Datakam: Russians do not save on iron!
Our colleagues on the AdvoCam blog reminded consumers that the seemingly most truthful information from the manufacturer could be false. And to be used with the banal purpose of attracting the attention of the buyer to their products without spending a dime. For example, you can always loudly declare that you use only metal lens holders in your registrars, and why should you blame competitors who use plastic in the manufacture of holders. It turns out a favorable position - you do not need to develop and spend money on expensive components, but the brand models immediately “stick” to these flagships.
We perfectly understand our colleagues in the market - AdvoCam operates in the middle price segment and cannot afford to waste too much on expensive components. Their niche is the so-called “good devices for their price”, “optimal functionality-price-quality ratio”. Therefore, sometimes you have to make difficult compromises. And if on the same cameras with plastic holders at AdvoCam, the percentage of calls to the service center “tends to zero” (quote from the CEO of AdvoCam) - the brand, of course, obviously does not make sense to add expenses to a completely metal holder.
However, we at Datakama are far from such an approach of “eternal compromises” and have never really saved anything on anything. This can be seen even in our packaging, which is very different from the cheap cardboard boxes of recorders of other brands.
One of the principles of our approaches to the development and production directly states: "It is forbidden to save on components and reduce the cost of materials in manufacturing." We are not interested in devices in relation to which we can talk about a favorable ratio of price and functionality. We always take the best that is in the industry of components for registrars and use in our models. Yes, our customers are not those who are looking for compromises, but those who are used to the very, very best that can be found on sale.
Our customers will never boast of achievements in the style of "I have almost the same thing, only half the price." The iPhone 6s has a dual-core processor for 60,000 rubles, while the Android-smartphone for 6,000 rubles has an 8-core “stone”! Does this mean that the users of the next Chinese super-phone got something comparable to the iPhone? Not at all. Note, we are not shy to call our models “iPhone among registrars” to emphasize the exclusivity, premium devices. And on the main page of the datakam.ru website we have been openly declaring for several months: “Yes, we design and manufacture, perhaps, the best registrars in the world.”
It is interesting that our specialists faced the problem of plastic holders two years ago, when in November 2013 the very first batch of the flagship Datakam G5 was released. We also initially used plastic and in the first batch of 10 thousand registrars received exactly five complaints about the defocusing of the lens. What, for a second, means miserable 0.05%! Just an indicator that fits perfectly with the concept of “tends to zero” voiced by Lawyers.
Datakam G5 in 2013, from the very first batch with a plastic lens holder
The only question is that the brand constrained by economy is forced to “swallow” the probability of such a marriage and, frankly, ignore its occurrence. It is easier to repair five defective registrars out of every thousand than to make constructive improvements that may affect the final price. Even slightly. So, the use of a metal holder in each (!) Instance makes the model more expensive by 100-200 rubles. But a plus to the price is a minus of the brand’s revenue. The arithmetic is simple - multiply these 100-200 rubles by thousands of registrars sold. And compare with the costs that AdvoCam will incur to repair five cameras with a damaged holder and lost focusing of the lens. The choice from the point of view of the brand focused on the mass market is obvious - we leave everything as it is.
We have a different approach. Our clients are people who value nerves and time much more than small, in general, money. And if for 100-200 rubles it is possible to reduce the probability of getting problems at least by 0.05%, we will make this change. Having received data that even 0.05% of lens defects was detected in our models, we immediately decided to install exclusively metal holders in the Datakam registrars and still hold this position.
2015 Datakam G5 metal holder
Yes, this is an additional 100-200 rubles to the price. But we are ready to put this money into the device in order to get an uncompromising device, with maximum protection against all possible problems on all fronts. It’s unacceptable for us to avert our eyes and say that the holders made of plastic were left behind because “well, there is a tiny amount of calls to the service!” Saving 200 rubles on the device - sorry, this is not for us, for us it is primarily the highest quality product, maximizing the benefits and quality. No compromises! No “optimal” ratios!
Metal Lens Mount - In-house Datacam Design
Note, in our case, there is no need to prove or disprove anything. Since the beginning of the year, Datakam has already held three events to fully analyze and compare its models with popular registrars of the main competitors ( first , second , third ). Anyone present could see that the lens holders in our models are made exclusively of metal. And any Datakam G5 owner will see the same thing if he disassembles his registrar.
Moreover, we act with respect to the consumer much more honestly than many manufacturers of expensive registrars. We bend our fingers and count the participants in our analysis in which we found plastic holders: BlackVue DR650GW-1CH (about 15,000 rubles), BlackVue DR600GW-HD (about 15,000 rubles), Street Storm CVR-A7810-G PRO (13,900 rubles) , Garmin Dash Cam 20 (15 700 rubles). We believe that if you take apart other registrars more expensive 13-15 thousand rubles, for sure we will see the dominance of plastic holders.
Datakam G5 metal holder (far right) and plastic competitors
Well, finally, we advise our colleagues to continue to be more attentive to the information that they publicly disseminate on the Internet. And we hope that other premium brands, just like we will not want to save money and will only use the best components in their flagship devices. And do not greed for a small amount of metal for consumers of their registrars.
PS Despite the fact that in the current generation of the Datakam G5 we use metal holders, in the future we are considering the transition to plastic. How so, you ask? AdvoCam wrote absolutely true - plastic is different. About six months ago, the market had the opportunity to manufacture lens holders from special plastic with a low coefficient of expansion. That is, in the end, in terms of its properties and resistance to temperature extremes, such a holder will not be inferior to the metal counterpart. However, for brands of the average hand it still does not matter, since the “right” plastic is much more expensive than what is used in the bulk of registrars. And so the “average peasants” had, have and will have problems with defocusing the lenses over time in some of the devices released. We won’t allow such problems even if we switch to plastic. This I declare to you responsibly, gentlemen readers!
