I did a lot of research on dash cams before I made this purchase. I'm glad I went with the KDLinks X1. Easy to install and use, and they have some cool software that you can install on your computer that shows average speed, actual speed, and a map that shows the route. It also records sound (you can shut this off) so you can record your singing as you drive. Comes with an 8 GB memory card, but I'm getting a larger card (max 32 GB) so I don't have to unload it so often. Pretty good clarity even at night.
I would definitely recommend this cam if you are serious about dash cams for your car!
8-21-2015 Update:
Funny thing happened yesterday on the way home from work. This guy decided to cross the street against the light and I had to hit the brakes hard to not hit him. He stood there and started yelling at me and giving me the finger. I pointed at my camera and he turned around and walked back to the sidewalk and away from me. The video was awesome and because of the wide view of the camera it also showed that the green light was on when he was crossing. Glad I had the camera!
8-23-2015 Update:
To hide the camera better I moved it to the passenger side. The lens is offset so it's not a big deal and the mount allows you to turn the camera (up/down, left/right) so you can still get a very wide view out the front window. I also used painters tape and a marker to conceal it even more. I covered the light on the front (not needed) and the KDLinks logo (sorry!) with the tape then colored it in to make the front all black. Very hard to see from the front since the mirror is behind it and it's black. You can see in the picture what I did.
I also bought a cigarette lighter extender plug. I didn't want to use the plug in the ash tray since it has to always be open and I can't use the "dish" in front of the ashtray when it's open. The problem is the other 12v plug is always on. So I got an extender/splitter with on/off buttons. I route the camera cord to this and now when I park I just have to reach over and hit the power button. One time I forgot to do this and I got a lot of tape when I was not there. I'm thinking about leaving this on in crowded parking lots in case I get hit or someone tries to do something.
Still loving the camera!
This is an excellent dash cam. Easy to mount and take down, high-resolution video quality and still photos. I purchased a 32Gb replacement SD Card initially, then decided to go with the 128 Gb class 10 card. First, I had to download the app suggested by the manufacturer (KDLINKS) and convert the bigger card to a FAT32 file system. That was a very simple process of downloading the app, let it find the card and push the format button. Now the cam shows a recording time of nearly 24 hours. The negative, and I'm not sure everyone would consider this a negative, is that shiny bright silver camera lens. It is very attention drawing outside the vehicle. I am looking for something suitable to cover it, like a black elastic band (no sticky tape). I highly recommend this seller. The customer service is fast and responsive. '
UPDATE 10/19/2016I was notified by the Seller that they have a cover for the dash cam that hides the shiny silver ring that made the camera noticeable from the outside. It came today. I'd add a star if I could because this makes' the camera pretty stealthy. Thank you KDLinks for the heads up.
I believe in the importance of Dash-cams, as I am a truck driver driving 400 miles a night for a major package carrier I drive through New York City, New Jersey, Massachusetts,and Connecticut every night. I wanted a Dash Cam that is easily mounted in and removed from the vehicle, I start the night formatting the micro SD card, and it runs through the night, until I unplug it and put in its case in the morning.
I relied on the Amazon reviews and came across this model. Having used it for approximately one month, about fifty hours a week, I must say that it has not let me down. The first thing that impressed me was the nice little instruction book that came with the model, which is a bit of a rareity for these devices. The instruction book was well written and easy to understand. The unit also comes with two suction cup mounts,, one for GPS, the other without. As I stated earlier, I mount the unit to the windshield at the beginning of the night, and remove it in the morning. I have had no issues with it falling off of the windshield. The included power cord is of high quality, and has not fallen apart by the repeated plugging in and unplugging. Additionally the cord is long enough to wrap around the windshield of my truck if I desired, so I am sure it will be long enough to do the same for any car.
The camera. Navigating the set up menu is a snap, with its easy to understand menu. The screen is small but clear, basically for adjusting the settings, and alining the view the camera has. I chose to turn the camera off after three minutes as it is a distraction. Additionally, the unit, including the suction cut mount is very small, not at all intrusive, which will easily fit behind the rearview mirror in preferrred.
