INTRODUCTION

   Have any of you ever wondered what kind of mini cams are used in all those "car accident" video clips uploaded in YouTube? Well i don't know whether or not people use such devices in your countries but they certainly don't in mine (at least not up until this day) so i took it upon myself to find as much as i could for the so called car dashboard cameras. You see i have been watching such clips for many years now (especially ones with accidents caused by extreme weather conditions) but it never occurred to me that there are many companies out there that only focus in the design, development and manufacture of such dashboard cameras. One of those companies and perhaps the most well-known in the market is Pittasoft and today we will be taking a look at their latest BlackVue DR550GW-2CH dual-cam Wi-Fi compatible model.

   Pittasoft Co., Ltd. is a venture company that manufactures and sells vehicle video recorders and related software. Since the establishment of our business on 2nd of July, 2007, we have been investing heavily in product development. As a result of our efforts, we were able to release BlackVue DR300, BlackVue DR350, BlackVue DR400G-HD, Power Magic, Power Magic Pro of Vehicle Video Recorder in the domestic and overseas. We do our best to provide a customer with best quality and reliability based on advanced technology and we are preparing thoroughly to grow into a global company in the vehicle drive recorder market.

   Although in the market currently one can find countless dashboard camera models from a wide range of manufacturers the BlackVue DR550GW-2CH has 4 very distinguishing features that set it apart from the competition including Full HD 1080p@30fps recording, Wi-Fi support for live feed to compatible android/iOS devices, Built-In GPS to track your cars movement at all times and a secondary HD 720p camera which you can mount at the rear car window to also record everything that's happening behind you. It goes without saying that having already used quite a few action cameras nobody here expects perfection from such a tiny dashboard camera but thanks to the very good SONY Exmor 2.4MP CMOS Pittasoft decided to use this should be a very interesting device. Nothing however speaks louder than plenty product pictures and video clips while on the move so let’s see what the DR550GW-2CH is truly capable off.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The product gets shipped inside a white box with two clear plastic windows at the front from where you can see both the front and rear cameras.

On the right side we see the device serial number, microSD card bundled in the box and the country of manufacture.

At the rear Pittasoft has placed their contact details and the specifications of the device in 6 languages.

Inside the box Pittasoft has placed the front and rear cameras, coaxial cable (connects both cameras), car lighter power cable, user's manual, microSD card/reader, 16GB microSD card, 8 cable clips and 2 pieces of adhesive tape.

THE BLACKVUE DR550GW-2CH

Both the front and rear cameras follow the same cylindrical design but the rear one is half the size of the front. To be more specific the front camera measures 118.5mm in length and 36mm in diameter while the rear measures 67.4mm in length and 27.6mm in diameter.

The 2.4MP Exmor CMOS sensor by SONY has an angle of 137 degrees and is capable of 1080p Full HD recording at 30 frames per second.

At the rear of the front camera we see the recording and GPS activity LEDs right next to the speaker.

On the right side of the camera there's a Wi-Fi activity LED and an audio on/off recording motion sensor (just swap your finger there and it will turn audio recording on/off).

Moving on the left side we find the coaxial port used to connect both cameras, the DC in port and the Wi-Fi on/off button.

The microSD card slot (and the bundled microSD Class 10 card) is placed beneath the protective cap.

Pittasoft uses permanent adhesive tape to secure the front camera onto your car (luckily it's not permanent you can remove it if for example you make a mistake when positioning it).

Fortunately the camera is not connected with the mount so you can remove the main body by pushing the lock button.

The 1MP rear camera uses lens capable of 720p HD recording at 30 frames per second and 139 degrees angle but we don't have any more details on it.

This time over the camera only has a coaxial port on the right side and an activity/power LED on the left side.

The mount of the rear camera also uses adhesive tape but it doesn't have a lock button so you can just remove the main body just by pulling it.

USING THE BLACKVUE DR550GW-2CH

As always i recommend checking the official support page for any firmware/software updates since these correct bugs and also improve the image quality of both cameras.

To install the firmware you just need to plug the microSD card into your computer either via a card reader or via the bundled mini USB card reader. The procedure will take a few minutes and after that all you have to do is place the microSD card back to the DR550GW-2CH (the camera firmware will self-update once you turn it on).

The DR550GW-2CH can also be used to keep an eye on your car even when you're not driving it but to do so you need an optional accessory by Pittasoft called Power Magic Pro.

