T**N
Great Dashcam
I uploaded an unboxing video for the camera, it is on the product page, in “Related Video Shorts” which is just below the “Product Information” details and just above the questions/reviews.I have two prior models of Lifechaser and I am happy with them and Lifechaser support has been great. I've emailed them a couple times to ask some questions on the prior model and to get a firmware upgrade, they have always responded quickly (within 24 hours). That alone provided comfort when I was deciding to get the camera that no amazon reviews (at that time).The front camera is 4K. It mounts to the windshield via a suction mount. My other camera's are flush mount, so it's really a preference or potentially which ever is the right set up for the car you have. Clearly moving a camera from one car to another, suction cup is easiest. I lean more towards flush mount, but this is a nice camera with better features than my prior Lifechaser camera's. I was surprised at the size, it is smaller than how it appears in the listing which is a good thing. See my unboxing video for a good look at the size. The suction mount has up/down and right/left swivel so you can adjust it alot. In the attached picture, you can see that the camera slides into the suction mount. The camera has actual buttons on it, which I find easier to use than touch screen buttons. The camera is small which is good, you are leaning over to use it and having physical buttons make it easier to use in the car in my opinion.The camera doesn't come with a memory card. I had a 32g laying around and it worked great. I likely will get a 128 at some point. For around town or back and fourth to work, 32g is typically fine. If you drive multiple hours regularly and want to review random video's later, you need to lock them at the time of the recording by pressing a button, or have the 128g card so they don't get overwritten when the card starts to fill up. My wife got back from a long trip (multiple hours driving) and commented about the scenery in the mountains and wanted to show some of them to me. Since she had a 32g card, a lot of it had been overwritten.Don’t worry, dash cams are designed to save video’s automatically in the event of an accident, or parking lot motion or someone bumping your car in the parking lot. Those video’s are locked automatically. You can also hit a button to lock a video if you witness something and want to save it.The rear camera is 1080p which is nice, alot of the other dash cams with rear are 720, sometimes lower. The rear camera allows for a sticker mount or screws and has a super long cable. Just really depends on the layout of the rear window of your car which connection type makes the most sense. The screws are small, so not a big deal. I haven't tried out the red wire that comes on the rear camera, it allows you to use the dashcam as a back up camera, but I already have one, so I won’t be using that feature. You may need someone with wiring knowledge of your car hook up that wire.I did some short drives to test out the camera and it works great. The video is clear and crisp. It has the date/time, MPH and GPS coordinates stamped on the bottom of the video. Overall, it has 4K front, 1080p rear camera, wifi, GPS, parking mode, 8 megapixel camera for random photo's, and great resolution at night plus other features. I looked at the video's on my 1080 monitor so I wasn't looking at the full clarity, but still looked great. I likely will connect or stream the video to one of my 4K devices to test out the full clarity at some point. I only did a quick test of using my phone connected to the camera’s WiFi to view the video's, this is a great feature if you are not near a computer and need to look at a video.There is a set up cheat sheet paper in the top of the box that provides great information. The documentation is pretty good at telling you how to configure the camera. There are some options that are not fully documented, but send an email to them, they are quick to respond and help you.Dashcam App (downloaded from apple app store). The app is able to do many settings on the camera when connected over wifi. This is nice, but it doesn’t do all of the settings. Like other dash cams I have used, downloads are painfully slow, several minutes to download a single one minute video. You are better off pulling the card out and taking it to a computer. It’s a nice feature to download a single video if needed, but I wouldn’t do more than one this way. Play back to the phone works nicely, but it can pause during play back (buffering) while it pulls down more of the video. If you download the video and play it, there is no buffering, it solves it, but you are back to the download time required. Again, this is likely common with many of the dashcams available.Pro’s:- 4K front- 1080p rear- wifi- parking/motion- price- great support- 18 month warrantyCon’s:- Doesn’t come with a memory card, you need to spend another $10 to $20 for a card (not a big deal, but needs noted)- Suction mount. I list it as a con, only because with a suction mount, you have to mount the actual suction pretty high on the window to keep the camera out of the main view of the windshield, typically on passenger side. Since the camera hangs straight down, it is away from the window, it would be nice if there was a bracket on the suction mount to swivel the camera closer to the window in order to reduce obstruction from power/cable boxes behind rearview mirrors. I list it as a con, but this is a preference and car specific issue. In the end, I’ll put it somewhere, and months down the road I’ll likely never notice the camera anyways :) Plus, it is typically a passenger issue, it’s in front of them. I’d prefer it to be as out of sight as possible.- rear camera is hardwired the actual rear camera and plugs into front camera. If later down the road I need to replace the actual rear camera, I will need to completely remove and re-do the wiring.Neither Pro nor Con:- These Camera’s only do 32 fps. I’d prefer 60 fps option. Cars can be moving fast and additional frames can improve visibility of things happening.- LI-Ion battery. Many dash cams are moving to capacitor solutions. Cameras in the hot sun and LI-Ion *can* be an issue, not always, but sometimes. Capacitor last longer and can deal with heat better.- I had to use VLC player on my windows computer to watch the video’s. The standard windows app didn’t have the codec. not a big deal. Depending on camera or camcorder software you have installed already, it may not be an issue.Great dashcam, great deal, great customer support, go for it !!!