The video. Clear, very clear. I have the camera set at 720 P to extend the time on the micro Sd card ( 32Gig will hold about nine hours). I have included a sample in low/artificial light as a demo. Audio is very clear if this function, which can be muted is warranted.
At this price point, the KDLinks X1 is a great camera to protect yourself, your driving record, and any insurance claims if falsely accused of being at fault in the event of and accident.
I had a unit that failed prematurely. and recently a customer care representative contacted me, offering an updated model to replace the old unit.
They've implemented a delayed startup feature that prevents a fault I observed in previous model, which caused the camera to freeze when the power to the camera was suddenly cut while the car directs all power to the engine starter.
So I'll get my hands on their new model and check how well it works.
But, regardless of not yet knowing the performance of the new model, I've updated my rating from one to four stars, as a customer care service willing to change an old customer opinion is something worth praising.
The field of view on this thing is great! It also has a playback screen which is critical if an altercation develops and you need this info on scene.
The disadvantage is that there are only 4 buttons. So they cram a lot of functionality into a couple of buttons. For example, if you press a button you get one menu. If you hold the button you get a different menu. I would rather have a pop-up menu with using the side buttons as up/down. I have found this aspect of the product rather confusing.
This is a big problem if you need to playback the material after an incident. There is a function to 'lock' the video that is stored. It displays a little key icon. Do keep some spare memory cards with you. That way you can safely store the video without accidentally deleting it.
The icon that shows that it is recording is okay, but I would rather have a thin red diagonal line across the screen indicating that it is _not_ recording in addition to the blinking red dot. Otherwise, rather good icons. They display what you need to know.
For the cost, it is a good purchase. The suction cup that attaches to the windshield seems to work okay as well. I normally wipe down the interior of the rig with Seventh Generation wipes Seventh Generation Disinfecting Multi-Surface Wipes, 70 Count, then wipe the suctions cups for both the GPS and the DashCam.
Be sure to have a strain relief for the power cord. The little USB connector isn't going to take a whole lot of stress. You can look at these removable wire ties Monoprice Releasable cable tie 6 inch 50LBS, 100pcs/Pack - Black. They work pretty well and are large enough to kind-of argue with.
I also ordered this Emarth 4pack 40'' Cable Management Sleeve, Flexible Neoprene Cable Wrap for PC/ TV/ Office/ Phones/ Speakers and a Aukey CC-S1 4.8A Dual Port USB Car Charger - Black plus the required cables [2-Pack] Anker 6ft / 1.8m Nylon Braided Tangle-Free Micro USB Cable with Gold-Plated Connectors for Android, Samsung, HTC, Nokia, Sony and More (Red).
I'm converting my GPS-DashCam Kit to USB cables instead of the 1-to-3 cigarette lighter adapters. The wires on the large connectors keep breaking. Although I reinforce the strain relief with electrical tape, I still go through adapters. This approach will make the kit smaller with less stress on the individual components. (That's the theory anyway.)
Best of luck. Safe travels!
EDIT:
After having some trouble with the camera not recording, I asked around and found out that if the settings are setup correctly, the camera will mark a given video clip as 'locked'. What was happening was that my memory card was filling up with locked video! Argh! Here is the fix via tech support:
1) Looping Option -- Be sure to have looping selected for 2,3, or 5 minutes. (I have mine set at 5 minutes.)
2) Motion Detection -- Motion detection should be turned _off_.
3) Gravity Sensor --
"On X1, if Gravity Sensor is triggered, X1 would protect that file. A key icon will showed on the screen. And the locked files could not be overwritten by loop. If the SD card filling up with locked files, the card will probably gets full.
Please check Gravity sensor setting, make sure you put it to Medium or Low. Do not use High, otherwise X1 may lock file when your car is doing a hard stop. If your local road condition is bumpy, you may change that setting to Low so it would reduce the chance of locking files."
I did the following at it seems to work fine!
UPDATE:
The USB plug broke off of the circuit board. I am thinking that the cable that I used was a little too stiff. Too much bouncing around the cab of the truck, I guess. I did purchase another camera and this extension cable StarTech.com 0.5m 20" Micro USB Male to Micro USB Female Cable (USBUBEXT50CM). The idea is that the wear and tear of disconnecting will happen to the extension cable and not the unit itself.