This device will keep sending power to the camera until it feels that your battery is starting to get weaker or until the time you set is over. Installation is very easy but unless you use it for a few hours like we did to test the device i strongly recommend going to a certified car mechanic to install it.

The best place to mount the DR550GW-2CH is as high up as possible at the front as seen above.

Unfortunately if you happen to own a convertible like i do you will have a hard time mounting the rear camera. It can be done on the windscreen but then you have to route the cable in plain site and that is neither easy nor will it look that good (i installed the rear cam temporarily just to finish testing).

In order to complete installation you will need to install the BlackVue Android/iOS app in your smartphone/tablet (from the Play Store/Apple Store).

After enabling Wi-Fi and connecting both devices you can see what both cameras see and you can also make several changes in their configuration (brightness levels, recording modes, recording time and more).

To check what both cameras have recorded you will need to remove the microSD card and mount it on your computer with the bundled card reader (after you have installed the BlackVue program). One of the things you may not like (same as i) is that the DR550GW-2CH records for a maximum of 3 minutes so inside just 1 hour you will have 20 recordings of the front camera and 20 recordings of the rear camera.Two things that i liked with the BlackVue program is that you can zoom in wherever you place the cursor just by using the center wheel (above picture) and that you track your movements via the Built-In GPS and Google Maps.

From the settings menu you can set your time zone, the video resolution, brightness and adjust the recording via the 4 available modes (Normal Recording/Manual Recording/Event Recording/Parking Recording). Even so however 3 minutes for each file is way too short for my taste.

The settings menu also allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the G-Sensor (3 axis acceleration sensor that provides event based recording based on sudden acceleration, braking and spinning), enable/disable Wi-Fi, set the user name and password, enable/disable the activity LEDs and set the available voice alarms and their volume.

AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITY

Naturally for our tests i used my car both in day and night conditions with very impressive results (especially at night although the rear camera couldn't record almost at all with such low light levels so we didn't use that clip). We did unfortunately disable the microphone during most of our day trials (i placed my hand near the sensor without paying much attention) but to get an idea on how good the microphone really is (very good actually) we placed a 3rd day clip with it turned on (it's also enabled in the night clip). As usual we chose to upload all 4 clips to our server and not YouTube to preserve the exact same quality so to download the clips directly just click on the above images (click and save as).

CONCLUSION

   After testing the BlackVue DR550GW-2CH for over a month right next to several other action and dashboard cameras i can say with certainty that the front Full HD 1080@30fps camera comes ontop most (if not all) since it manages to hit the sweet spot between color accuracy and image sharpness (although we did have brightness turned up a bit much in our tests). It's by no means perfect but with the current level of technology manufacturers just can't use such tiny sensors/lens that can also offer the level of image quality and smoothness we'd all wish for at least not at a reasonable cost (but it seems that we are getting there a lot faster than i thought). One small drawback is the lack of a rear LCD screen (just like with most dashboard cameras) which can help you when setting up the correct angle for the camera but since i don't know of a single person without an android/iOS compatible smartphone i think that can be overlooked especially since much larger screens making things a lot easier. Another great feature is the built-in GPS which not only keeps track of where you've been but it also displays the speed you had at the time. The only drawback we found was regarding the rear camera which could be a lot better and although that would probably mean a higher price tag still we'd like to have that option. The fact that the DR550GW-2CH is not really convertible-friendly is another tiny issue but since Pittasoft also has a single camera model available (DR500GW-HD) it doesn't really matter much.

   The BlackVue DR550GW-2CH is a dual camera solution and so as expected it costs quite a bit and more specifically USD409.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 365Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Of course if you don't have a convertible (or if you do and you don't mind having a cable in plain view) and you'd like to record what's happening behind your car then the DR550GW-2CH is the best possible choice currently otherwise i suggest taking a look at the BlackVue DR500GW-HD model instead. Regardless of that however the BlackVue DR550GW-2CH is a very innovative product with many impressive features and image quality that can't be surpassed easily so it goes without saying that we give it our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design
- Size
- Image Quality (Sharpness/Color Reproduction)
- Audio Quality
- Dual Camera Solution
- Built-In Wi-Fi/GPS/G-Sensor
- Range Of Motion (Tilt)
- Motion Sensor On/Off Audio Recording
- Software (PC/Android/iOS)
- Power Magic Pro (Car Surveillance)

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Rear Camera IQ
- Not Convertible-Friendly