DrivePro 200 DashCam Review

I sourced a Transcend DrivePro 200 dashcam and it arrived today. Below is a short review of the product.

Firstly lets get the price out the way - R1,790+vat



On opening the box, I was nothing less than impressed with the good quality packaging. Everything was neatly packaged and well presented. A good start. The contents of the box were as follows:



- Camera
- Manual
- 3M double sided windscreen mounting bracket
- A spare 3M Double sided tape
- Cigarette lighter power plug with a nice long cable
- 16GB Transcend Micro SD card
- S-Video connector

The supplier also decided to include a Suction Windscreen mounting bracket which was very pleasing to me. I was dreading the idea of the 3M bracket as it’s all a bit too permanent for me.



I was parked waiting to fetch someone when I unpacked the device, so I read the manual which is something I wouldn’t usually do. I read that the camera is wifi compatible, and wondered what that meant. On reading further, it stated that there is an iPhone and Android app that one can download and through the wifi you can connect your device to the DrivePro 200 and configure and/or watch the recorded videos. Not sure if I will ever use this feature, but it was quite cool. Who knows, I may find a use for it.

On the settings menu there was a lot to choose from. I am not here to give a full comprehensive review. This camera has a nice list of settings, and covers all areas. The G-sensor feature is where the device makes an emergency recording if it senses any sort of impact or big change in G-Force. I found this to be too sensitive and taking a corner slightly quicker than Captain Slow and it beeps EMERGENCY RECORDING. I will probably disable this feature.

An Emergency Recording is one that is saved into a different folder which is secure and the files contained within are not deleted as the recordings loop. You can also activate this Emergency Recording feature manually by pressing the red Emergency button on the side of the device.

On to the camera quality. This particular camera is capable of two video modes, 1080p @ 30fps and 720p @ 30fps. The quality is awesome. I was very impressed. See video below.(Ensure you select HD on YouTube otherwise you are not going to see good quality. I will take night time footage and post tomorrow).





If anyone wants the original video I can make it available for download. It’s about 30MB. A 3 minute recording on 1080p will be about 360MB.

The lens has many advanced features of camera much more expensive.

Another thing I liked, which some might not, is the camera is not battery powered. It is capacitor based, which means it has to be constantly powered by the provided cigarette lighter/USB cable. The reason I went for this model is due to our climate. The battery operated models tend to overheat in the hotter climates and you end up with numerous battery problems which I couldn't be bothered with. With the cable being so long, it’s not very difficult to tuck it neatly into the corners and down to the cigarette lighter power source.

There is only one disappointing feature on this dashcam which may or may not be a deal breaker for some. The microphone and speaker are desperately under amplified. You can edit the movie and amplify the sound yourself, but out the box it’s a bit dismal. I knew this before I bought the unit, so I was not too stressed.

If I had to rate the camera out of 10, taking into consideration price and quality, I would give it an 8.5. The other reviews on the net seem to be inline with my rating.

You are welcome to pm me for further info.

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Update:
Night time footage. Now this footage is along a very dark highway with no street lights.

Remember to watch in HD and bear in mind some quality loss on the conversion from 360MB to 30MB





And a view from the outside