UPDATE:
I'm working with the vendor on a warranty replacement. They are good to work with. I am assuming that every day moving the camera, plugging it in, unplugging it, move it back into the suitcase ... well, it got mad at me. The extension cable is working out well. I had purchased a second one while the whole warrentee thing is doing it's thing.
Feature Product
- Full-HD Video 1920*1080 at 30 fps, super wide 165° angle. The X1 dash cam can automatically record hands-free in a continuous loop. Large 2.7" screen, super slim design. Come with 8GB micro SD card, ready to use right out of the box.
- Superior Night-vision by world class F1.6 Six-Glass lenses, and unique dashcam WDR (Wide Dynamic Range) video system (Similar to HDR technology in Camera)
- Built-in GPS module precisely record GPS data into dash cam video clips, and you can check vehicle location/speed/route on Google Map through included KDLINKS Dashcam Player Software
- Emergency Lock Button & Accident Auto Detection Feature (G-Sensor) can lock current video file.Safety First: High Quality Li-polymer 3.7v 110mah battery can bear high/low temperature (Tested: 6+ hours in 170°F, 6+ hours in -40°F).
- One Year Warranty To Cover Any Dash Cam hardware Issues. First Class best support for all customers. All emails would be replied in 24 hours, and 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
Description
Introduction
As insurance cost keeps climbing up, if the HD video proof could work for you just once, you could save more money than the price of this dash cam.
The X1 Dash Cam has a number of modern solutions, useful for all drivers. The dashcam starts recording immediately after turning on the ignition. It has a night mode ensuring high quality recordings also in poor lighting conditions. The WDR system will make no detail escapes the F1.6 high quality camera lens.
The X1 Dash Cam records Full HD videos (1920 * 1080p) at 30 fps with H.264! The use of six-glass F1.6 lenses and an extremely sensitive AR0330 sensor ensure excellent quality. As a result, the video quality is very detailed and smooth.
Why To Choose X1
* Patent Pending GPS built-in suction cup mount. No more tangled cables like other brands! Less clutter on your windshield.
* Exclusive supreme quality GPS module made in Japan
* Professional Windows & Mac GPS video data player software with Google Maps Route Animation
* Premium real HD quality video(1920x1080) for day and night use
* Quick-response support team provides worry-free solutions
* We care about our customers!
GPS Feature
Built-in GPS module precisely record GPS data into video clips, and you can check vehicle location/speed/route on Google Map through included KDLINKS Dash Cam Player Software.
Safety First
Emergency Lock Button & Accident Auto Detection Feature (G-Sensor) can lock current video file for you.
High Quality Li-polymer 3.7v 110mah battery can bear high/low temperature, with official MSDS report and the most strict PONY Lab Certificate
Impressively quick responses. Unit itself looks nice, has display which enables to quickly access recordings without need for laptop, etc. Quality of video/photo really good.
Not so impressed with some features, or their absence: 1). It will record all the time if cigarette lighter port in your car stays always on even with key removed, overwriting existing files. So in the morning all your driving videos from previous day will be erased. To prevent this, every time it would have to be manually turned off or unplugged. Capacity of 32gig card is 5 hours. They do not recommend to have it on 24/7 anyway. 2). Motion Detection Feature has to be enabled manually every time you park car and has to have constant power supply. Then it has to be manually disabled when ready to drive, otherwise it will record small clips of 10-15 seconds intermittently (possibly leaving behind important moments) instead of 3-5 minutes clips constant recording.
So in first case You would not want to have constant power supply, in second You would. And then You would have to remind yourself not to forget to enable/disable motion detection when park/ready to drive if You wanted to cover in case of incident in parking lot. Seems to be a bit complicated for nowadays technologies struggling for simplicity and easiness of use.
Bought this based on reviews. Picture quality is good. However I found using this dash cam less than user friendly.
Even with the manual I didn't get sequences to work as explained, ie, press M button to lock image/video when driving.
