AdvoCam FD3 DVR, detailed review



    Choosing a dashcam now has become both easier and harder at the same time. Difficulty in a wide variety - on Yandex.Market the account goes already for thousands. However, due to the similarity of many devices, it has become possible to divide them into groups, inside which all devices are approximately the same in parameters. In the review, I will try to describe the recorder from the “universal, with high-quality, non-interpolated Full HD recording and with some unique properties” segment.

    AdvoCam FD3 claims to pay close attention to it.


    For those interested in origin, I will quote the technical support answer: “it is produced in China, in a very decent factory with a European approach to management and strict quality control. This is written on the box and on the devices themselves. ”

    The current price is not small -7990 rubles. What is offered for this money?

    Options

    Theater starts with a hanger, and AdvoCam - with a box. More precisely, with its contents. Opening the lid, at first we see only a very compact registrar, lost in the background of a hefty box. He is, indeed, much smaller and thinner than most of his classmates. The body is rubberized and feels soft to the touch. Looking ahead, I will say that this is a deceptive impression - the device is extremely durable, does not scratch and does not rub.

    Raising the upper partition, you will understand why I attributed this registrar to the category of unique ones. Here is the number of “spare parts” I extracted from there: The



    purpose of the parts is probably the easiest, probably to show a picture:



    And this is only the basic equipment, mainly for automotive applications. Fans of active sports can buy the so-called Action Kit. With it, the functionality of the DVR will approach much more expensive professional devices such as Go Pro.



    But I limited myself to automotive applications. I will tell about him below.

    Recording quality

    Let's start with this. No matter how tricked out the equipment and appearance of the DVR, the main issue when choosing is always the recording quality.

    AdvoCam FD3 has 4 recording modes:

    • 1920x1080, 30 fps, 12 Mbit / s stream - the so-called sport mode, FullHD with maximum quality. The resolution is real, without interpolation. Progressive Scan (1080p)
    • 1920x1080, 30 fps, 6 Mbps stream - this mode is recommended for use in a car.
    • 1280x720, 60 fps, 4 Mbps stream - unfortunately, the declared maximum viewing angle of 160 degrees diagonally (110 horizontally) is available only for 720p modes. Therefore, you have to choose - either a high-quality picture with a maximum resolution, or a wide overview. But this is a common problem for all DVRs of this type.
    • 1280x720, 6 fps, up to 2 Mbps stream - a mode for video surveillance, you can record up to 2 weeks of video on a 32 Gigabyte card.

    I read several comparative reviews of this registrar with his classmates. Authors who have tested many registrars believe that AdvoCam FD3 is one of the best in quality FullHD video. And an additional bonus for fans of a wide angle - in 720p mode, the viewing angle of this recorder is one of the largest .

    Now, let's get to practice and see for ourselves. I prepared several videos with different shooting conditions: sunny day, cloudy day, late evening, etc. You can also compare picture quality in 720p and 1080p modes. The sound is left only in clips 1-2. Turn on HD in settings .

    1080p sport mode. The roller of the highest quality possible under good shooting conditions: slow motion on smooth asphalt on a sunny day.

    Other examples of videos under the cut
    1. 1080p sport mode. Everything is the same as in (1), but the speed is 60-70 km / h. Freeze frames allow you to easily distinguish the numbers of all vehicles on the sidelines.
    2. 1080p sport mode. Cloudy evening, rain. At first, a fast ride - it is clear that the rooms are blurry due to noise and poor lighting. When you slow down, the numbers become clearly distinguishable. However, I got the feeling that if there is dirt or drops on the glass, the lens focuses on them instead of the cars in front. In any case, it is better to keep the glass clean :)
    3. 1080p sport mode. Late evening. In fact, the lighting is darker than the recorder shows. Apparently, auto exposure lifts up brightness. The noise in the picture is clearly visible. The number of the car traveling in the adjacent lane is blurred because of this.
    4. 1080p, sport mode is disabled (bitrate is 2 times lower). The passage of the tunnel against the sun. You can see how autoexposure works. In my opinion, it does not work very quickly. But the shooting conditions are very inhumane.
    5. 1080p, sport mode is disabled (I honestly don’t quite understand if it gives the best picture or not). Riding strictly against the sun in the morning. Strong underexposure - not distinguish between numbers or even car models. The eye, however, also hardly sees them in such a bright sun.
    6. 1080p, sport mode is disabled. Bright, low sun in the back. Noticeable re-exposure - car numbers are overexposed and almost invisible. I think that this is a common problem for all such cameras.
    7. 720p, a very fast ride. Just for an example - to use this mode is almost impossible. The picture quality is unsatisfactory, solid squares, coding artifacts. But the viewing angle is wide.
    8. 720p, slow riding. Here the situation is better, the traffic situation is quite fixed. If it is not really necessary to distinguish numbers, then it is quite possible to use this mode in a city where the speeds are low and the viewing angle is critical during accidents due to heavy traffic.



