more safety conscious driver.

There appears to be no real explanation for this but perhaps it’s because you want to make sure you weren’t at fault should you need to rely on the footage – there’s no hiding from video evidence! Remember, when you submit your footage of an accident you want to be sure that you’re not left open to any blame.

You may also be aware of the noises you make in the car from belting out the latest chart topper to swearing at other drivers and even on the phone (using built in car bluetooth technology of course!). It’s for this reason that most people tend to mute the sound on their dash cameras with most cameras offering a single click mute option.

For parents, adding a dash camera to your car to monitor your offspring’s driving would certainly result in safer and far less reckless driving – you could even watch the footage back together!

There are lots of good reasons to purchase a car camera from saving money on car insurance to providing irrefutable video evidence. The fact that they tend to make you a safer driver is just one of the many additional benefits they bring you.

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

We’re supporting Movember with every order!

We're supporting Movember with every order!

It’s that time of year again, when girlfriends and wives up and down the country have to endure their men with fluff all over their faces. Movember is becoming more and more popular since it started back in 2003 but if you don’t know what Movember is all about here’s a short intro.

Movember is an event held throughout November each year. The idea is that men (and indeed some women!) sport a moustache to raise money and awareness for prostate and testicular cancer and mental health. You start the month with a clean shaven face and grow your moustache (or Mo) throughout the month, promoting awareness and sparking conversations wherever you go.

There are many styles of Mo that one can sport from “The Connoisseur” to the “The After Eight”. Check out the official Movember website for a Mo gallery!

To date, £276M has been raised with an increase of donations every year. More and more celebrities are getting involved to promote the cause and this is making a huge impact. Movember has improved awareness of men’s health issues which is usually just brushed under the carpet and never discussed.

This is why this month we are donating £5 from every order to the Movember Foundation. To find out more about Movember visit the official website.

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

The importance of car cameras for driving instructors

There are currently around 23,000 driving instructors in the UK, each of them blessed with nerves of steel and the patience of angels. Certainly, if my lessons are anything to go by, their days are fraught with hair-raising manoeuvres at the hands of nervous students with less clutch control than a herd of buffalo. But, rather than screaming for their lives, clutching the dashboard with white knuckles, they are always a picture of calm and reassurance, as they invite us to try again (and again, and again).

We receive many enquiries from driving instructors looking for dash cams and, when you spend a significant amount of your time in your car and it’s your primary source of income, it’s easy to see why. The peace-of-mind that comes from ensuring that you have video evidence of your innocence in the case of a crash is invaluable. Not to mention that insurance claims are often processed much quicker when supported by video evidence, meaning that your car can be back on the road as quickly as possible if it was damaged.

We took to Twitter to find out why some of our driving instructor followers had installed car cameras. Geoff Watkins of Geoff Watkins Driver Training said:

“I wouldn’t be without one. Firstly as an insurance policy, as there are too many dangerous and aggressive drivers. Secondly, as a teaching aid to show learners their actions and what they missed in the road and thirdly, as a tool to capture the exceptionally bad and dangerous drivers on video and send to police for prosecution. On top of that, a good system will cover front and rear of car, and acts as a CCTV system when car is parked. Any instructor not with a system is mad, the way things are on the roads nowadays”.

But protection and peace-of-mind aren’t the only benefits of installing a car camera. A quick YouTube search delivers thousands of videos, posted by UK driving instructors, offering training tips, and promoting their services. Using video captured via car camera, instructors are able to produce high-quality marketing and promotional material for very little cost. And, harnessing the power of social media, they are able to target their local market and win new business.

Footage of lessons is also being used as a teaching aid, allowing students to review their performance between lessons, identifying areas for improvement. With many cameras, such as the iPixi X100FHD and the RoadHawk RH-2, able to record the driver as well as the road ahead, they can review their driving style while performing particular manoeuvres. At the end of a lesson the student can simply take home the memory card from the camera and view the footage on their home computer. With GPS and motion data being captured as well as high definition video, students have access to a detailed record of their lesson.

A Driving Standards Agency spokesperson said:

“We expect ADIs to be able to use a range of learner centred techniques to support effective learning. Used appropriately, in-car video-recording can be an effective learning aid, e.g. to replay incidents to the learner so that they can analyse what happened for themselves.”

Adding, “we do not allow any driving tests to be filmed. This is to avoid putting extra pressure on candidates.”

We offer driving instructors a special discount on any of our car cameras. Find out more about this exclusive offer here, or browse our full range of car cameras. If you have any questions or thoughts, we’d love to hear them. You can comment below, call, email or tweet us!

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

Driving tips for windy and rainy conditions

Here are a few simple tips for safe driving in the wind and rain. Firstly, ask yourself if your journey is strictly necessary, or if it can be delayed. If not, be sure to check whether there are any delays or incidents along your route.