No didn't work. Also the longest loop is 5 minutes before it rewrites, which is too short for me. The cord from camera
to lighter plug in on dashboard is about 12 feet long!! why? its a tangled mess. If you use GPS then it automatically records your
speed. I don't want it to but have to disable GPS to remove. The cord plug is too tight when putting in lighter outlet, have to
really pull to remove, (GMC Yukon). Biggest complaint is the overwriting and loosing road trip filming. I sent email to the
"product support" and never heard back, I asked is there a way to have a continuous filming on the SD and not overwrite.
Also I think the SD isn't large enough, would purchase a 32GB instead.
UPDATE, 3/31/17- The customer service dept. contacted me after reading this review. They apologized for not responding
sooner but evidently my yahoo mail ended up in spam file so they never rec'd my ?. My above concerns and comments were
addressed. 1. Please make sure "Motion Detection" is at OFF, otherwise you may have file sequence issue or random start/stop issue. The default setting is very good indeed for most customers. 2.Car charger cord is long, that's because most customers want to hide the cable along the car trim and under carpet. They don't want to hang the cable beside rear view mirror. 3. Dash cam always record video clips in few minutes each. That's because dash cam can automatically overwrite the oldest clip. If it's a single big clip, when card is full and if the single file got removed, you may lose accident related video record. 99.99% dash cam are working in this way. I appreciate this response and
clearing up my ?'s. Since my earlier review the customer service provided me with a very personalized reply and made a sincere effort to explain, apologize, and improve upon my purchase experience. Given this follow through and support I can now give this Dash Cam and company a thumbs up rating and would recommend it for anyone considering. Yes, I still have complaints with the buttons to stop and lock a video/photo, and would use a 32SD. Probably a longer learning curve for this gadget would have helped my understanding,
given the high reviews this dash cam has racked up.
Love the camera its great perfect size for dash cam and its so sharp and clean colors, #1 customer service I ever seen, they emailed me fast and called me two times to make sure #1 i am happy as a customer #2 camera working great .
thank you .
As of 08-04-17 I have had this camera for about a month and a week now. From the heat cycles inside the vehicle (hot during the day when in use and then put in the glove box at night or not when in use, the front metal on the camera is delaminating. This hasn't affected the functionality of the camera, but isn't very aesthetically pleasing. KDLINKS (you need to source a glue that is tolerant of tempatures well in to the 200s as that is common for cars in the full sun, esp. ones with black interiors)
BTW, my interior is light grey cloth, but none the less, the delamination has started around the top.
Great Product so far, can't believe that the insurance companies don't give discounts on policies for these, makes diagnosing an accident incomparably easier vs an "eye witness" account. All cars should have one facing front and rear. I have mine wired to ON/OFF usb connectors wired directly into the lighter circuit. So I can leave it on in a parking lot in case I get door dinged or bumped. I haven't compared this model to others so I can not attest to it's quality as compared to other cameras, however, it seems to be built rugged, has a wide field of view, and when I power it up, it starts recording. If you can afford it, get a larger storage microSD card
There is not much to hate about this Dashcam. It is absolutely amazing.
The KDLINKS X1 dashcam has a huge selection of features. With quick access to the mute button it is a breeze to make sure your audio is there when you need it. I personally prefer to drive around without the dashcam audio on. If I am ever in a situation I would want the audio on, it only takes a couple seconds to cut the audio on, that is how simple it is.
Another amazing feature that I really like is that the SD card can be easily removed. It comes with an 8GB SD card, which is plenty of storage space. I ordered a 32GB SD card from Amazon the same day. I ended up sticking with the 8GB SD card and putting the 32GB in another camera of mine. The video, which records at 1080HD, can be recorded in 3, 4, and 5 minute segments. If the SD card gets full, it deletes the oldest segment. I have mine set at 5 minutes.
Setup is extremely easy, and the dashcam even comes with a handy guide that goes over all the features of the dashcam and tells you how to access all the features. I had one question about the dashcam and I emailed KDLINKS customer support and within 5 minutes they had replied with the answer I was looking for.
My father is a PI and will probably be ordering one as well. I would highly recommend this and I will absolutely be getting another one for my second car.
NOTE: The camera has the option to show the speed at which you are traveling in the corner of your video, mine is enabled in the screenshots.
