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 Zeepin A307 dashcam review .

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Zeepin A307 @ Amazon

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 Zeepin sent me the A307 dash cam for review .  The very first thing I noticed was how deep the micro SD card sits in the camera . I had to use a pen to push the SD card into the cam as there was no way I could get the card in there with my fingers .  Obviously this means that removing the SD card is not going to be easy , now this could be bad if you continuously insert and remove the card a lot . On the other hand it could be a security feature in the sense that the data on the card ( and the card itself ) are reasonably secure against un authorized removal .   So if you were to install dash cams in company cars or you just wanted to keep an eye on your teenage family members , then a SD card that's not easy to remove would quite possibly be very desirable . 

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  Now the second thing I took notice off was the two different ways of mounting the cam on your car windshield . Let me just say that the suction cup mount was possibly the worst  I have ever experienced in the sense that it stayed on the window the shortest time ever .  I put it onto my front window , went inside to get my wallet as I had to go to the podiatrist . When I went into the car , the mount had let go and the cam was dangling from the USB cable .  I put it back , drove to the doctors office and had my feet examined . On returning to the car the cam was dangling again . 

   When it was time to get some night time Video I mounted the cam on the window again . Towards the end of the drive the suction cup mount let go , some of it is in the second video .  ( You might find it entertaining ) .  I would highly recommend mounting the cam with the double sided tape . All cams utilizing suction cup mounts fall off the windscreen sooner or later , such is life . All my cams utilizing double sided tape are yet to do the drop . ( Nuff said )

 

 So while we are talking about the negatives , lets talk about the audio or the lack off . The microphone for picking up audio is very weak . You really need to crank up the speakers to be able to make out what the cam is picking up . Is this stealth audio ?  I think most people might see this as being slightly NQR . 

  Time to talk about the video quality .  From what I can see the cam is some what near focused and at infinity is just ever so slightly soft . You can see in the video just how sharply focused my dash mat is . ( This is close focus )  So the video quality is actually excellent , but it would have been nice if the focus was more towards infinity .

  Now the other thing that is noticeable in the video is that the cam is a little sensitive to light and bright things tend to slightly flare out . Now I was a little suspicious when I saw this as I had not seen night time performance as yet , but I suspected that the cam might be tuned to perform reasonably well at night time and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised .  I took some footage from my Viofo A119 to compare against the Zeepin A307 and the Zeepin A307 outperforms the A119 by quite a margin at night time .  IN the daytime video it's the other way around and the A119 beats out the Zeepin by quite a bit .  I can't help but think just how much better the Zeepin would have done if the lens was correctly focused for infinity and could quite possibly give more expensive cams a run for their money . 

 

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 Special Functions : 

  Motion Detect :  It works and is sensitive enough that if something moves in front of the camera it turns on and begins to record . If there is no more activity then the camera records about 10 seconds of video . The cam is pulling around 0.25A whilst in Motion Detect mode and not recording . Recording video the cam pulls between 0.3A and 0.4A . 

  Parking Guard :  The impact needs to be sharp , it does not need to be hard as even a gentle impact will activate the park guard ( just needs to be a sharp mechanical impact - even a soft one ) . It takes about 3 seconds to start recording and records for about 29 seconds . Recording video the cam pulls between 0.3Amp and 0.4Amp . ( This is for all recording when the internal battery is topped off ) .  You can turn the cam off by pushing the on off button on the side , the current draw is around 0.01 to 0.02Amp . And if there is an impact the cam will turn on . I can not measure current draw when USB power is off but I imagine the power draw would be very low . This is good as the internal battery is only rated 280mAh . 

 So if my charge doctor is correct , then a 10mAh or 20mAh current draw in parking mode is not terrible and the little 280mAh battery is good for about 14 to 28 hours as long as we don't need to factor in any variables .  Getting away from powerbanks , I hooked up the cam to a USB wall charger and the USB doctor is showing 0.00Amp current draw . One tendency I did note was that with power being available VIA USB once the cam turns on ( Parking Guard ) it does not want to turn off after 29 seconds .  I hate to say this , but this is a bit of an issue when the cam wont turn off because it is getting power from the USB cable . If parking mode triggered recording , it should turn off no matter the power source .  Honestly , if this cam had turned off when powered by the USB I would have been over the moon , probably a lot of people would have been over the moon . 

 WiFi  :   Hehehehe !   As always a absolute fun time playing with QR stuff . I hate going to the Google app store ( I really hate it ) , to download a QR code reader for my phone that may or may not work . So this time I got me a PC QR reader , it can read QR code from the screen or from a file . ( It's called Code Two )  Makes life so much easier I can tell you . Back to Wifi .

  I have a small collection of WiFi video apps for mobile devices and none of them worked , you need Lerccenker . Once I had downloaded Lerccenker and put it onto a Micro SD card I just put the card in my android phone and installed the app .  Using the Wifi app in my phone I connected to the Zeepin A307 and then fired up Lerccenker . Using the Lerccenker is a great way to change settings on the cam , as well as looking at saved files . The Wifi works , but you need Lerccenker to connect to the cam , other apps just wont do . 

Final Word :

 Novatek 96658 with a Sony MX223 image sensor and a 150deg lens .

Wow - I think the Zeepin A307 could have been a very good cam and still could be with some minor refinements . I would just love to see the lens focused correctly , its not terrible but there is room for improvement .

Parking guard requires refinement .

The suction cup mount is in all honesty the worst I have ever encountered . ( Use the double sided tape provided )

Now where the Zeepin A307 did really well was the night time video , it actually outperformed the Viofo A119 and that is nothing to discount .

If I have to give the Zeepin A307 a score it would be 7 out of 10 . 

 I will leave the cam as is for a week or so to give anyone a chance to ask questions etc , then I will see if I can refocus the lens for sharper video at infinity . I don't know if the A307 can be firmware upgraded ?  One can hope so , as I would really like to see Parking guard working with USB power for those wishing to hardwire the cam .   The Zeepin A307 certainly has the potential to be a stand out cam , unfortunately as reviewed it is very much middle of the road . The thing is the price point of the Zeepin A307 is also very much middle of the road and is priced very much in line with other 1080FHD dash cameras making it hard for the A307 to really stand out from the opposition .