INTRODUCTION

   Whether you're a professional driver or just an everyday driver installing a dash camera to your car might just be the only way for you to avoid all those insurance scammers (scam artists as we like to call them), save time and money in the case of an accident and in some countries even get a substantial discount from your car insurance package. Of course car dash cameras are not new since they've existed pretty much as long as action cameras so right now you can even find models that sport up to 4k resolution and with quite useful extras such as built-in WiFi and GPS. SJCAM may be one of the oldest action camera manufacturers in the world but strangely enough although there's already a large number of companies with car dash cameras in their product lines they just recently decided to get onboard with their very own model called the SJDASH which we've been using for over 2 weeks now.

   SJCAM is a leader in the Action Camera market because SJCAM constantly evolves to satisfy market demands. Assembling a camera is simple. The best quality components and attention to detail are essential to make a quality action camera. Priding ourselves not only on creating awesome action cams, but also for fully supporting them. SJCAM stays full committed to after-sales support. SJCAM also releases new firmware frequently upgrading SJCAM features.

   For the SJDASH Car Dashboard Video Camera the manufacturer decided to pair the NTK96658 A7-10 chipset (fully supports DSP WDR, Gravity Sensor, Motion Detection and Loop Recording) with SONY's Exmor IMX323 2.12MP (Megapixel) CMOS image sensor which supports up to Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) recording at 30fps (also supports HD 720p recording at 60fps but unfortunately SJCAM doesn't give you that option with the SJDASH, not up until now anyways) and 140 degrees wide angle lens with an aperture of F2.0. The SJDASH also features an enclosure made out of ABS and aluminum, WiFi (802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz) connectivity has a rather large 3 inch rear LCD screen with touch controls, has its menus translated in 17 different languages and supports microSD cards up to 64GB in capacity. So does the brand new SJDASH Car Dashboard Video Camera have what it takes to compete in this already overcrowded market? Let's find out.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The SJDASH Car Dashboard Video Camera gets shipped inside a white box that has the company name at the front right over a large product picture.

Listed on the left side are the bundle contents and a 2D barcode which you can use to see if your product is genuine.

You can also download the SJDASH app for your iOS (v8.0 and above) or Android (v4.11 and above) device by scanning the two 2D barcodes placed on the right side.

The product specifications are placed at the rear of the box in 4 languages.

The SJDASH camera is placed inside a small formed piece of cardboard while its bundle is placed right beneath it inside two small boxes.

Inside the box you will find the SJDASH camera, suction cup dash mount, USB to micro USB cable, car lighter USB adapter, 3 SJCAM stickers, cleaning cloth and the user manual.

THE SJDASH

The 70g heavy ABS/Aluminum body of the SJDASH Car Dashboard Video Camera measures 84.5mm in length, 52mm in height and 14mm in thickness/width (31.5mm with the lens).

The camera microphone is placed at the front right beneath the SJCAM logo.

SJCAM decided to go with wide angle lens for the SJDASH model (although we've seen even wider).

The microSD card slot is placed on the right side of the camera while on the left we find the power on/off button (the micro USB power port is placed at the top).

Unfortunately only the 4 dots placed beneath the 3 inch LCD screen are touch operated (i was hoping that the LCD was).

To have a better idea about the size of the SJDASH we placed it right next to the SJ6 Legend again by SJCAM and the V8S by EKEN (two models we're currently testing as well).

LCD MENU

Via the LCD screen you can access two tabs, playback (in which you can playback recorded clips) and setup.

The setup option has several pages the first of which allows you to adjust loop recording (between 3, 5 and 10 minutes), WDR (on by default) and motion detection (off by default).

You can set the time stamp, gravity sensing (low at default) and language from the second page.

I was very impressed to see that SJCAM supports 22 languages (they state 17 in the features page but there are clearly 22 to choose from).

From the third page you can adjust the date and time, turn the keypad tone on/off (on by default) and you can also choose the time before the screensaver feature kicks in (between 30 seconds, 1 minute and 3 minutes).

Next are the WiFi SSID, password and License (i don't know what the empty license tab is for however).

Via the final page you can format the microSD card, reset the camera to its default settings and check the firmware version.

SJCAM CAR DVR APP

The SJCAM app allows you to check your recordings and adjust the settings of the SJDASH without using the rear LCD screen.

Of course it also gives you a live feed of what the camera is recording.

You can also check for firmware updates although at the time of this review there were no new ones.

AUDIO & VIDEO QUALITY

As always we chose not to use YouTube to place our recordings since we want all of you to see exactly what you will when using this dash camera (unfortunately that's why the clips are 10-15 seconds long) so to download the above clips you just need to left click with your mouse or right click and use the save as command. Unfortunately you only have Full HD 1080p recording at 30fps with the SJDASH and with a bitrate that sits between 14400kbps and 16028kbps a number which although certainly not bad is clearly not as high as some other models.

CONCLUSION

   The SJDASH arrived at the same time as the SJ6 Legend but since we decided on testing it first this is our very first “experience” with a product made by SJCAM. Unfortunately after almost two weeks of testing the SJDASH left us with a rather “neutral” impression. First of all consumers should have the ability to choose between 1080p@30fps and 720p@60fps since the Exmor CMOS sensor fully supports it. Granted most people will still go for 1080p but I know some people who’d choose 720p solely because of its higher fps. Also being able to adjust the bitrate would be very useful to people who may want the best possible image/video quality. Again SJCAM may have chosen this path to reduce potential overheating issues (like some other dash cameras) but if there’s no such issue we believe people should be able to maximize image quality. And then we have the lack of a built-in GPS receiver a feature which we feel every dash camera in the market should have (we are talking about something designed for cars after all). The good news is that the 3 inch LCD screen looks great, its menu is quite thorough, the Android / iOS App works well and the touch controls are also quite sensitive and easy to use (still we’d like a touch screen instead of 4 small touch buttons).

  Pricing is where the SJDASH wins many points since currently you can find it for just USD79.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 64Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). At the end of the day since there are numerous dash camera models at around the same price point the SJDASH may not really stand out but still we do feel that people on a tight budget should give it a shot.

PROS

- Build Quality (ABS / Aluminum Enclosure)
- 3 inch LCD Screen
- Touch Controls
- Built In Gravity & Motion Sensors
- LCD Menu In 22 Languages
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Up to 1080p30 Only
- No Image / Video Quality Settings
- No GPS Included