Many of us overlook dash cams for our new (or old) cars. They are like insurance; you don’t need one until you need one.
In fact, recent research has shown that nearly half of Australian drivers have experienced vehicle damage while away from their vehicle, with more than 10% unable to gather any evidence of the cause of said damage – this can be costly if you have to pay for the repairs yourself.
With this in mind, Navman has upgraded the smarts of its new MiVue dash cams with a new integrated smart parking and an Australia-first Extended Recording Mode. The new dash cam line-up includes the starter MiVue 280 Safety dash, mid-range MiVue Smart True 4K and MiVue Smart True 4K DC, and the top-of-the-range MiVue Smart True 4K Surround, which captures front, rear, and side impact-zone coverage.
Navman sent me the flagship MiVue Smart True 4K Surround to test out and after having it in my car for the past few weeks here are my thoughts.
The kit includes everything you need to install the dash cam in your vehicle and have every function work seamlessly. It even includes a compatible SD card, which is nice, since you often have to play Russian Roulette with SD cards until you find one that works with your dash cam.
The hardest part of a dash cam is finding someone trustworthy to install it. Although you can buy dash cams from brick-and-mortar stores that have recommended sellers, sometimes it is best to find businesses through word of mouth. Most installers will also have various dash cams available to purchase, along with recommendations for what suits your needs. Or you can provide your own – which is what I did.
Now installation was not cheap but if you want it done properly, you shouldn’t look at cheaping out on it. I found a guy via some fellow BYD Atto 3 owners on the Facebook community page – sounds nuts, right? But what better recommendation could you get? Someone with the same car, in the same area, had theirs installed properly.
Phanvision Dashcam Victoria in Port Melbourne installed the MiVue Smart True 4K Surround in under 45 minutes, including all the wiring hidden out of the way and the dash cam wired to operate as required, especially smart parking mode and recording after the car has been turned off. This was essential as the previous installer told me that it was not possible with the ATTO 3 – turns out he was wrong (and he was recommended by the manufacturer).
You may find yourself overwhelmed looking at all the options for the MiVue Smart True 4K Surround but your installer will help you and talk you through them all. It is pretty simple though, just do them one at a time, think about your battery life and how long you want each recording to go for.
The set-up of the device once installed in your car includes:
The front camera is installed in the centre of my windscreen and has a 2.7-inch LCD display on the rear. It is crystal clear, and I am a fan of this because my work (they pay for the lease of my ATTO 3) has insisted on a perforated company sign on the rear window, and it is extremely difficult to see through it using the rear-view mirror – plus the x-ray equipment gets in the way. For this reason, I often use it to help me see out the rear of my car (I have cut away a section of the perforated sign to give the rear camera an unobstructed view of the road behind).
The front camera records True 4K (2160P) Ultra HD video at 30 FPS using an 8-megapixel sensor. The rear camera captures True 2.5K (1440P) with WDR and features a STARVIS 2 sensor for excellent low-light performance. Additionally, the Side Impact Zone Camera—an interior-facing camera housed within the rear camera unit—records True 2.5K (1440P) video at 30 FPS.
As you can see in the video below, the image quality is great, but the big difference here is the side view offered by the interior-facing camera. It records back toward the driver from the rear, so it can capture your work gear (or golf clubs) in the car, and the wide-angle lens lets it view side-impact collisions.
Tailgating warnings
The new dashcam includes tailgate warnings, and while it is nice, I’m not sure of the true value of it – so someone is driving too closely? What are you going to do about it? Indicate with plenty of warning (as you always should), don’t brake at the last minute (as you also should). It also means you have evidence they were driving too close, should you need it if they rear-end you.
Smart safety camera alerts
Smart Safety Camera alerts encompass a lot of different alerts and features, including:
There are also alerts for basic speeding, based on the speed limit of the road you are on. This is good but I seemed to only notice it when it was wrong. Quite a few times, and in nearly always the same place, the dash cam thinks I am on a road NEXT to the one I am actually on – eg. a road next to the freeway so it starts beeping and telling me off for speeding on the freeway, when I am not.
Side impact view
This is extremely handy, especially when you are parked. It can view the sides of the car should something happen, such as a side swipe, side impact in a T-bone accident (or even just a shopping trolley).
This is great except when your boot is full (in a wagon or SUV) so the camera is blocked — this can be the case with some SUVs as well. As you can see in the video below, you can only see a small snippet of the side view due to the headrests on the rear seats.
Day and night recording
Daytime recording was immaculate, as you would expect from 4K and 2.5K cameras. Crystal-clear, high-resolution video that can capture number plates of other cars and features of nefarious folks walking past.
The night recording was good, well, as good as I have seen so far in a dash cam. Night recording is tough at the best of times but it did pretty well and was able to capture video that would show evidence in the case of an accident etc — it won’t show licence plates unless the area is well lit, but as you can see you can still see cars approaching etc.
Daytime car off
The big difference between this camera and my older one is its ability to record while the car was off. The recording is set for time-lapse and on-demand. If the dash cam detects an accident, it will record full video. If there is no accident, the dash cam also records time-lapse video while the car is off, and you can set the time-lapse interval in the settings. You can set how long you want it to record so you don’t run out of battery.
This is great and worked really well, although it took a bit of fiddling to get the sensor right and the lapse interval to suit me. So far, in the few weeks it’s been installed, it hasn’t run out the battery on my ATTO 3, and if you know anything about the ATTO 3 12V battery, it isn’t known for being super reliable or long-lasting.
This model dash cam also includes Integrated Smart Parking Mode, which captures parking incidents across the front, rear and side impact zones. I didn’t have any incidents, although I was able to simulate one by banging into the side of the car – it captured the incident across all three cameras.
Other highlights in this year’s range include EZYSHARE Instantly via Wi-Fi, which allows drivers to send incident footage directly to their smartphone for easy sharing with insurance companies or police from the scene.
The app is really easy to use, as it connects to the dash cam using a direct Wi-Fi connection. You just need to stop your phone from connecting to Android Auto or home Wi-Fi — turning Bluetooth off on my phone stopped the Android Auto connection.
Once connected, you can view a live view of the camera along with any videos stored on the camera’s SD card. You can download each video as you see fit, with the three videos from each camera available for each time stamp.
The Navman MiVue Smart True 4K Surround offers nearly 360-degree visualisation around your vehicle. You do need to check though whether it would work for you, as the side-facing camera is placed on the rear window and if you have headrests etc in the wayt the side angles may be a bit obstructed — as they were for me. If there is an accident though, the side view, even if partly obstructed like in my ATTO 3, it can still add to the overall evidence needed by police and insurance companies.
The MiVue Smart True 4K Surround is not cheap and you really need to think long and hard about whether you really need the side view. Your budget may not extend to that and for those, there are options without the full surround views.
The audio is really good, the video is excellent during the day and enough at night — enough to provide any evidence needed for insurance claims. The video options for capturing while not in your vehicle and it turned off are great as well, with a time lapse providing footage at intervals and the camera also able to capture video in the event of an accident/incident.
Getting the videos off the camera to your phone is super simple with an easy-to-use app, and the SD card that arrived with the dash cam worked perfectly the entire time (other dash cams have a hit-and-miss record with SD cards).
I can recommend the Navman MiVue Smart True 4K Surround if you want the full 360-degree view for every single piece of evidence required in the event of an accident. The Navman MiVue Smart True 4K Surround is available now for RRP AU9, a small price to pay for piece of mind.
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
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