INTRODUCTION

   How many times have you found yourself in or in front of a car accident and you just wished you had the means to prove that you were not the one responsible? Well i don't know about you all but this has happened to me once and although in my case i saw the person responsible for my accident he fled the scene almost immediately afterwards and got lost in traffic so in the end i just had no way of tracking him down to get his insurance information (although i really doubt he had any). Of course there are many other reasons for a person to own a good car camera/camcorder but even so i don't even know a single person who does own one. On the other hand i know quite a few who chose to go with action cameras for more flexibility and although i can understand their choice (not many can afford to have two such cameras) still dedicated car models come packing certain features you will need a lot more when inside your car. Rollei has been in the camera business for many decades and after the very good S-50 Wi-Fi Nitro Circus Live Limited Edition Action Camera which we reviewed a while back it was just a matter of time before we put their latest CarDVR-110 Full HD GPS Car Camera to the test.

   Rollei’s history goes back to the year 1920 and a workshop in Braunschweig. With the launch of the twin-lens Rolleiflex, a landmark film camera, Rollei quickly established a global reputation for precision engineering. A cult brand, it gave rise to its very own photo style in the 1950s and ’60s. In 2007 Hamburg-based RCP-Technik GmbH acquired the European rights to Rollei and since then has marketed Rollei consumer products with growing success. Rollei products are currently sold in more than 20 European countries. The Rollei product range features digital cameras, camcorders, action camcorders, digital picture frames, slide scanners, professional tripods as well as camera and iPhone accessories. Excellent service is assured for all Rollei products with the all-inclusive package for 24 months. If a defect is found within this time, the product can be returned and a new one received within eight days.

   As clearly stated by the description the CarDVR-110 by Rollei is not your average car camera since it packs a sensor capable of taking 3MP stills (2048x1536 pixels) and record video at either HD 720p (1280x720 pixels) or Full HD 1080p (1920x1080 pixels) resolutions at 30 fps. It also comes ready with a 2.4" color LCD screen at the rear (480x234 pixels) that allows you to clearly see what you're shooting (can also be used to playback recordings), an internal lithium-ion polymer rechargeable battery (470mAh), collision detection sensor for recording only when a collision is registered, built-in speaker and a built-in GPS that can keep track of both where you've been and how fast you were going at all times. So as you can see the CarDVR-110 may not be waterproof and it doesn't feature Wi-Fi connectivity like most action cameras but it does offer features that can be very beneficial to drivers as you will see later on in this review.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The device arrived inside a small box with 3 product pictures at the front right next to the main product features.

Rollei has placed the specifications list on both sides of the box in German and English.

All the available languages supported by the CarDVR-110 are listed at the bottom (16 in total).

The CarDVR-110 is placed inside a piece of cardboard with the rest of the bundle right beneath it.

Along with the CarDVR-110 you will also get a tiny remote control, suction cup mount, 12/24v car adapter, quickstart guide, warranty paper, piece of paper with the company FB page and finally a CD with the user's manual and SuperCar video software.

THE CARDVR-110

With the bundled remote control you can navigate the various menus, start/stop recording and take snapshots. Size-wise it's really tiny since it measures 76mm in length, 39mm in width and 6mm in height with a weight of 14g.

The CarDVR-110 itself features a nice polished/glossy hard plastic exterior measuring 70mm in height, 63mm in width and 31.3mm in length with a weight of 92g.

To showcase the size of the CarDVR-110 we placed it right next to the BlackVue Wi-Fi DR550GW-2CH Car Dashcam.

For the CarDVR-110 Rollei has used Wide-angle auto-focus lens with fixed focal length (3.0mm) for clear stills and videos. Another thing we really liked with the CarDVR-110 is that the lens is placed further inside so there's very little chance of damaging them.

On the left side of the device we see the HDMI v1.3 out and the mini-USB port used for charging and the transfer of files.

Moving on the opposite side we see the on/off button and the microSD slot.

The 2.4" TFT display with the navigation buttons and the IR receiver are placed at the rear.

USING THE CARDVR-110

As always i strongly recommend heading over to the official downloads page to grab the latest firmware update (to perform that update you just need to place the FW file in the microSD card, insert it into the CarDVR-110 and select yes).

Thanks to the large 2.4" LCD display navigating through the various menus is extremely easy. The CarDVR-110 lets you check and adjust the desired resolution (720p/1080p), set the time and date, check the status of the satellite signal, set the sleep period for the LCD screen (recommended to save battery), choose the recording interval (3m/5m), enable/disable the motion triggered recording, adjust the sensitivity of the collision detection sensor, use the delay shutdown feature, enable the speed limit alert (50km to 200km in 10km segments) and you can also reset the settings to the factory/default ones.

SUPERCAR SOFTWARE

Strangely enough the SuperCar software is only available in the CD you will get so do keep that in mind. The SuperCar software is a nice little program via which you cam playback MOV files recorded by the CarDVR-110 and see not only where you had been and at what speed but it also provides information such as acceleration, coordinates and noise levels. 

AUDIO/VIDEO QUALITY

Once again to test the CarDVR-110 i used my car both in day and night conditions with relatively good results. As usual we chose to upload both 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 and then save, save as or save target as (right click).

CONCLUSION

   After thoroughly testing the CarDVR-110 for almost two weeks i can't say that we were really impressed with its image quality, at least not at first and especially not when compared to the BlackVue Wi-Fi DR550GW-2CH Car Dashcam by Pittasoft. Certainly these two models are not even close in terms of price so naturally we didn't expect the same results but that doesn't change the fact that Rollei didn't place much weight on the image stabilization of the CarDVR-110 which results to somewhat blurry images especially at night. What saves the situation a bit is the size of the unit along with the quality of materials, built-in GPS, bundled remote controller, motion/collision sensors and the rear 2.4" LCD display features that we don't really see much at least not at around the same price range and not from well established brands.

   When we received the CarDVR-110 by Rollei and started testing we thought that it would be priced at around 200Euros so when we checked the results we were somewhat disappointed. However after actually checking online we found out that the CarDVR-110 currently retails for just 139.99Euros directly from Rollei a price tag which is actually less than i could ever hope thus making it quite the bargain (unfortunately Rollei products are not available in the USA currently). Of course if you are after the best possible image quality then the CarDVR-110 is not for you, however if you're just out to purchase a good car camera with features such as a built-in GPS, 2.4" LCD display, remote control, built-in speaker and motion/collision sensors then you should really give it a shot. Overall Rollei has once again released a very good product into the market and although it's certainly not perfect it does offer a very good price/features ratio and that's why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Full HD 1080p Sensor
- Rear 2.4" Color LCD Display
- Built-In GPS
- Built-In Speaker
- Remote Control
- Motion & Collision Sensors
- HDMI v1.3 Output
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Image Quality (Also A Stabilization Issue Probably)
- Availability Outside Of The EU (Currently)