W**H
This camera's video quality is excellent and it is packed with great features!
UPDATE 03/25/21: I bought this camera in August 2019 and it is still working GREAT! No issues. Some idiot almost ran me off the highway the other day at 70mph and just kept going. I had not downloaded any videos in awhile and decided to see if I could see the tag number of the moron that almost pushed me into a concrete wall. The video does take a while to download (I have mine set on 4K for best quality) but once it downloaded I was able to pause the video to snap a photo of the license tag! And had she in fact ran me into the wall I can say with confidence that I had not only the make, model and color or the car, but the tag number!!! Awesome camera!Original review - August 2019. This review is voluntary and based on my personal experience. The Lifechaser Dual Cam 4K+1080P camera is the only one I could find that had every feature I wanted: (1) Front and rear cameras, (2) 4K+1080, (3) loop recording in 1-3-5 minute intervals, (4) g-sensor for emergency recording, (5) parking mode, (6) wifi to download directly to phone, (7) night vision, and (8) screen to view videos directly from the camera. It was easy to install the front camera. Initially I wanted to install the rear camera on the outside of my car near the license plate; however, discovered that this would require me to drill holes in my car (which is not an option). I ended up mounting the camera with the double sided tape provided to the inside of my back windshield which was also easy to do. Hid all the wires along the panels and moldings in the car for a neater look. For anyone wondering whether they can install on their own, I am a divorced 48 yo female. I’ve always been pretty independent and somewhat handy. Because I’m single, I’ve either had to do things on my own or pay someone else to do it. I was able to install both cameras and hide the wires without any assistance. I was not planning to wire it directly to the car as that will definitely require a professional for someone like me. If you want it hardwired, you will need to purchase a separate hardwire kit. Email Lifechaser and they will recommend one to purchase. Hardwiring to the car will be necessary if you want to use the 24hr motion detector (which was not an important enough feature for me to do this). I also did not opt to use the rear camera as a back up camera even though this is an option. There is a red wire that must be connected to the reversing lamp of the car if you want to use it for backing up. It does not come with a memory card. I purchased a Samsung 128GB Evo Select card. You should be able to get this for $20 and under. Card works just fine in the camera. I believe the camera supports up to a 128MB card. The larger the storage, the more video you will capture before the camera begins to record over the oldest videos first. I have my loop setting at 5 minutes. It does take more time to download the 5 minute videos to your phone when you need it, so if you want a faster download, you should choose 1 or 3 minutes. Selecting the 1 or 3 min setting also means you will have more video clips to search through when you are looking for a specific day/time for an incident. The 5 minute setting of course means less video clips to look through. I have my camera set to the highest resolution (3840x2160) and can testify to the clarity of the video/images. I drove around the neighborhood to test its ability to clearly read license plates. I’m happy to report that it picked up every single one. The real test came when I was waiting in the left turn lane at a traffic light while other cars raced by me who were driving straight through the light. I downloaded some of the video and reviewed the footage. When I slowed the video down and to a pause, I was able to clearly read the license plates that had zoomed by me while I was stopped! I am very impressed! This is exactly what I was looking for as I was recently in a hit and run where someone rammed the driver side door of my car and took off. $3K worth of damage and my insurance had to pay after I paid a $500 deductible. At the time of the accident, I did have a crappy dash cam that only recorded 720dpi and while I have footage of the accident and the POS driving off, it did not pick up the tag number of the vehicle. Imagine the disappointment, anger and frustration. I vowed that this wouldn’t happen to me again with the next dash cam. Anything less than a 4K is likely going to let you down and leave you in the same predicament I described. I looked at a lot of cameras before I came across this one…it honestly exceeds my expectations. I have been driving around with the front camera for about 3 weeks now with no issues. I just installed the rear camera today and have not tested it yet. It definitely works, but have not tested the video quality. The instructions that come with it are a little difficult to understand; still I was able to determine everything I needed to know. If you have questions or need assistance of any kind, just email customer service at Lifechaser and they will answer your email right away. You will receive an email with the customer service email address immediately after you purchase the camera. I have exchanged emails with them several times and each response received was well under 24 hours. They are very responsive and helpful. Customer service is important to them and I would give them 5 out of 5 stars for service on my experience with them. They can also provide a document with screenshots on recommended settings for the camera. For those that are skeptical because you were unable to locate their website online, don’t be. They are legitimate and must either be a smaller company or just starting up or both. One last thing: once the front camera is installed, it can be easily removed by unplugging the wires going into the camera and simply sliding it off the mount. I typically leave mine in the car, but if I am in a questionable area or going to be parked somewhere for days (like the airport) I take it with me. I am very happy with my purchase and this company. I highly recommend this camera to anyone who wants a dash cam that actually works and doesn’t want to be left holding the bag!
Trustpilot
5 days ago
2 months ago