Driving in the Rain

Wet roads can double stopping distances so allow yourself plenty of space and reduce your speed. If your vehicle hits surface water and loses grip, take your foot off the accelerator rather than braking, and try not to steer too suddenly. If you encounter flooding, drive slowly, in a low gear, while keeping the revs high, making a special effort not to stall. Test your brakes afterwards, to make sure they’re still working.

Driving in the Wind

Gusts of wind are particularly hazardous to high-sided vehicles, but can also knock cars and cyclists off course. Stretches of open road may be susceptible to cross winds and be conscious of gusts when passing bridges, trees and large vehicles such as lorries.

Follow these simple tips to help you stay safe on the roads if you must venture out in the stormy conditions.

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

Does the GoPro make a good car camera?

The GoPro is arguably the best known action camera in the UK and has quickly established itself as one of the most popular on the market. With a range of different cameras and accessories available, it has become synonymous with extreme sports the world over and its high quality videos capture everything from skateboarding to scuba-diving.

So, if the GoPro is that good, does it also make a good car camera? We took our trusty GoPro Hero 3 for a road trip around the hills of Italy to find out!

Firstly, there’s no denying the quality of the video that the GoPro captures. We initially captured footage in full 1080p at 30 frames per second but eventually settled on 720p with an impressive 60 frames per second to give a smoother picture. Image quality was sharp and number plates were largely visible on the videos we took, which is important if you later rely on them as evidence.

Secondly, the GoPro app worked faultlessly and enabled us to position the camera each morning as we were removing it from our hire car overnight. It also offered easy access to the cameras settings and, thanks to the recent update, allowed us to view and manage recorded video files via our iPhone and iPad.

So, the GoPro records great video and is easy to manage. That means its a great car camera right? Unfortunately not. During our tests we identified some fundamental issues which limit the GoPro’s effectiveness as a dash cam.

Aside from the fact that when mounted on the suction cup mount it takes up a significant amount of space, the first issue that we encountered was battery life. While car cameras plug into your vehicles cigarette lighter and draw power whenever your ignition is turned on, the GoPro runs from an internal battery. In our tests, a full charge lasted around 1 hour 45 minutes which was suitable for most of our journeys, but did mean that the battery needed to be charged every evening. That was fine for the purposes of our test, but isn’t a long-term solution for anyone looking for the day-to-day protection of a car camera. It is possible to power the GoPro via a USB cable plugged into cars cigarette lighter but this requires the purchase of several additional accessories, which can be expensive.

The GoPro also breaks long videos up into manageable files of 17.35 minutes, seamlessly ending one video file and beginning the next. Dedicated car cameras use much smaller segments, usually just a few minutes in length, which help when your memory card is full and the camera employs ‘loop recording’ to overwrite old files that are no longer required. While the GoPro offers loop recording, the large video files don’t lend themselves to it as effectively as dash cams.

As well as this, the GoPro lacks some fundamental features that make car cameras as effective as they are. Most importantly, GPS, G-force sensors and a time/date stamp.

GPS allows a car camera to plot your precise location on a map and, using this information, can also measure your speed – a crucial factor in determining the events leading up to any incident and proving your innocence.

Internal G-force sensors enable car cameras to detect sudden and significant movement of your vehicle which could indicate an incident, such as a collision, sudden braking or evasive manoeuvring. Once it detects such activity, a car camera can protect the video file that was being recorded at that time, meaning that it can’t be recorded over accidentally, which guarantees your video evidence is kept safe.

Other more minor issues that we encountered included overheating (possibly due to the GoPros plastic casing amplifying the heat of the sun through the windscreen) and difficulty in managing the camera without the app as the LCD screen faces forwards. Also, with its wide, 170 degree lens, the GoPro has an impressive field-of-view, but the image suffers from distortion at the edge of the frame. This isn’t an issue if you’re filming extreme sports, but if the video from your car camera is to by relied on as evidence, you need to be confident that what’s recorded is clearly legible. As a comparison, the newly released BlackVue DR550 has a 137 degree lens, which seems to be a good compromise between capturing as much detail as possible and ensuring that it’s crystal clear across the entire picture.

So, in summary, while the GoPro is great for capturing a vast array of activities, it is unfortunately limited when being used as a car camera. Dash cams are purpose built to offer the ultimate peace-of-mind whenever you’re behind the wheel and to do this with the minimum amount of effort required on your part after installation. The GoPro may be sufficient for a one-off journey, but it’s not a long-term solution.

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

How dash cams recorded the Russian meteorite

Whilst recording the rare natural wonder of a meteorite crashing through the Earth’s atmosphere at 100,000 mph isn’t exactly on the top of the list of reasons to buy a dash camera, they do certainly provide amazing footage of something we’ve never seen on this scale before.

