Datakam G5-City Pro-BF Review: Future Registrar from Russian Defense Engineers
My acquaintance with the products of the Datakam brand began with today's review. I only knew that it seemed to be a Taiwanese brand of car DVRs, in the assortment of which there are only top models. As a result, it turned out that the brand is actually Russian, and the recorders are not just top-end - but simply unique.
Why did I like Datakam G5-City Pro-BF and I decided to tell about it? The model is interesting by a large number of innovative solutions that are not in the registrars of other brands. And even, it seems, to the standard things (such as fixtures or menus) Datakam found its original approach.
The site Datakam about the company described in some detail, but as it turned out - missing some very interesting details. For example, it is not written that Datakam has a design bureau with two departments - one in Taiwan, and the second in Moscow. The Russian design bureau consists of eight engineers with many years of experience in the defense complex of the Russian Federation. Apparently, the Moscow branch is the main thing, because in the latest news I constantly encountered the wording “Russian research and production company Datakam”.
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It is clear that the development of the original - I repeat, many of the curious moments I first saw in the same Datakam G5-City Pro-BF. The devices are assembled in their own workshop in Taiwan, where the maximum production capacity is 10,000 units per month. Naturally, Taiwanese work there, but the whole process is controlled by three Russian process engineers. Another interesting point - the initiators of the innovations part in Datakam registrars are ordinary users, who here set out their proposals.
According to the company, half of all their sales come from Russia. “We have our own atmosphere here,” the Russian driving culture (or rather, its absence) necessarily requires the presence of a video-recording device in the car. Hence the increased demand for recorders in our country in principle. Although Russia is not limited to a sales market. Datakam registrars are also sold in the UAE (Arabs, as you know, love everything expensive and pathetic), in Ukraine (where road conditions differ little from Russian ones) and in the EU countries, in particular Germany.
I note that the G5-BF series consists of two "branches." The first is CITY-BF , which I am telling about. This modification has a wide viewing angle of 170 degrees (diagonally). The second is “ REAL-BF ”, where the angle is already limited to 120 degrees. The approach is weighted, and explained on the main page of the company's website. A wide angle allows you to capture more objects in the frame, but reduces the maximum distance of distinguishability of state numbers of cars. If the video from CITY-BF reads the figures from a distance of 12 meters, then REAL-BF has a much more serious readability of up to 20 meters.
Both versions are available in the following modifications. " G5-BF " - costs 8,500 rubles, but there is no GPS + GLONASS module. And that means all related functions. In G5-PRO-BF (the one in the review) for 10,900 rubles, GPS + GLONASS and numerous functions related to this module appear. The most expensive Datakam " G5-MAX-BF " costs 12,900 rubles and is distinguished by Samsung's full 32 GB microSD card and a high-quality (at one time "felt" live) two-piece bag for storing all sorts of accessories.
Datakam is surprising starting from the box. First, the main “casing” of the packaging is made of transparent plastic with a thickness of about 3-4 millimeters, and not of cardboard - like in 99% of other recorders. The device is literally hung to the lid, the case is held on a neodymium magnet. Two supporting legs (those that rise from the black box) made for reinsurance, you never know with what love and care the model will be transported, say, “Russian Post”.
The equipment is extensive, I will start the transfer from a small case made of high-quality eco-leather and fabric. Still attached cloth napkin - useful for wiping the case and lenses.
Listing the paper components will start with stickers - three pieces of different colors (white, blue, red - clearly in tone with the Russian flag). Although I don’t really know where to glue them in the car, maybe some of the readers will tell in the comments.
Three books of the same size - this warranty card, instruction manual and a separate description of the menu.
The menu description is very - there should be three exclamation marks - a big one. See how much is a statement? And that's not all, on the reverse side is the same amount of information. And this is good, because there are really a lot of menu items, and the manual provides intelligible explanations on all points. In general, I strongly advise future owners of G5 series models to at least once carefully and carefully study both the general manual and the menu description. Because only from them it is possible to learn about some not at all obvious, but useful registrar options.
Arms two pieces, this is found in the registrars are very rare. Depending on personal preferences, choose - install the video tag on a vacuum suction cup or pad on 3M adhesive tape (spare sticker is attached). So say the basic element for any option - a component with a pin and a power connector. I still will tell about fastenings in more detail below.
Charging from the cigarette lighter is designed for 12 and 24 volts - suitable for ordinary cars, trucks, and buses. Charging cable is very long - 3.7 meters. Even if you have a station wagon, the registrar will hang on the rear window, and the wire should be laid gently around the cabin. And if there is an extra wire, you can twist it and fix it with a special twist on velcro (this is usually in laptop charging, I see this for the first time at a registrar).
I was slightly embarrassed by the small thickness of the cable (two times thinner than in other recorders), that I did not fail to express technical support for Datakam. In response, I was assured that the cables are very durable and are much more expensive than those of competitors. The used wire does not break when bending, and does not allow voltage drops, despite the great length. The block with contacts and USB connector has a very modest size, it literally looks 5 mm out of the cigarette lighter socket.
Thin cable is perfectly laid under the skin. If you need additional fixation (for example, in the glove compartment), you can use two hooks on the 3M-Velcro from the kit.
The microUSB cable and a spare sticker for 3M mounts complete the list.
As I said, brackets - two pieces to choose from. The option with a vacuum sucker is best suited for those who seek not to leave on the windshield any trace of the presence of the recorder. The idea is sound: a street spinner can break the glass and get into the car when he sees an empty mount on the glass. They know that many motorists just hide gadgets in the glove compartment, and do not take them with them. On the other hand, those who know comrades with suckers have one association: at the first frost, the bracket will certainly begin to fall off. The installation can be done normally only after warming up the cabin.
