Topic: G1W/G1W-C Capacitor Model Blackbox Dashcam

[Brianmachinist]

I bought this dash cam in February and it's been glorious.  It used to be $65 but it's $80 now. (still worth it)
It records in 1080p, has sound, wide angle lens, lcd screen to view but i take the micro sd card out and watch it on the computer.
It mounts with a suction cup to the windshield and its solid, mine has never came off while driving.

If you looking for a cheap, does the job cam, this is it.  If you want to spend loads on a gopro,  your choice.
 
http://www.blackboxmycar.com/collections/under-100/products/g1w-english-version

I don't work for them or am I getting anthing if you purchase this.  It's just a good review.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Can you post some vids you've taken with yours? What options does it has? Does it have GPS, or any kind of overlay? What do you like about it? How's the low light/nighttime video look?

As far as I can tell, you've just posted an ad, with no actual review, other than it does things, and sticks to your windshield.

[RockThePylon]

No GPS, so you don't get the speed overlay that may either incriminate or exonerate you. Also, no "parked" mode.

And no G-Sensor, so no special "event" recording. This is neither a plus, nor a minus. The STI rides like it has wood for suspension, so every pebble on the road triggers an event.

[jvd]

Can you post some vids you've taken with yours? What options does it has? Does it have GPS, or any kind of overlay? What do you like about it? How's the low light/nighttime video look?

As far as I can tell, you've just posted an ad, with no actual review, other than it does things, and sticks to your windshield.

Ya, he must like work for blackboxmycar or something.

I BET HE'S THE OWNER.

[Stehle]

+$50 for the hardwiring kit...

You can buy the parts separately for a total of ~$20 on Amazon... and cheaper if you're willing to order from Aliexpress.

Other than that I've read plenty of reviews on a number of Dashcams, and the G1W seems to be the standard "bang for your buck" camera.
Personally, I will be going the A118 / B40 route myself for approximately the same cost.

[JohnnyCanuck]

Some good reviews here, this is a link to best 'bang for your buck', click on individual cameras for the in depth reviews and videos of day/night samples  https://dashcamtalk.com/

[Wegz]

Bought this a couple months ago from Black Box, came to $88 shipped. Just been plugging it in and unplugging it since I got it. lol! In and out in and out.

Not sure how to use it entirely. Red dot flashing means recording is all I know. No problems, seems like a great little unit for the price.

I wonder if it automatically overwrites data or if you have to keep deleting?

No instructions came with my unit. I did get a plastic installer tool though. And looks like they threw in a component needed for hard wiring which is cool.

[Brianmachinist]

It overwrites data.  There's an option to save videos if you don't want it to be erased.  There's another option to change the length of videos, it think it was 2,3,5 mins.

[Rich]

Most of the readings I've done seems to say that the G1W is the best bang for your buck dash camera, and the next best thing in video quality next to the BlackVue cameras.  It's just missing a few of the fancier features, like GPS, speedo, etc.  I opted for the G1W-CB because capacitor cameras work better in cars and the silver ring around the lens is black to make it a touch more discrete.

One thing to note, there are a lot of G1W clones out on the internet, some are inferior to others.  The G1W you're looking for has to have the Novatek NT96650 chipset, the cheaper knockoffs don't use it.

I picked up three G1W-CBs from www.gearbest.com, plus three rearview mirror mounts.  GearBest had free expedient shipping at the time, so I got everything at my door step from China less than a week after I put my order in.  Customs for the three cameras came out to just over 24 dollars.

For now I have the power plugged into my lighter and the cord run under my dash, up the A pillar and under the headliner.  I'll get around to hardwiring it eventually.


What I got, G1W-CB + rearview mirror mount.


Box opened.


What's in the box, I'll be chucking out the mirror mount.


Rearview mirror mount on.


Camera on and plugged in.


View from the front. (Yes, I'm parked in a half built garage SHUT UP)


Video straight out of the box.  It was a cloudy morning.  I made no adjustments to the default settings other than the date and time.  I'll be putting up some blue sky daylight video and night time video as soon as I get them.

Pros:
- Inexpensive
- Easy to use
- Manual is a hilarious Chinese to English direct translation, but easy enough to understand

Neutral
- Cloudy day video quality isn't what I expected.  It is more dim than I'd like, but fiddling with the settings and turning up the compensation should resolve that.
- Camera has multiple settings for video lengths and was set at 2 minutes, but video lengths of the files produced seemed to randomly range from 12 seconds to just under 2 minutes.  The G-sensor in the camera is suspected to be the culprit, I'll be turning down the sensitivity or shutting it off completely to see if that fixes the issue.

Cons
- Screensaver mode is turned off by default.  Meaning the little 2.7" screen is always on when you're driving.  There is an option to turn it on and set the screen to shut off after 3/5/10 minutes.  I would have preferred the screen to shut off after an even shorter amount of time.  Maybe 30-60 seconds.
- The white sensor (?) on the front of the camera makes it less discrete than I'd like
- Missing the fancy GPS/speedo stuff the BlackVue has


My thoughts:
The camera is simple and easy to use and a good buy at around 50 bucks.  Seeing how drivers seem to be getting worse every day, I'd say using a dash camera would be prudent. Recommended.

[Rich]

Taken at about 9pm last night.  Weirdly, I somehow managed to shut off the audio recording while fiddling with the camera.

Shut off the G sensor, and I'm still getting random video lengths.  Next thing I'm going to try is shutting off the camera's motion detection feature.  I think that will fix it.

[10secdream]

Looks great