Tax-Free* | 18-Month Warranty | 30 Day Returns Guaranteed.
Customer Review
Art Patamalai
5.0
Works all the time in Tesla Model 3Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2019
I've always wanted to pick up a dash camera to capture that instance something goes wrong. The most important thing to me is that it is RECORDING. The Vantrue was a breeze to setup and is always running when I want it on. I've used it in two vehicles: Acura RDX and Tesla Model 3.Acura RDX:The setup was simple. Charge two hours before using it (I think this just gives it some running power for setup and power up/power down). Put in memory card, mount it in the car, plug it into power. Boom it comes on and it’s recording, no need to do anything else. Drove around enjoying that the display facing me gave me confirmation of what was recording and that it was on and functioning. After parking, the camera turns itself off within like 10 seconds of powering the car off. After getting back in the car and starting it, camera powers on and starts recording.Tesla Model 3:Why would I put this in a car that has built in dash cam recording and even Sentry mode (recording when parked)? Similar to the RDX everything works just fine. However, those who own Model 3s know we don't really "turn off" our cars. We get out of the car and walk away while the car is still powered on. I assumed that when the car locks and powers off the camera would do the same. NOPE, the car continues to power the camera so you have CONTINUOUS recording which is great to find those people who pull up and try to smash our small windows.Video Quality:The quality is great, and it’s higher quality than the Tesla recordings. Also, the tesla recording give the video an odd "hue" to it. With the Vantrue I read complaints that you can't catch people’s license plates etc etc. First, there is no camera that auto focuses on license plates so yes if a car zooms by you it’s no different than a human not being able to read it let alone if you had your iphone out it wouldn't record it and you wouldn't have time to tap "focus". The quality is good and you can get license plates if they are in front of you "long enough" where a human would normally need to focus their eyes etc. Second, with the 1440p camera option you can "enhance" photos nowadays, so I find it hard to believe that if you needed to you wouldn't be able to extract the plate.Design:I really really like the suction cup; the turn to lock is nifty. Vantrue paid attention to detail when they put a power plug on the suction cup mount so that it would be streamline. Additionally, there is a USB charger on the power plug base so you don't lose the ability to charge phones. In fact you gain a cigarette lighter to USB converter.I'll finish with my fixation on it recording. I grabbed video from the Vantrue and Tesla to compare them side by side. Guess what, the Tesla didn't record video. When the Tesla memory is full it stops RECORDING. So if you get in an accident you won't have the recording and there is no notification to tell you it's full. Of course Tesla will fix this, eventually. Lastly, I was driving my Tesla down the freeway and hit a hard hat in the carppool lane, it was unavoidable. But because I didn't know how to operate the "record" function on the Tesla I never got the video proof from the car. This is why Vantrue has great value. It just works.I can upload photos and videos if I find that people find my post useful to compare Tesla and Vantrue.I'll probably pick up another one so I have one in both cars.This is a must if you're a ride share driver. The interior camera is superb with its wide lens. For those who simply want to record front only, you can easily disable the in-car camera.
