Emergency preparedness from a Counterintelligence Agent

Your own vehicle surveillance camera – the G1W-C 1080P

G1W-C Full HD 1080 capacitor model dash cam review

(Graywolf) – Spytec asked me if I could do a review of their new 1080p dash camera. I’ve written previously about how you could use one of these to document a bug out route or cache location but since I’d already done a camera review, I figured I’d let James do this one. He did a great job with it. This one’s an improvement on the one I had before, since that one was only 720p. You’ll get much better detail from this one.

(James)

Graywolf asked me if I could review a dash cam, the G1W-C Full HD 1080P H.264 Capacitor Model. It is being marketed from Spytec, and is available on their website or from Amazon. Although the camera is made in China, it are sold in the US by Spytec, which is an American company. So if you have any issues with these cameras, the warranties are through the American company.

I was excited when I was asked to review this dash cam. I feel like having a dash cam while driving has become increasingly important and almost necessary. Why? Because there are almost 7,000,000 vehicle accidents each year within the US. And the incidents of “Road Rage” continue to skyrocket, especially in large, urban areas.

According to the National Safety Council, The economic cost to society due to speeding-related crashes is estimated to be $40.4 billion per year. In addition, almost 10,000 people died due to traffic related incidents due to aggressive driving/speed. Road rage incidents are increasing every year. So having a video camera rolling could help to protect you should you be one of the almost 7,000,000 accidents that will happen. Having video to substantiate your side of the story helps to protect you in an ever increasingly litigious society. As they say, video doesn’t lie!

Out of the Box

I took the camera out of the box and read the instruction manual. It wasn’t very big, and only about 4 pages (front and back) were in English. It was translated from Chinese I believe, and was not very intuitive.

The camera did come with a car charger and a USB cable. I hooked it to my desktop at work, and it powered on. The screen came on, but otherwise it didn’t work. I decided I probably needed a memory card, which it did not come with. So I trekked to my local Radio Shack and purchased one. At that point, I was in business! (I also later learned that it needs a power source other than a computer to fully operate.)

Much like the instruction manual, the buttons were not very intuitive. But after playing with it for about 10-20 minutes, I had it down.

Some of the things I like about this camera were that assembly was a breeze. The camera and amount slip together like a hand in a glove. And the suction cup attached very easily to the windshield of both my truck and my work vehicle (Ford Expedition). It also un-attaches from the wind shield just as quickly.

The mount has a swivel ball attachment, which would allow you to move the camera as needed. This is great if you want to swivel your camera around and record what is going on behind or beside you. It also tightens, loosens fairly easily if you want to lock it into place.

The DC “cigarette adaptor” has an EXTREMELY long cord, which is wonderful if you want to hide the cable by tucking it behind the molding of your vehicle. This cord is long enough that I could mount the camera on my front windshield in my Expedition, and plug it into the DC adaptor at the rear of my vehicle and still have a little slack.

It is important to note that this camera does not have a battery. Instead it needs to be plugged into your car’s USB/cigarette lighter (the car needs to be running) to operate. While this might seem like a drawback at first, it isn’t.

This camera has a capacitor, which holds just enough power that the camera would be able to auto-save the video if there’s a sudden loss of power. (Like from a crash.) This capacitor also helps the camera from overheating.

Let’s face it, attached to your windshield in the middle of August, this dash cam could easily get very hot and possibly overheat depending upon where you are located. The lack of batteries greatly reduces this overheating risk. (Spytec does have this same camera without the capacitor if you would prefer to have one with batteries, and it is a bit cheaper.)

dash cam on mirror

When you turn your car on, the camera powers up and begins recording. When you turn your car off, the camera shuts down. I liked this feature because you don’t have to remember to turn it on or off.

HD Video Quality

Next, the video records at 1080 HD, and can be played back on the camera’s ‘2.7 screen. The picture was quite clear. It also comes with an HDMI port so you could plug it directly into a TV or laptop. (You would still need a power source.)