    The AdvoCam channel on YouTube contains many high-quality reviews and examples of videos shot by their devices in different modes.

    Additional remark about quality. When shooting moving objects, it is very important that the camera does not shake. Trembling leads to a significant deterioration in the quality of small parts and, in particular, greatly interferes with distinguishing between license plate numbers on still images. When downloading videos, Youtube determines that the video is not stable and suggests fixing it. But, in my opinion, software correction does not help much. I think that it’s more important to firmly fix the DVR on the glass. I heard that for this, someone pours glue on the movable mounts or even makes an additional hard stop - with one end it rests against the recorder, and with the other, for example, on the ceiling of the car. I have not tried it myself, but judging by the reviews, this helps. It is unclear, however, how to avoid shaking when driving on a bad road. After all, if you don’t fix the recorder, it will shake along with the car body.shot from a car with a Canon HV20 camera with an optical stabilizer - and even there, a jitter is noticeable.

    And I also consider it important to show a few still pictures in different modes. Unfortunately, habrastorage does not allow to download full-size pictures.

    Well visible rooms in sunny weather and fast driving



    The remaining stills under the cut
    Ideal picture in sunny weather and slow driving. A



    room in a neighboring lane is normally visible in the evening under very low light.



    You can see the number of the car on the oncoming lane, the movement is not fast, about 30-40 km / h.



    Sunshine in the forehead, 720p



    Blur in cloudy weather with fast driving.



    Highlighting in the sun and excellent visibility in the shade.




    Early morning, very poor lighting, rooms not read.



    Bad picture when driving fast in 720p mode.




    No numbers visible, 720p



    Close number visible. at dusk and headlights, but blurry in a moving car.



    720p



    shooting angle 1080p shooting angle




    Photo mode

    In the photo mode, the recorder allows you to take pictures with a resolution of up to 5 megapixels (up to 8 with interpolation). Here is an example of shooting in the office. Distortion due to a very wide viewing angle.

    Sample photo



    You can take pictures only when the video is stopped, unfortunately.

    Now that we have seen the quality of FullHD recordings, we can get to know the device in more detail.

    Appearance

    As I mentioned at the beginning, the device itself is very compact and neat:



    Photos from all angles




    At the bottom there is a threaded hole for various mounts: on the right is the recording button, voice control switch, reset hole, microSD slot: on the



    left is the AV input, microphone, power switch, USB, HDMI, cord hole: the



    serial number is pasted on the top, which, as you can see , very quickly erased excessively by rigid fastening. However, the recorder case does not scratch.



    View from the screen, touch buttons:



    View from the camera




    This is how the recorder on the mount looks. Large:



    General view in the cabin:



    There is also an option for mounting on a 3M sticky platform:



    But, unfortunately, it is suitable only for smooth surfaces and it just doesn’t hold on my dashboard:



    It's funny that the manufacturers themselves offer to smear the edges of the Velcro with glue stick, which it can be washed off easily if desired.

