DOD TECH DOD-LS470W+ LS Sony Exmor Powered Full HD Dash Camera & GPS Logging with Polarizing Filter

Pretty easy to figure out for someone who is somewhat tech savvy. The menu is kind of confusing at first. Put your formatted SD card into the slot before you attach it to your computer otherwise your computer will most likely think you are attaching an external storage device or something like that. The SD card slot is kind of difficult to get the card correctly oriented in. It is also tricky to get the card to mate all the contacts. You need finger nails or a paperclip to assist.I formatted a 128GB Samsung Pro+ (YES IT WILL WORK AS WILL A 64GB SD CARD - I DO NOT KNOW IF A 256GB CARD WILL WORK) using the large capacity formatter available for no charge from DoD-Tech website. Anyone with moderate reading skills and mediocre tech skills would be able to accomplish this simple task if they read the instructions. Seems to work just fine, I set the unit on 5 min loop, 1080p, enabled GPS, disabled some other stuff.The fish-eye or panoramic view is not too bad, doesn't seem to distort the view too much. The DoD-tech player is very handy and works really good. I will be using this camera a lot and will update this review after I do some driving - I drive a commercial truck nationally so I get to see all kinds of incredibly stupid people in their cars. I purchased this camera as an insurance against some gold digger trying to sucker me into an accident so they can file suit with a TV attorney.Lens dust cover is polarized so it won't do crazy stuff when the sun in directly on it, the suction cup mount is kind of lame IMO - meaning it is pretty cheaply made. It has a stupid propitiatory mount for the suction cup mount on the camera body so there is no chance you can get something else (RAM Mount) to work with it. The cigarette lighter power adapter is about 6 feet long from what I can tell, uses a micro USB plug on the camera so if the supplied power adapter is inadequate then you can purchase something else. I recommend a 90 degree angle Micro USB plug of your choice just to keep the cable from pulling on the camera - but get whatever you want that works for you.The camera does have a built in battery but it will only last for about 45min to an hour of use (if that); with the screen on. I use this thing 24/7 recording in a loop so I leave it plugged in.

The media could not be loaded.          At over $200, this DOD-TECH is fairly expensive compared to similarly-spec'ed 1080p dash mounted cameras on the market. That having been said, it's a very competent dash cam. It comes with 2 mount options: one is a self-adhesive sticky back and the other is a suction cup mount. The power input is the older USB mini format, with an internal sealed rechargeable battery. The included car adapter is hideous and large, with no additional ports for you to charge anything else, so I recommend ditching it and using your own adapter and cable.Multi-port adapters are cheap and plentiful, and some of them go up to 4 ports, like this  Car Charger: Anker 9.6A / 48W 4-Port USB Car Charger with PowerIQ Technology . If you're happy with 2, you can buy something like this  Maxboost 4.8A/24W 2 Smart Port Car Charger . Be sure to pick up a spare USB mini cable (note: NOT micro), but you may already have some lying around from older electronics. With a multi-port car charger, you can leave the camera plugged in and recording while having a spare port for your phone. That way you don't have to worry about the batteries running out when you really need the camera to capture something, like an accident.The camera is large and obvious, so if your intent is covert surveillance, don't use this! Also, I wouldn't leave it in the car unattended for risk of theft or the opportunity it invites for vandalism. My main uses would be to record driving to save evidence in the event of an accident. No memory card is included with the camera, which I thought would've been a kind gesture on the part of DOD to include, even if it's an 8 GB starter card. Thankfully, microSD cards get cheaper and cheaper, with a 64 GB card (max capacity supported by the camera) costing less than $20! This  Samsung 64GB EVO Class 10 Micro SDXC Card with Adapter up to 48/MB/s (MB-MP64DA/AM) , for example, is highly rated. I have a few EVO cards and vouch for Samsung's quality. I recommend picking up a few cards, since you can always use them for other devices like GoPro, or with an SD full-sized adapter, use them in digital cameras and camcorders. Another reliable brand is SanDisk.Resolution is very good and I did some tests at full HD (1080p@30 fps). Clarity is good and signs are easy to read. At that setting, it'll chew up storage space, though, so be sure to keep a few spare microSD cards handy for long trips. 1 second of video takes up 2 MB, so at that rate, it means a 1 hr trip will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.2 GB! Once full, the device will start overwriting files, starting with the oldest first. The files are saved as .MOV which are H.264 videos. This is not a proprietary format, so no special viewer is needed, though you are welcome to download DOD's app. Macs will have no problems reading this file with QuickTime, or importing to iMovie for editing. Windows users will have to download a video editor. If just playback, I recommend VLC media player. It's free, open-sourced, and powerful. It plays just about anything!The buttons are not super intuitive (use the record button to double as OK when in menu mode), but no major problems there with the interface when recording or changing settings. Playback and file deletion is a different story. You view and delete videos and images from the camera (press M (for Mode) 2 or 3x until a preview comes up), but it's rather cumbersome, and the camera doesn't confirm after you've told it to delete a file! After asking you to confirm if you really want to delete the file, the camera doesn't confirm back to you that it has really deleted the file. The dialog simply disappears without the screen looking like anything has changed. If you do this 3x, for example, it will delete 3 files. Normal interface standards are to provide feedback like "File <<video_010.mov deleted>>". Be sure to exit one screen back to the image preview so you don't delete a needed file by accident! And again, using the camera/record button as OK is really confusing. There's a <!> button (it locks the currently recording file from deletion-- you can see it in the product photos), but no OK button. Now there's also the ability to delete ALL! I think this is a really poor design and increases the chances that someone will accidentally hit this and delete everything on the card. There's no preview mode where you can check and uncheck a whole bunch of thumbnails, and delete the selected ones all in one go. You have to do that one by one. For speed and your sanity, I recommend deleting them from the computer. It's just too much of a hassle deleting from the device. All videos have a timestamp in clear yellow text so be sure to set the correct time and date on the camera before you use it! This will save you a lot of trouble should you get into a dispute or witness an accident.Even though the video is clear and sharp, I couldn't give this dash cam full marks. The main reason I deducted 1 star is because the lens and cumbersome controls. The wide-angle fish eye lens distorts the image when objects are close. In order to capture a wide field of view, the lens is curved and therefore makes things look curvy the closer they are to your vehicle. Buildings and trees will start bulging, etc. and the effect is most pronounced when the camera pans (making turns). The distortion is probably fine for proving who did what in an accident, but it may be a deal breaker for some people. I uploaded a video of me "test driving" the unit to show the severity of the fishbowl effect. Please pardon the last 30 seconds of the video. (I tried to re-upload a new file but Amazon won't replace my old video.) Unfortunately, Amazon has also compressed my video quality to mud, but hopefully this still gives you an idea of the degree of distortion the fisheye produces. As for low light situations, the camera performed admirably. Sound recording ability is mediocre to poor. I tested it holding it about 2 feet in front of me and it sounds muffled, with a lot of artificial noise introduced into the recording that's not present in the environment. The prominent hissing you hear in the audio is because there's an EPA air quality measuring device some distance away from me, but the mic seems to home in on it and amplify the noise. The machine's hiss is noticeable, but playing back my recording, good gravy! There's normal ambient city noise, but it's not that loud in real life!Lastly, I would've liked the option of a removable battery so that 1) you can buy extras and carry spares 2) you can replace the battery when it eventually dies. The nature of rechargeable batteries is that they diminish with each use, holding progressively less charge than the previous. After a certain number of charge cycles, they will simply stop retaining energy.I hope my review helps!