Whilst these are very rare events, they do in fact happen several times every year. So what was different this time? Well, mainly the fact that it was caught on camera by thousands of people across the region and immediately published online for the world to see.

Back in February this year an asteroid crashed into the Earth over Russia – named the Chelyabinsk meteor. This awe inspiring sight was travelling at an estimated 40,000 mph which lit up the morning sky creating dark shadows across the large Russian region.

Never before has there been such an abundance of footage of such an event which is instantly viewable by people across the world. This was made possible by the popularity of dash cams and car cameras across Russia. Dash cams are popular to help combat insurance fraud and
corruption, so much so, that almost every car is equipped with one of these tiny little cameras.

The footage not only provided us with incredible video to watch on the news and on YouTube, it also provided scientists with high quality video evidence from almost every angle. With these multiple angles and video timestamps it allows scientists to piece together detailed information about the direction, size, and speed of this meteorite – for the first time!

Take a moment to think about this. According to latest estimates there are over 1 billion cars on our planet. If every car was equipped with a car camera we would have video evidence for every second of the day, in every direction, across the whole planet – you will either find that exciting to see what things we’ll capture or equally scary that someone is always watching!

Personally, I’m excited at the possibility of being able to capture even more wonderful things than the Chelyabinsk meteor. So, grab one of these car cameras today – you never know what you might capture!

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

New iPixi range of car cameras

We’re excited to announce that we’ve introduced two excellent new dash cams to our website from UK-based manufacturer, iPixi. We make sure we only add the best quality cameras to our site and their Winycam range offer some unique features that certainly made them stand out from many of the other’s we’ve looked at.

Firstly, we really like the rotating barrel design of the iPixi X100FHD. This is great for passenger carrying users, particularly taxi drivers, who can quickly switch the camera from recording the road ahead, to pointing inwards, recording passenger activity. With many taxi drivers reporting issues of rude, abusive and even violent passengers, we think the ability to quickly capture HD video evidence will offer some peace-of-mind.

While there are several dual lens cameras that perform a similar function, such as the RoadHawk RH-2 and the X-3000, this is a new and innovative solution to the problem. The image being recorded automatically flips as the lens is rotated, so the video remains the right way up. Clever eh?!

Secondly, the iPixi V200HD features a smart 3″ LCD touch screen which we think is great! Not only does it mean that you can view videos clearly, but it makes accessing the menus, and navigating the cameras various settings, a breeze. Also, as the camera features a small second camera that mounts in the rear window of your vehicle, we particularly like the picture-in-picture viewing option which lets you see what’s happening on the road in front and behind you at the same time. The rear camera also means that this camera acts as a reversing aid too!

We hope you like these cameras as much as we do and if you have any questions about them please contact us here

Posted on July 14, 2021January 24, 2023 by Eric Rogers — Leave a comment

Our New Range of Bike Cameras

After receiving many requests for bike cameras as well as car cameras, we’ve started to introduce a carefully selected range from the best manufacturers. But what is a bike camera? And how is it different from a car camera or an action cam?

Essentially, bike cameras enable cyclists and bikers, in fact, anyone who wears a helmet for their chosen activity, to record their actions from their point-of-view. This can give either a detailed record of events on the road in the case of an accident, or, more happily, capture exciting events such as extreme sports – from mountain biking to motor sports!

Bike cameras are designed with the main purpose of being mounted on a bike, or more usually, on a helmet. As well as dictating that they must be compact and lightweight, this means that they need to be weather-proof and be easily controlled by touch alone. To this end, most bike cameras have simple buttons that can be used to start and stop recording without looking, and some even feature vibrating alerts that can be felt through the helmet, ensuring that the user knows that their camera is operating as it should.

Due to their lack of screens, videos are usually viewed on a computer, after being downloaded from the cameras memory card, or a monitor if the camera features a video out option like the Replay XD1080. Without a live view to aid alignment when mounting, some cameras feature a laser pointer built-in, such as the Dogcam Bullet HD 2.

In contrast to our range of car cameras, motorcycle cameras lack features such as event recording and parking protection as these features don’t lend themselves to these applications. However, cameras such as the RoadHawk Ride do offer loop recording, which means that the camera will record continuously, overwriting older files as necessary. This functionality means that a camera can remain in place, recording continually until the latest footage is required, for example, in the case of an incident on the road where video evidence is required to support your explanation of events.

While some motorbike cameras can be hard-wired into the bikes electrical system – in which case they will activate when the ignition is turned on – they usually run off a small internal battery which can be charged
easily via a USB port.

So, whether you’re looking for peace-of-mind on the roads, or video of your extreme sports, our carefully selected range of bike cameras offer various options to deliver precisely the functionality you need and with high-quality HD video.