I myself don’t really like 3M attachments in registrars (it’s too often that DVRs have to be changed), but in this case I sympathize with this option. The plastic platform is extremely miniature, from the outside it practically merges against the background of a dark interior or a rear-view mirror, and therefore it certainly will not attract attention from the outside.
The mentioned basic component for both mounts contains two neodymium magnets that hold the case. Now almost every first registrar indicates the possibility of instantly removing the registrar from the bracket, which in reality, more often than not, is far from reality. It is necessary to make considerable efforts to remove the mount, tightly seated in the connecting groove of the chamber. In the case of the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, the recorder is effortlessly removed in just half a second.
The logical question is how firmly do the magnets hold, does the recorder “tremble” during strong shaking? No, with all the desire to "stir up" the model, I did not succeed. An additional stabilizer is a pin made of metal, on which the recorder sits on. No wires should be connected directly to the housing - power is supplied through the same pin.
The power connector on the mount is round, so the more familiar miniUSB recorders will not work. As I was told everything is in the same technical support, the connector in the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF is more durable, while over time the miniUSB may become loose and the contacts oxidize due to the formation of moisture when the cold cabin is heated. True, there is one minus at its own connector. If the “native” cable is lost or broken, it will not be possible to find a similar one on the free market. However, the same technical support assured: if anything, they would be happy to sell the new “cord” to the registrar owner who applied.
Attachment adjustment is possible in two planes. You can tilt the recorder closer or further away from you. And rotate in increments of 90 degrees. This is another interesting point, since the design of the holder contains a special groove for quick rigid fixation when turning the recorder to the side. The option is effective, as I always knew exactly what falls in the frame. In registrars with hinged fastening, after turning the body in the direction of the camera's “sight” to the road, when it returns to its original position, it is usually lost. It is necessary, in fact, to re-engage the setting in order to shoot what is happening right in front of the car. Datakam G5-City Pro-BF is completely devoid of this deficiency.
In general, the bracket was definitely a success - it is extremely compact, easy to use and, which flatters me especially as the owner of the device, is unique. I dare to suggest that attempts to create a similar mount other manufacturers will take more soon, at least because of the complexity and high cost of such an accessory. It is easier to continue to "rivet on the thumb" plastic holders.
The device case is small - 95x39x39 mm (without a removable lens and a bleed filter), if desired, quietly hides behind the rear-view mirror. The assembly is monolithic, the recorder responded to all twists and squeezing attempts with a persistent silence - it did not give out creaking or cracking. The main part is made of matte, slightly rough plastic. To soil the coating with your fingers is unreal, except that microscopic dust particles will have to be blown off, if they appear.
Perforation is present at the top and bottom - this is needed for cooling. In general, the manufacturer made sure that the registrar was not affected by the heat. Partly from the same considerations, a plastic holder, namely a metal holder, connecting the lens with the matrix, is not installed. Such a holder does not warp and the recorder does not lose focus, as it can under the action of heat in inexpensive recorders with plastic holders. Even in Russia, the recorder left under the sun on the windshield is seriously heated. Can you imagine what could be in the UAE?
Elements at the sides protect rubber plugs. On the right is the Reset button, a slot for a microSD memory card and a microUSB connector. I did not have to use the reset key, and in principle I did not come across any glitches - all settings were saved, the date and time did not go astray.
Here I note that in Datakam G5-City Pro-BF there is a proprietary technology “SmartWrite”, thanks to which the Datakam recorder never hangs. Just in case - this technology does not concern the overall stability of the device, it only provides stable and continuous recording with a bitrate of up to 15 Mbit / s to slow memory cards.
On the other side of the Datakam case is the miniHDMI input and ... the second microSD slot. Correct, if I am mistaken, but nowhere else in the other recorders of the two microSD slots. Personally, I have never seen! Maximum - 256 MB of internal memory, which is enough to back up 2-5 minutes of video. Here the slots are equivalent - the record can be kept on any of them. And, of course, copying files between the cards is available. I'm aware that there is a South Korean FineVu CR-2000S recorder with microSD and SD slots. But there a) without a microSD model does not work; b) SD can only record parking shots.
The screen, let's face it, is small - 1.6 inches. Plus it or a minus, you decide. Personally, I am tired of fashionable 2.7-inch screens, which by and large are still used once or twice to change settings and calibrate the camera position. For a normal view of the footage, if there really is a need, I’m not too lazy to insert a card from the recorder into my 5-inch smartphone. And for a quick view / delete video and a photo of 1.6 inches is enough.
On the sides of the screen are four indicators, the icons next to which speak for themselves - GPS status, emergency file protection, power and recording. A little further on both sides are two pairs of buttons. The management organization was not trivial, the calculation was clearly the most simplistic. Now, in the bulk of recorders, they “hang” several buttons on the buttons — microphone control, backlight, etc. In theory, it’s great, in practice, who wants to bother with memorizing all the tasks of four or six keys? Given that these very advanced features are usually not labeled on the buttons.
In Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, all the “tinsel” was laid on a single “M” key. During recording, when you press it, a menu opens in which we calmly and select the desired action. But the double purpose still remains for the left pair of buttons. By default, the top one changes the subtitles to video, and the bottom one marks the file as emergency. And the cool thing - both buttons can be reprogrammed and assign any of a dozen options. For example, to lock the file with one button, I added to the other screen off.