Overall I like it. Ordered the optional hard wire kit to wire direct to a fuse block with the wire hidden. Trying to mount in the car was a little difficult, I would prefer the suction cup or stick on mounts were smaller to fit a car windshield better, would like to see it up as high and behind the rear view mirror. May have to fabricate a custom mount. If I were mounting in my pickup truck, not an issue.Pic quality is awesome. Be aware you must buy the Micro SD card separately and it will need formatting before the camera will see it.

Overall, I was very pleased with this camera:1) The video quality is excellent - crisp, sharp video even at night.2) The camera has fish-eye distortion around the edges, but that is to be expected due to the wide angle lens.3) The camera records to ".mov" file-type which is easily readable by VLC, Win Media Player, etc..4) DOD viewer application (available as a download): Displays MPH, and tracks the route and location on an adjoining map. Also displays "G-Force" - not sure what this represents. However, the map starts up with some location in China, with Chinese characters. Even when displaying the map represented by the GPS coordinates of the route, there were still some Chinese characters displayed. I would imagine this could be fixed in a software update.5) Camera controls/menu: The menu navigation is workable - just takes some getting used to.6) 64 GB card: Need to format to FAT32 to use 64 GB memory cards in this camera. Utilities to format to FAT32 are readily available, and can be downloaded directly from the DOD website.Overall, a great dash-cam with excellent video quality which was my top priority. Would recommend for those looking for top quality video in a dash-cam!

It records crisp quality audio and video and I havent had any issues in the past few weeks that I have been using it.The daytime and night-time video quality is better or on par with many of the higher priced dashcams like the Nextbase 512G.My only gripe is both the mounts that come along are quite long that you end up with considerable spacing between the windscreen and the dashcam causing bit of reflection to appear on videos. Otherwise like this model a lot and feel it was money worth spent.

Excellent

This is a great camera. Can't give it 5 stars as the only issue I have is that I can't pull files directly from camera by USB cable. I emailed manufacturer and they said I could get it to recognize as a mass storage device by pressing one of the buttons on the device but it never worked. I have to pull the card and put in a card reader. Other than that, the video quality is great. Even night videos turned out great. Seems to handle the heat well too. My GoPro would shut down when the temp increased inside but this camera keeps going. The GPS is a great feature. The problem I had with the software in the package that came with the unit was the street names were in Chinese. I could not clear. I got the latest software online and worked well.The time lapse videos is a nice touch. Tried it out and worked well.

This is the LS470W, and compared the LS430, it comes up short, on the video player and with no log viewer is Limited. Menu is OK, GPS performance is Very good. The Video Player is slow and at else one feature having no value. Would recommend the LS430.

Bought two of them. Both work very well. Had them for several months (and a few road trips) with no issues. You need to download software from the manufacturer in order to format the SD cards for 64 GB.