The camera records in 3 minute clips, 5 minute clips, 10 minute clips, or continuous. It records the video in a .mov file, and I had no issues getting it to play on my standard PC laptop. A 3 minute clip at 1080p30 takes up about 300 MB. Once your card is full, it will begin writing over the oldest video clips first.

I have been told that you should get a Class 4 or 6 type Micro-card to avoid problems. I did and it worked with no issues. This camera states it will accept up to a 64 gig card, but I only purchased a 32 gig.

I was curious as to how clear the video would be when played back on my computer. It was as you would expect with 1080, which is VERY impressive. Even at night the picture was very clear. I did notice that the camera would look a little dark when facing directly into the sun. But I could still see what was happening.

Here is a three minute video showing the picture quality. (I did NOT shoot this video.)

You can change the settings so that the camera records at a lower quality setting if you wish to conserve space on your video card. You can record at 1080, 720, WVGA, or VGA. This camera will also take photos instead of video, but to be honest, I did not experiment with that part much.

Now there are a few drawbacks. As I mentioned previous, the instructions and buttons are not very intuitive, so it might take a little time to get used to it.

In addition, I had some slight problems with the sound quality. I could get the sound to play on my laptop, but I had to turn it all the way up. Even then, it was a bit quiet. (I could hear what was said, it just wasn’t crystal clear.) I could not hear the sound very well on the playback from the camera screen itself.

And finally, I was a bit disappointed that I could not use the camera by plugging it directly into the computer. It would only operate with the DC power cord. (I do have a DC adaptor, but still.)

Final Thoughts

For the record, I’m NOT an “electronics tech geek”. I have a few HD TVs, my laptops, PlayStation, Samsung Galaxy Note phone, and an Ipad issued to me by my police department. But I don’t have to have the latest and greatest electronic gadgets to make my life complete. I don’t fully understand all of the detailed specifications I have listed below. Nor do I care to. But what I can do is tell you what I think about this camera from a “Regular Joe” perspective.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I see a growing need for a video camera in your vehicle. (There is a reason that more and more police departments are installing dash cams into their squad cars.) And while your cell phone most likely has the ability to video record, trying to pull it out and record while driving is not always feasible or even safe. Having a backup is ALWAYS a good idea.

The price listed for this camera on Amazon is about $67 with free shipping.

For $67, I’m not sure you could go wrong with purchasing this camera. Yes, some things like GPS on it might have been a nice addition. But the more “bells and whistles” you add, the more the cost goes up. Spytec is attempting to sell a quality HD dash cam for a very reasonable price. In the end, I think they delivered.

I donated this camera to my police department, warrants division, since they were the only division without a dash cam.

Specifications
LCD
2.7 inch LTPS
Lens
120 degree A+ grade High Resolution Wide Angle Lens

Video Resolution
1920*1080(1080FHD)
1280*720(720P)
848*480(WVGA)
640*480(VGA)

Video Format
MOV

Photo Format
JPG

Photo Resolution
12M 4032*3024; 3M 2048*1536
10M 3648*2736; 2MHD 1920*1080
8M 3264*2448 ;VGA 640*480
5M 2592*1944 ;1.3M 1280*960

Media Storage
TF card, up to 32GB

Optional Language
English/French/Portugal/Italian/SimplifiedChinese/Traditional Chinese/Russian/Japanese/Deutsch/espanol

Interface
support USB&HDMI

TV Output
PAL/NTSC

Audio
Built in microphone/speaker

Battery
NO battery, use capacitor.

Loop-cycle recording
Off/10min/5min/3min

Accessories
User Manual, USB cable, car charger,car holder

Manual Language
English/Simplified Chinese/Russian

The current frequence
50HZ/60HZ

USB connecting
USB2.0

Power connecting
5V 1.5A

Decode format
H.264

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About James L

A police officer in Oklahoma, James is a gun enthusiast and certified police instructor. In his off time, he is a single father who enjoys playing with his kids and watching football.

Come visit his Preparedness site at Plan and Prepared

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