I left the most "tasty" in the end, namely the frontal part with the so-called blendofilter . This is a unique development of engineers Datakam design bureau. The design consists of a blend and, in fact, a CPL polarizing filter - it has never occurred to anyone before to combine them into one device. As a result, the light from the sun and lanterns is minimized: the lens hood cuts off the rays, if the light source is near the frame border.
And thanks to the filter, glare is eliminated, both on the windshield of the car where the recorder is installed and on the windows of other cars. Adjusting the position of the lenses by rotating around the axis is needed only once, until the next adjustment of the position of the recorder.
You do not need to twist the lens for a long time, there are exactly two positions to eliminate glare: either by turning it between 0-180 degrees, or 90-270 degrees. The blend filter is removable, and the lens easily scrolls to adjust right in the blend. After setting, you can erase the fat fingerprints with a cloth.
Installations in Datakam G5-City Pro-BF - an outrageous amount, more than fifty. The full list can be found here, at the top click on the "Menu" tab. In short, almost any aspect of the functions or features of the model is configured, from the number of nearby cities displayed on the screen to the temperature displayed from the sensor located on the board next to the processor. There are absolutely exotic moments like the statistics of the total operating time of the device and the path made.
There are six text lines on one screen, you don’t have to squint for reading. For comparison - in almost all recorders with Ambarella A7 with stock firmware on a large 2.7-inch (or even 3-inch) display displays only four lines. In general, the menu is logical and understandable, it can be seen everywhere - the interface was created from scratch and immediately in Russian, and not tried to translate and bring to mind some kind of original Chinese firmware.
I’ll start the story about additional features with GPS, on which a significant part of the secondary options of Datakam recorder is based. First of all, the hybrid module itself - supports the search for GLONASS and GPS satellites. Signal reception is stable and is lost except in the room - and even then you need to move away from the window. The “cold start” time during testing did not exceed 30 seconds.
From the standard GPS functionality - track recording with movement coordinates. Another more or less common feature in the flagships is to prevent the speed above the manually set threshold. It's funny - you can set off the speed stamp on the video at the moments when you (we hope, not specifically) violated the speed limit.
There are notifications of approaching speed cameras, but with a number of non-standard features. If usually only the camera base in Russia is built in the registrars, then Datakam G5-City Pro-BF also includes information on Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belgium.
What really came as a surprise to me was that Datakam G5-City Pro-BF warns about average speed control cameras, in particular, Avtodoria complexes. Let me remind you that in this model, two cameras are located at a distance of up to 10 km and calculate the average speed of the vehicle throughout the entire route. Traditional radar detectors are 100% powerless in front of Avtodoriya and are unable to fix it. And it is clear that in itself the usual warning does not work. A bundle of cameras is clearly “registered” in the Datakam recorder, the model counts the average speed of movement and warns if exceeded.
Datakam G5-City Pro-BF at the same time warns of "dangerous intersections", railroad crossings and even speed bumps. At first glance - nothing special, in Moscow, each bump is documented and entered into some database.But when the Russian-Taiwanese registrar warns you about a speed bump in a small Belarusian town with a population of 19 thousand people, the driver, and especially local passengers, willy-nilly lift their eyebrows.
In the same town experienced an option called "geolocator". On the screen, the recorder shows in which locality you are. And at the same time, right with the arrows, it tells / shows the nearest five settlements. Datakam warrants that in the memory of the registrar "flooded" all the cities of the world - go travel anywhere, you will still know where you are. Well, or at least in what direction to go to get to the people.
The accelerometer in the Datakam recorder is interesting with a very useful rework. I was always embarrassed when in the other recorders the G-sensor worked and marked only one file as protected. This was especially dubious with one-minute “slicing”. With such success, you can easily save a video with a couple of seconds of the accident at the very beginning or end, and everything else can be easily erased? In the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF accelerometer, it looks in which part of the video the trigger is recorded - first or second. There is a signal closer to the beginning, at the same time they will mark the previous survey, if closer to the end - the next file. This trifle may well be decisive!
I have already talked about the blending filter, so I’ll go straight to the model hardware platform. At first, the choice of processor caused me some confusion - in the top registrar of 2014, the Ambarella A5 looks rather strange. Upon closer examination, it turned out that over the "hardware" seriously and thoughtfully "poshamanili" - here you and overclocking, and all sorts of exclusive firmware chips. The most remarkable innovation is the customization, which made it possible to record video with an “overclocked” bitrate of 20 Mbit / s. Not that other companies did not try to achieve this, but it turned out only at Datakam - apparently, the “straight-handedness” of Russian engineers and exclusive cooperation with Ambarella are affected.
The lens consists of seven glass lenses - of course, with an coated coating. Plus IR glass filter. It is believed that some companies even cheat with five or six elements, including this very filter in the number of lenses. I specifically checked - I found exactly two registrars with a seven of "glass", and one of them was discontinued. Datakam claims that all lenses in the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF are twice as expensive as other top-end recorders.
I categorically endorse the choice of the OmniVision OV2710 CMOS sensor - the matrix managed to perfectly prove itself in the recorders that I had to test. It differs from competitors by the largest pixel size among the matrices installed in the recorders - 3x3 micrometers. And the sensitivity here is the highest, 3.3 V / lux-sec.
Shooting is conducted in Full HD resolution at 30 fps, no surprises. The length of the clips varies from 1-45 minutes, the new video includes only one frame of the previous fragment. The quality of shooting can be estimated from the examples below. I note that the distance of readability of numbers reaches a limit of 20 meters. At night, it all depends on the lighting and the speed of the vehicles, but in principle from 10-12 meters you can see the numbers of passing vehicles.