Sincerely, Vladislav Mehantsev, Technical Director of the Russian Research and Production Association "Design Bureau Datakam".
We perfectly understand our colleagues in the market - AdvoCam operates in the middle price segment and cannot afford to waste too much on expensive components. Their niche is the so-called “good devices for their price”, “optimal functionality-price-quality ratio”. Therefore, sometimes you have to make difficult compromises. And if on the same cameras with plastic holders at AdvoCam, the percentage of calls to the service center “tends to zero” (quote from the CEO of AdvoCam) - the brand, of course, obviously does not make sense to add expenses to a completely metal holder.
However, we at Datakama are far from such an approach of “eternal compromises” and have never really saved anything on anything. This can be seen even in our packaging, which is very different from the cheap cardboard boxes of recorders of other brands.
One of the principles of our approaches to the development and production directly states: "It is forbidden to save on components and reduce the cost of materials in manufacturing." We are not interested in devices in relation to which we can talk about a favorable ratio of price and functionality. We always take the best that is in the industry of components for registrars and use in our models. Yes, our customers are not those who are looking for compromises, but those who are used to the very, very best that can be found on sale.
Our customers will never boast of achievements in the style of "I have almost the same thing, only half the price." The iPhone 6s has a dual-core processor for 60,000 rubles, while the Android-smartphone for 6,000 rubles has an 8-core “stone”! Does this mean that the users of the next Chinese super-phone got something comparable to the iPhone? Not at all. Note, we are not shy to call our models “iPhone among registrars” to emphasize the exclusivity, premium devices. And on the main page of the datakam.ru website we have been openly declaring for several months: “Yes, we design and manufacture, perhaps, the best registrars in the world.”
It is interesting that our specialists faced the problem of plastic holders two years ago, when in November 2013 the very first batch of the flagship Datakam G5 was released. We also initially used plastic and in the first batch of 10 thousand registrars received exactly five complaints about the defocusing of the lens. What, for a second, means miserable 0.05%! Just an indicator that fits perfectly with the concept of “tends to zero” voiced by Lawyers.
Datakam G5 in 2013, from the very first batch with a plastic lens holder
The only question is that the brand constrained by economy is forced to “swallow” the probability of such a marriage and, frankly, ignore its occurrence. It is easier to repair five defective registrars out of every thousand than to make constructive improvements that may affect the final price. Even slightly. So, the use of a metal holder in each (!) Instance makes the model more expensive by 100-200 rubles. But a plus to the price is a minus of the brand’s revenue. The arithmetic is simple - multiply these 100-200 rubles by thousands of registrars sold. And compare with the costs that AdvoCam will incur to repair five cameras with a damaged holder and lost focusing of the lens. The choice from the point of view of the brand focused on the mass market is obvious - we leave everything as it is.
We have a different approach. Our clients are people who value nerves and time much more than small, in general, money. And if for 100-200 rubles it is possible to reduce the probability of getting problems at least by 0.05%, we will make this change. Having received data that even 0.05% of lens defects was detected in our models, we immediately decided to install exclusively metal holders in the Datakam registrars and still hold this position.
2015 Datakam G5 metal holder
Yes, this is an additional 100-200 rubles to the price. But we are ready to put this money into the device in order to get an uncompromising device, with maximum protection against all possible problems on all fronts. It’s unacceptable for us to avert our eyes and say that the holders made of plastic were left behind because “well, there is a tiny amount of calls to the service!” Saving 200 rubles on the device - sorry, this is not for us, for us it is primarily the highest quality product, maximizing the benefits and quality. No compromises! No “optimal” ratios!
Metal Lens Mount - In-house Datacam Design
Note, in our case, there is no need to prove or disprove anything. Since the beginning of the year, Datakam has already held three events to fully analyze and compare its models with popular registrars of the main competitors ( first , second , third ). Anyone present could see that the lens holders in our models are made exclusively of metal. And any Datakam G5 owner will see the same thing if he disassembles his registrar.
Moreover, we act with respect to the consumer much more honestly than many manufacturers of expensive registrars. We bend our fingers and count the participants in our analysis in which we found plastic holders: BlackVue DR650GW-1CH (about 15,000 rubles), BlackVue DR600GW-HD (about 15,000 rubles), Street Storm CVR-A7810-G PRO (13,900 rubles) , Garmin Dash Cam 20 (15 700 rubles). We believe that if you take apart other registrars more expensive 13-15 thousand rubles, for sure we will see the dominance of plastic holders.
Datakam G5 metal holder (far right) and plastic competitors
Well, finally, we advise our colleagues to continue to be more attentive to the information that they publicly disseminate on the Internet. And we hope that other premium brands, just like we will not want to save money and will only use the best components in their flagship devices. And do not greed for a small amount of metal for consumers of their registrars.
PS Despite the fact that in the current generation of the Datakam G5 we use metal holders, in the future we are considering the transition to plastic. How so, you ask? AdvoCam wrote absolutely true - plastic is different. About six months ago, the market had the opportunity to manufacture lens holders from special plastic with a low coefficient of expansion. That is, in the end, in terms of its properties and resistance to temperature extremes, such a holder will not be inferior to the metal counterpart. However, for brands of the average hand it still does not matter, since the “right” plastic is much more expensive than what is used in the bulk of registrars. And so the “average peasants” had, have and will have problems with defocusing the lenses over time in some of the devices released. We won’t allow such problems even if we switch to plastic. This I declare to you responsibly, gentlemen readers!
Sincerely, Vladislav Mehantsev, Technical Director of the Russian Research and Production Association "Design Bureau Datakam".