    Other accessories I will not consider here. I was pleased with this application:



    Specifications

    • Matrix: 5 megapixels, CMOS
    • Display: 1.5 inches, color LCD
    • Video Size: 1080p (1920x1080) 30fps, mov
    • Video decoder: H.264, recording in MOV format (1080P, WVGA, CCTV)
    • File storage: 15 min segments.
    • Looping video and audio
    • Photo size: 3, 5 and 8 (interpolation) Mpix, JPEG
    • Viewing angle: up to 160 ° diagonally (110 ° horizontally) at 720p
    • Remote control: up to 5 meters
    • Charging: from USB, from a network of 220V and from the cigarette lighter
    • Battery capacity: 1400 mAh
    • Offline video recording: up to 4 hours
    • Charging time: 4 hours
    • Memory Card: microSD up to 32 GB
    • Built-in timer
    • Touch control panel
    • Voice Recording Activation Function
    • Auto exposure, auto white balance
    • Key lock function to protect against accidental clicks
    • Remote control, range up to 5m.
    • Connectors: microSD, AV-out, mini-USB, HDMI
    • Dimensions: 85 x 50 x 23 mm
    • Weight: 81g
    • Operating temperature: –20 ° C - + 50 °


    Operational notes

    I will not for a long time and boring describe the process of installation and work with the registrar. I will tell you better about the comments that arose during its use.

    Pros .

    1. The most important thing is the video quality, in my opinion, very decent. Another would be to increase the viewing angle for FullHD mode. But this will require a completely different, significantly more expensive optics.
    2. With the gluing of the rollers everything is in order - I carefully checked using the clock in the frame. At frequencies of 30 and 60 frames per second, it can be seen that when moving to the next file, exactly 30 and 60 frames fit into a torn second, nothing is lost. By the way, for information - the loss of even one or two frames is very undesirable: at a speed of 100 km / h and 30 frames per second, 1 frame is about 1 meter of path.
    3. The remote control greatly simplifies driving. It has buttons to start and stop video recording and a button for taking photographs. The only remark is that it is impossible to take a photo without stopping the video with a single click of a button.
    4. The swivel mount allows, without unscrewing anything, it is easy to turn the recorder in any direction, for example, towards the traffic police inspector. Moreover, it is quite tough, so the recorder does not hang out. I don’t know yet whether it’s loose during operation.
    5. The screen, although small, is of very good quality, bright and clear.
    6. Excellent equipment, many additional accessories.


    Remarks and cons.

    Cons is often a subjective thing, so I would call them, rather, comments. I had two main points.

    Firstly, the lack of GPS and G-sensor at a rather high price. But there is an AdvoCam-FD4 Profi-GPS model - for the same price. She does not have such a rich configuration and scope. But if the video quality is not inferior to FD3, then it can be considered as an alternative for motorists.

    And, secondly, the mediocre quality of night shooting, there is no night illumination.

    Many also do not like the inability to charge with non-native charging while recording. I don’t know why they did this, but the fact is verified - it does not work. Third-party charges require a little soldering.

    The remaining comments are less significant. About them below.

    1. About peeling off a sticky platform, I have already mentioned. Who, finally, will make a universal durable holder for all sorts of heavy gadgets?
    2. The serial number on the case is quickly erased during operation. It is not clear why the recorder is so tightly inserted into the holder, if there is a mounting bolt.
    3. The recorder does not know how to start recording when the engine starts. I did not try to start by sound, but they say that it does not always work. Therefore, you have to enable recording with the button.
    4. Quite inconveniently, file protection from erasure is enabled through the menu item. It would be better if a hardware button was used instead of not really needed voice control.
    5. The duration of the roller is not adjustable.
    6. The “silent” setting is disabled after a power cycle. According to the manufacturer, this is a feature, because recording without sound is needed in rare cases, and you can forget to turn it on later.
    7. In my opinion, the sensitivity of the microphone is lifted - in the absence of conversations in the cabin hisses rather loudly. However, the conversation itself is heard well, without noise
    8. Touch buttons in any automotive technology, in my opinion, are evil.
    9. The connectors are not covered with rubber pads, so using a recorder for all sorts of extreme sports is problematic. Unless in the hermetic box.
    10. Judging by the reviews, if the recorder warmed up in the sun, then the first few minutes the video quality may deteriorate. As I understand it, it is a matter of heating the CCD and the appearance of noise. Air conditioning solves the problem.


    Conclusions The

    DVR turned out to be very worthy. Of course, there is something to work on, but judging by the communication on the site, we are ready to work and improve. The registrar performs his main task perfectly. The choice, of course, is my review, I hope it helps to make it more conscious. Compare, choose. Good luck on the road!

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