Example of daytime shooting:
Example of night shooting:
In total there are about five shooting modes, including two for parking mode. Normal shooting - recording by the user (or left by default) parameter of the video. If there is a long trip, we activate TimeLapse, shooting at a lower frame rate, as in the many hours of arrival we have no intention of capturing every millisecond. Or you can put the receptionist somewhere on the balcony of the hotel by the sea and make a beautiful sunset.
Very originally solved the issue of parking. As a rule, this mode implies automatic activation of recording when motion is detected in a frame. That under different circumstances can be completely ineffective. In Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, by default, when the car is not moving, the mode called “Very economical” is activated - the minimum bitrate and frame rate, only Full HD resolution is preserved. If the shock sensor has been triggered (say, from hitting the ball), we encounter the Economical mode with a higher bit rate and a frequency of 5 fps. If after 15 seconds the “goal” did not happen again, the “Very economical” scenario will turn on again. By triggering the shaking, tilting or moving sensor (or even all at once), the most usual recording starts at 30 fps with a normal bit rate. In general, if I confuse you, look at the detailedexplanation of the principle of operation of this mode from Datakam.
Almost at the very beginning of my acquaintance with the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, in a slight confusion, I was left with the “Hidden camera mode” mode. In it, the registrar continued to shoot, but ... apparently did not show any signs of work at all, like a real spy gadget. Before “turning off”, I was notified that in order to exit the mode, it was enough to press the power button (that is, “M”).
If on the contrary, you do not want extra witnesses - the encryption function is at your service. Another feature that I have never met before (if you saw where - share the name of the registrar). Actually, we set the password - and that’s all, no one except you can view the files shot by your Datakam G5-BF. Neither the recorder nor the computer without knowing the password will not open anything. The clips will be played only on the desktop or laptop in the proprietary player DatakamPlayer - and only after entering the password.
In the course of test trips with unintentional long standing in traffic jams, I periodically turned off the power of the recorder, and therefore almost immediately revealed a curious feature. By themselves, recorders with built-in battery is a commonplace phenomenon. Yes, only in practice it is worth removing the adapter from the cigarette lighter, as any recorder turns off instantly - no matter how capacious the battery is. If you please enable the device yourself and, if you really need to continue recording, you never understood this approach. So, Datakam G5-City Pro-BF when turning off the power asks whether it needs to be shut down or whether it is necessary to continue shooting. All this is done without stopping the video recording process.
In continuation of the "theme of autonomy" - the battery of the model is very serious. When the screen is off, it lasts for 50-60 minutes of recording, depending on the parameters of the video, the alerts set and the volume of the sound. The average recorder has four times less battery life — about 15 minutes. I note that it is not necessary to turn off the screen - in any case, the recorder evaluates the level of ambient lighting and automatically selects the optimum brightness. And in the dark, the backlight is reduced, so that energy is not wasted, and the driver is not blind.
I can not tell you about the proprietary player editor DatakamPlayer , which may be familiar to you under the name Registrator Viewer. It is his website, registratorviewer.com, right in the first line of the search results that advises to visit Google for queries related to the choice of player for the registrar. And I note that I used (dwell on this name) DatakamPlayer long before the "branding" - and I still continue. Because no one compares to the “omnivorous nature” (working with video from different recorders), I only had a couple of problems, and that with registrars with absolutely prehistoric codecs. And so - even Super Full HD calmly "cuts" and exports without transcoding. Saving fragments without any compression is one of the main features of the program. When exporting, we are just in case wondering whether to keep the sound, as well as the “embedded” GPS and G-sensor data.
I have information on GPS and G-sensor from DatakamPlayer from any recorders, as if with data directly in the video or with separate files in the material storage folder. Let me complain that the program cannot be a full-fledged video editor. Of the functions of the installation - only the selection of fragments and their export. You cannot delete fragments, “glue” parts of the video. On the other hand, a) and this is more than enough for video from recorders b) in 99% of complete players, all functionality is limited only to playback of clips.
And, which is just too "anomaly", the program exists in the version under MacOS! Again, if you have ever seen a multiplatform complete player with a registrar - be sure to let me know for the sake of interest. I have never come across this, all other manufacturers are limited to supporting Windows.
Finally, I note that the DatakamPlayer video determines which model of the device we are using, searches for the firmware for it on the Internet and offers to automatically install the update (if available). And along with the new firmware at the same time and the base of the cameras is fresh loaded.
Perhaps, I will immediately tell you about the minuses noticed. More precisely, the only deficiency found — sometimes the registrar is annoyed with frequent warnings, for example, “speed bumps” —and often starts to click on the approaches to them. At the same time, you cannot turn off notifications for a specific type of POI - either completely deactivate SPEEDCAM or listen to everything. The problem was partly solved by lowering the volume.
As for the rest, as I did not try, I couldn’t identify significant drawbacks. I will not repeat, but in Datakam G5-City Pro-BF there will be at least a dozen features that I haven’t met in other registrars. Separate features like a magnet holder, most likely, competitors will never risk borrowing. And if they borrow, they will certainly set the price tag higher than for the Datakam models.
Considering that this is actually the development of the Russian design bureau, I take off my hat. Because, in general, the original legislators of the flagship fashion in the face of South Korea or Taiwan have nothing to answer to the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF - correct it if I am mistaken. Therefore, I think that if you are going to spend about 10,000 rubles on a DVR, Datakam G5-City Pro-BF would definitely be a good choice.
PS If I missed something, and the Chinese already have analogues of all the mentioned chips, most likely give a link to the originals on Alibaba in the comments. I checked, like nothing was found! Really original Russian development! :)
Why did I like Datakam G5-City Pro-BF and I decided to tell about it? The model is interesting by a large number of innovative solutions that are not in the registrars of other brands. And even, it seems, to the standard things (such as fixtures or menus) Datakam found its original approach.
For reference
The site Datakam about the company described in some detail, but as it turned out - missing some very interesting details. For example, it is not written that Datakam has a design bureau with two departments - one in Taiwan, and the second in Moscow. The Russian design bureau consists of eight engineers with many years of experience in the defense complex of the Russian Federation. Apparently, the Moscow branch is the main thing, because in the latest news I constantly encountered the wording “Russian research and production company Datakam”.
')
It is clear that the development of the original - I repeat, many of the curious moments I first saw in the same Datakam G5-City Pro-BF. The devices are assembled in their own workshop in Taiwan, where the maximum production capacity is 10,000 units per month. Naturally, Taiwanese work there, but the whole process is controlled by three Russian process engineers. Another interesting point - the initiators of the innovations part in Datakam registrars are ordinary users, who here set out their proposals.
According to the company, half of all their sales come from Russia. “We have our own atmosphere here,” the Russian driving culture (or rather, its absence) necessarily requires the presence of a video-recording device in the car. Hence the increased demand for recorders in our country in principle. Although Russia is not limited to a sales market. Datakam registrars are also sold in the UAE (Arabs, as you know, love everything expensive and pathetic), in Ukraine (where road conditions differ little from Russian ones) and in the EU countries, in particular Germany.
I note that the G5-BF series consists of two "branches." The first is CITY-BF , which I am telling about. This modification has a wide viewing angle of 170 degrees (diagonally). The second is “ REAL-BF ”, where the angle is already limited to 120 degrees. The approach is weighted, and explained on the main page of the company's website. A wide angle allows you to capture more objects in the frame, but reduces the maximum distance of distinguishability of state numbers of cars. If the video from CITY-BF reads the figures from a distance of 12 meters, then REAL-BF has a much more serious readability of up to 20 meters.
Both versions are available in the following modifications. " G5-BF " - costs 8,500 rubles, but there is no GPS + GLONASS module. And that means all related functions. In G5-PRO-BF (the one in the review) for 10,900 rubles, GPS + GLONASS and numerous functions related to this module appear. The most expensive Datakam " G5-MAX-BF " costs 12,900 rubles and is distinguished by Samsung's full 32 GB microSD card and a high-quality (at one time "felt" live) two-piece bag for storing all sorts of accessories.
In set
Datakam is surprising starting from the box. First, the main “casing” of the packaging is made of transparent plastic with a thickness of about 3-4 millimeters, and not of cardboard - like in 99% of other recorders. The device is literally hung to the lid, the case is held on a neodymium magnet. Two supporting legs (those that rise from the black box) made for reinsurance, you never know with what love and care the model will be transported, say, “Russian Post”.
The equipment is extensive, I will start the transfer from a small case made of high-quality eco-leather and fabric. Still attached cloth napkin - useful for wiping the case and lenses.
Listing the paper components will start with stickers - three pieces of different colors (white, blue, red - clearly in tone with the Russian flag). Although I don’t really know where to glue them in the car, maybe some of the readers will tell in the comments.
Three books of the same size - this warranty card, instruction manual and a separate description of the menu.
The menu description is very - there should be three exclamation marks - a big one. See how much is a statement? And that's not all, on the reverse side is the same amount of information. And this is good, because there are really a lot of menu items, and the manual provides intelligible explanations on all points. In general, I strongly advise future owners of G5 series models to at least once carefully and carefully study both the general manual and the menu description. Because only from them it is possible to learn about some not at all obvious, but useful registrar options.
Arms two pieces, this is found in the registrars are very rare. Depending on personal preferences, choose - install the video tag on a vacuum suction cup or pad on 3M adhesive tape (spare sticker is attached). So say the basic element for any option - a component with a pin and a power connector. I still will tell about fastenings in more detail below.
Charging from the cigarette lighter is designed for 12 and 24 volts - suitable for ordinary cars, trucks, and buses. Charging cable is very long - 3.7 meters. Even if you have a station wagon, the registrar will hang on the rear window, and the wire should be laid gently around the cabin. And if there is an extra wire, you can twist it and fix it with a special twist on velcro (this is usually in laptop charging, I see this for the first time at a registrar).
I was slightly embarrassed by the small thickness of the cable (two times thinner than in other recorders), that I did not fail to express technical support for Datakam. In response, I was assured that the cables are very durable and are much more expensive than those of competitors. The used wire does not break when bending, and does not allow voltage drops, despite the great length. The block with contacts and USB connector has a very modest size, it literally looks 5 mm out of the cigarette lighter socket.
Thin cable is perfectly laid under the skin. If you need additional fixation (for example, in the glove compartment), you can use two hooks on the 3M-Velcro from the kit.
The microUSB cable and a spare sticker for 3M mounts complete the list.
Installation
As I said, brackets - two pieces to choose from. The option with a vacuum sucker is best suited for those who seek not to leave on the windshield any trace of the presence of the recorder. The idea is sound: a street spinner can break the glass and get into the car when he sees an empty mount on the glass. They know that many motorists just hide gadgets in the glove compartment, and do not take them with them. On the other hand, those who know comrades with suckers have one association: at the first frost, the bracket will certainly begin to fall off. The installation can be done normally only after warming up the cabin.
I myself don’t really like 3M attachments in registrars (it’s too often that DVRs have to be changed), but in this case I sympathize with this option. The plastic platform is extremely miniature, from the outside it practically merges against the background of a dark interior or a rear-view mirror, and therefore it certainly will not attract attention from the outside.
The mentioned basic component for both mounts contains two neodymium magnets that hold the case. Now almost every first registrar indicates the possibility of instantly removing the registrar from the bracket, which in reality, more often than not, is far from reality. It is necessary to make considerable efforts to remove the mount, tightly seated in the connecting groove of the chamber. In the case of the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, the recorder is effortlessly removed in just half a second.
The logical question is how firmly do the magnets hold, does the recorder “tremble” during strong shaking? No, with all the desire to "stir up" the model, I did not succeed. An additional stabilizer is a pin made of metal, on which the recorder sits on. No wires should be connected directly to the housing - power is supplied through the same pin.
The power connector on the mount is round, so the more familiar miniUSB recorders will not work. As I was told everything is in the same technical support, the connector in the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF is more durable, while over time the miniUSB may become loose and the contacts oxidize due to the formation of moisture when the cold cabin is heated. True, there is one minus at its own connector. If the “native” cable is lost or broken, it will not be possible to find a similar one on the free market. However, the same technical support assured: if anything, they would be happy to sell the new “cord” to the registrar owner who applied.
Attachment adjustment is possible in two planes. You can tilt the recorder closer or further away from you. And rotate in increments of 90 degrees. This is another interesting point, since the design of the holder contains a special groove for quick rigid fixation when turning the recorder to the side. The option is effective, as I always knew exactly what falls in the frame. In registrars with hinged fastening, after turning the body in the direction of the camera's “sight” to the road, when it returns to its original position, it is usually lost. It is necessary, in fact, to re-engage the setting in order to shoot what is happening right in front of the car. Datakam G5-City Pro-BF is completely devoid of this deficiency.
In general, the bracket was definitely a success - it is extremely compact, easy to use and, which flatters me especially as the owner of the device, is unique. I dare to suggest that attempts to create a similar mount other manufacturers will take more soon, at least because of the complexity and high cost of such an accessory. It is easier to continue to "rivet on the thumb" plastic holders.
Appearance
The device case is small - 95x39x39 mm (without a removable lens and a bleed filter), if desired, quietly hides behind the rear-view mirror. The assembly is monolithic, the recorder responded to all twists and squeezing attempts with a persistent silence - it did not give out creaking or cracking. The main part is made of matte, slightly rough plastic. To soil the coating with your fingers is unreal, except that microscopic dust particles will have to be blown off, if they appear.
Perforation is present at the top and bottom - this is needed for cooling. In general, the manufacturer made sure that the registrar was not affected by the heat. Partly from the same considerations, a plastic holder, namely a metal holder, connecting the lens with the matrix, is not installed. Such a holder does not warp and the recorder does not lose focus, as it can under the action of heat in inexpensive recorders with plastic holders. Even in Russia, the recorder left under the sun on the windshield is seriously heated. Can you imagine what could be in the UAE?
Elements at the sides protect rubber plugs. On the right is the Reset button, a slot for a microSD memory card and a microUSB connector. I did not have to use the reset key, and in principle I did not come across any glitches - all settings were saved, the date and time did not go astray.
Here I note that in Datakam G5-City Pro-BF there is a proprietary technology “SmartWrite”, thanks to which the Datakam recorder never hangs. Just in case - this technology does not concern the overall stability of the device, it only provides stable and continuous recording with a bitrate of up to 15 Mbit / s to slow memory cards.
On the other side of the Datakam case is the miniHDMI input and ... the second microSD slot. Correct, if I am mistaken, but nowhere else in the other recorders of the two microSD slots. Personally, I have never seen! Maximum - 256 MB of internal memory, which is enough to back up 2-5 minutes of video. Here the slots are equivalent - the record can be kept on any of them. And, of course, copying files between the cards is available. I'm aware that there is a South Korean FineVu CR-2000S recorder with microSD and SD slots. But there a) without a microSD model does not work; b) SD can only record parking shots.
The screen, let's face it, is small - 1.6 inches. Plus it or a minus, you decide. Personally, I am tired of fashionable 2.7-inch screens, which by and large are still used once or twice to change settings and calibrate the camera position. For a normal view of the footage, if there really is a need, I’m not too lazy to insert a card from the recorder into my 5-inch smartphone. And for a quick view / delete video and a photo of 1.6 inches is enough.
On the sides of the screen are four indicators, the icons next to which speak for themselves - GPS status, emergency file protection, power and recording. A little further on both sides are two pairs of buttons. The management organization was not trivial, the calculation was clearly the most simplistic. Now, in the bulk of recorders, they “hang” several buttons on the buttons — microphone control, backlight, etc. In theory, it’s great, in practice, who wants to bother with memorizing all the tasks of four or six keys? Given that these very advanced features are usually not labeled on the buttons.
In Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, all the “tinsel” was laid on a single “M” key. During recording, when you press it, a menu opens in which we calmly and select the desired action. But the double purpose still remains for the left pair of buttons. By default, the top one changes the subtitles to video, and the bottom one marks the file as emergency. And the cool thing - both buttons can be reprogrammed and assign any of a dozen options. For example, to lock the file with one button, I added to the other screen off.
I left the most "tasty" in the end, namely the frontal part with the so-called blendofilter . This is a unique development of engineers Datakam design bureau. The design consists of a blend and, in fact, a CPL polarizing filter - it has never occurred to anyone before to combine them into one device. As a result, the light from the sun and lanterns is minimized: the lens hood cuts off the rays, if the light source is near the frame border.
And thanks to the filter, glare is eliminated, both on the windshield of the car where the recorder is installed and on the windows of other cars. Adjusting the position of the lenses by rotating around the axis is needed only once, until the next adjustment of the position of the recorder.
You do not need to twist the lens for a long time, there are exactly two positions to eliminate glare: either by turning it between 0-180 degrees, or 90-270 degrees. The blend filter is removable, and the lens easily scrolls to adjust right in the blend. After setting, you can erase the fat fingerprints with a cloth.
Settings and advanced features
Installations in Datakam G5-City Pro-BF - an outrageous amount, more than fifty. The full list can be found here, at the top click on the "Menu" tab. In short, almost any aspect of the functions or features of the model is configured, from the number of nearby cities displayed on the screen to the temperature displayed from the sensor located on the board next to the processor. There are absolutely exotic moments like the statistics of the total operating time of the device and the path made.
There are six text lines on one screen, you don’t have to squint for reading. For comparison - in almost all recorders with Ambarella A7 with stock firmware on a large 2.7-inch (or even 3-inch) display displays only four lines. In general, the menu is logical and understandable, it can be seen everywhere - the interface was created from scratch and immediately in Russian, and not tried to translate and bring to mind some kind of original Chinese firmware.
I’ll start the story about additional features with GPS, on which a significant part of the secondary options of Datakam recorder is based. First of all, the hybrid module itself - supports the search for GLONASS and GPS satellites. Signal reception is stable and is lost except in the room - and even then you need to move away from the window. The “cold start” time during testing did not exceed 30 seconds.
From the standard GPS functionality - track recording with movement coordinates. Another more or less common feature in the flagships is to prevent the speed above the manually set threshold. It's funny - you can set off the speed stamp on the video at the moments when you (we hope, not specifically) violated the speed limit.
There are notifications of approaching speed cameras, but with a number of non-standard features. If usually only the camera base in Russia is built in the registrars, then Datakam G5-City Pro-BF also includes information on Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belgium.
What really came as a surprise to me was that Datakam G5-City Pro-BF warns about average speed control cameras, in particular, Avtodoria complexes. Let me remind you that in this model, two cameras are located at a distance of up to 10 km and calculate the average speed of the vehicle throughout the entire route. Traditional radar detectors are 100% powerless in front of Avtodoriya and are unable to fix it. And it is clear that in itself the usual warning does not work. A bundle of cameras is clearly “registered” in the Datakam recorder, the model counts the average speed of movement and warns if exceeded.
Datakam G5-City Pro-BF at the same time warns of "dangerous intersections", railroad crossings and even speed bumps. At first glance - nothing special, in Moscow, each bump is documented and entered into some database.But when the Russian-Taiwanese registrar warns you about a speed bump in a small Belarusian town with a population of 19 thousand people, the driver, and especially local passengers, willy-nilly lift their eyebrows.
In the same town experienced an option called "geolocator". On the screen, the recorder shows in which locality you are. And at the same time, right with the arrows, it tells / shows the nearest five settlements. Datakam warrants that in the memory of the registrar "flooded" all the cities of the world - go travel anywhere, you will still know where you are. Well, or at least in what direction to go to get to the people.
The accelerometer in the Datakam recorder is interesting with a very useful rework. I was always embarrassed when in the other recorders the G-sensor worked and marked only one file as protected. This was especially dubious with one-minute “slicing”. With such success, you can easily save a video with a couple of seconds of the accident at the very beginning or end, and everything else can be easily erased? In the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF accelerometer, it looks in which part of the video the trigger is recorded - first or second. There is a signal closer to the beginning, at the same time they will mark the previous survey, if closer to the end - the next file. This trifle may well be decisive!
Videography
I have already talked about the blending filter, so I’ll go straight to the model hardware platform. At first, the choice of processor caused me some confusion - in the top registrar of 2014, the Ambarella A5 looks rather strange. Upon closer examination, it turned out that over the "hardware" seriously and thoughtfully "poshamanili" - here you and overclocking, and all sorts of exclusive firmware chips. The most remarkable innovation is the customization, which made it possible to record video with an “overclocked” bitrate of 20 Mbit / s. Not that other companies did not try to achieve this, but it turned out only at Datakam - apparently, the “straight-handedness” of Russian engineers and exclusive cooperation with Ambarella are affected.
The lens consists of seven glass lenses - of course, with an coated coating. Plus IR glass filter. It is believed that some companies even cheat with five or six elements, including this very filter in the number of lenses. I specifically checked - I found exactly two registrars with a seven of "glass", and one of them was discontinued. Datakam claims that all lenses in the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF are twice as expensive as other top-end recorders.
I categorically endorse the choice of the OmniVision OV2710 CMOS sensor - the matrix managed to perfectly prove itself in the recorders that I had to test. It differs from competitors by the largest pixel size among the matrices installed in the recorders - 3x3 micrometers. And the sensitivity here is the highest, 3.3 V / lux-sec.
Shooting is conducted in Full HD resolution at 30 fps, no surprises. The length of the clips varies from 1-45 minutes, the new video includes only one frame of the previous fragment. The quality of shooting can be estimated from the examples below. I note that the distance of readability of numbers reaches a limit of 20 meters. At night, it all depends on the lighting and the speed of the vehicles, but in principle from 10-12 meters you can see the numbers of passing vehicles.
Example of daytime shooting:
Example of night shooting:
In total there are about five shooting modes, including two for parking mode. Normal shooting - recording by the user (or left by default) parameter of the video. If there is a long trip, we activate TimeLapse, shooting at a lower frame rate, as in the many hours of arrival we have no intention of capturing every millisecond. Or you can put the receptionist somewhere on the balcony of the hotel by the sea and make a beautiful sunset.
Very originally solved the issue of parking. As a rule, this mode implies automatic activation of recording when motion is detected in a frame. That under different circumstances can be completely ineffective. In Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, by default, when the car is not moving, the mode called “Very economical” is activated - the minimum bitrate and frame rate, only Full HD resolution is preserved. If the shock sensor has been triggered (say, from hitting the ball), we encounter the Economical mode with a higher bit rate and a frequency of 5 fps. If after 15 seconds the “goal” did not happen again, the “Very economical” scenario will turn on again. By triggering the shaking, tilting or moving sensor (or even all at once), the most usual recording starts at 30 fps with a normal bit rate. In general, if I confuse you, look at the detailedexplanation of the principle of operation of this mode from Datakam.
Almost at the very beginning of my acquaintance with the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF, in a slight confusion, I was left with the “Hidden camera mode” mode. In it, the registrar continued to shoot, but ... apparently did not show any signs of work at all, like a real spy gadget. Before “turning off”, I was notified that in order to exit the mode, it was enough to press the power button (that is, “M”).
If on the contrary, you do not want extra witnesses - the encryption function is at your service. Another feature that I have never met before (if you saw where - share the name of the registrar). Actually, we set the password - and that’s all, no one except you can view the files shot by your Datakam G5-BF. Neither the recorder nor the computer without knowing the password will not open anything. The clips will be played only on the desktop or laptop in the proprietary player DatakamPlayer - and only after entering the password.
In the course of test trips with unintentional long standing in traffic jams, I periodically turned off the power of the recorder, and therefore almost immediately revealed a curious feature. By themselves, recorders with built-in battery is a commonplace phenomenon. Yes, only in practice it is worth removing the adapter from the cigarette lighter, as any recorder turns off instantly - no matter how capacious the battery is. If you please enable the device yourself and, if you really need to continue recording, you never understood this approach. So, Datakam G5-City Pro-BF when turning off the power asks whether it needs to be shut down or whether it is necessary to continue shooting. All this is done without stopping the video recording process.
In continuation of the "theme of autonomy" - the battery of the model is very serious. When the screen is off, it lasts for 50-60 minutes of recording, depending on the parameters of the video, the alerts set and the volume of the sound. The average recorder has four times less battery life — about 15 minutes. I note that it is not necessary to turn off the screen - in any case, the recorder evaluates the level of ambient lighting and automatically selects the optimum brightness. And in the dark, the backlight is reduced, so that energy is not wasted, and the driver is not blind.
All players - player
I can not tell you about the proprietary player editor DatakamPlayer , which may be familiar to you under the name Registrator Viewer. It is his website, registratorviewer.com, right in the first line of the search results that advises to visit Google for queries related to the choice of player for the registrar. And I note that I used (dwell on this name) DatakamPlayer long before the "branding" - and I still continue. Because no one compares to the “omnivorous nature” (working with video from different recorders), I only had a couple of problems, and that with registrars with absolutely prehistoric codecs. And so - even Super Full HD calmly "cuts" and exports without transcoding. Saving fragments without any compression is one of the main features of the program. When exporting, we are just in case wondering whether to keep the sound, as well as the “embedded” GPS and G-sensor data.
I have information on GPS and G-sensor from DatakamPlayer from any recorders, as if with data directly in the video or with separate files in the material storage folder. Let me complain that the program cannot be a full-fledged video editor. Of the functions of the installation - only the selection of fragments and their export. You cannot delete fragments, “glue” parts of the video. On the other hand, a) and this is more than enough for video from recorders b) in 99% of complete players, all functionality is limited only to playback of clips.
And, which is just too "anomaly", the program exists in the version under MacOS! Again, if you have ever seen a multiplatform complete player with a registrar - be sure to let me know for the sake of interest. I have never come across this, all other manufacturers are limited to supporting Windows.
Finally, I note that the DatakamPlayer video determines which model of the device we are using, searches for the firmware for it on the Internet and offers to automatically install the update (if available). And along with the new firmware at the same time and the base of the cameras is fresh loaded.
Conclusion
Perhaps, I will immediately tell you about the minuses noticed. More precisely, the only deficiency found — sometimes the registrar is annoyed with frequent warnings, for example, “speed bumps” —and often starts to click on the approaches to them. At the same time, you cannot turn off notifications for a specific type of POI - either completely deactivate SPEEDCAM or listen to everything. The problem was partly solved by lowering the volume.
As for the rest, as I did not try, I couldn’t identify significant drawbacks. I will not repeat, but in Datakam G5-City Pro-BF there will be at least a dozen features that I haven’t met in other registrars. Separate features like a magnet holder, most likely, competitors will never risk borrowing. And if they borrow, they will certainly set the price tag higher than for the Datakam models.
Considering that this is actually the development of the Russian design bureau, I take off my hat. Because, in general, the original legislators of the flagship fashion in the face of South Korea or Taiwan have nothing to answer to the Datakam G5-City Pro-BF - correct it if I am mistaken. Therefore, I think that if you are going to spend about 10,000 rubles on a DVR, Datakam G5-City Pro-BF would definitely be a good choice.
PS If I missed something, and the Chinese already have analogues of all the mentioned chips, most likely give a link to the originals on Alibaba in the comments. I checked, like nothing was found! Really original Russian development! :)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/364401/
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