MAISI® 1296P Dash Cam with Rear View Mirror, IN-CAR Vehicle Dash Camcorder (4-Mega Pixels, Video/Sound Record, 3-Inch Display Screen, 150 Degree Wide Angle G-Sensor, Black)

Item arrived, sooner than stated. On opening the package, everything was in order and what they said they would supply they supplied. I did have a couple of niggles though, the power cable is a straight in entry, this was a problem for me as the mirror is close to the roof of the car and therefore, the mini USB connector wouldn't fit. I informed Maisi, who promptly reimbursed me £10 as I told them I would have to buy a right angled adaptor. This is something you need to have a think about before buying one of these. The next problem I had, was that the unit wouldn't communicate with my computer. In hindsight, I think it is my operating system (windows Xp) ancient I know and in retrospect I think this was the problem. I am hoping, that when connected to a more up-to date computer, the problem will disappear.You will find, when you start using the unit that the motion sensor doesn't always trigger recording, and seems to be temperamental working only when it decides to. This is easily overcome though, I just hit the record button, and the camera records constantly. The battery life is not good when disconnected from the electrical supply so if you want the camera to record when you aren't in the car, you either need to hard wire the unit to the fuse box, or have a 12v socket that doesn't disconnect when the ignition is switched off! Having said all this, the build quality is top notch for the money and feels worth the £80 price and quality of the video footage is very good too, better than expected. Another great thing about the software for viewing the video files, it allows you to freeze frame and zoom in on say a number plate, or whatever, to correctly identify what you need to. Overall, despite the niggles which may not affect you, I would recommend this dvr, at the price, you can't really grumble!

A very good camera but I had issues with it. The manual is very hotch potch,broken,bad English. This has been translated from Chinese I think? A lot of the functions I found how to use by trial and error. It says that the camera starts up when the car is started but I have not found this to be true,I have to manually press the record button to get it to record my journey,unless I have misunderstood the patchy instructions and what it actually means is it will simply turn itself on but not start recording? I had issues when I first tried to view the recorded images as my laptop would not recognise the files,somehow this resolved itself when I was on the verge of returning the item. I was able to slide the camera over my existing mirror but found it shook when driving,rubber bands,for want of a better description,and metal hooks are supplied so that the bands can be stretched over the back of your mirror to hold the camera more securely. This did not work for my car,Focus 57 plate,my mirror must be small as the hooks and bands did nothing as they were far too big to even stay on the mirror,again I had to adapt and landed up using plastic ties to firmly attach the camera to my mirror,looks unsightly but it works. Driving still produces a mirror shake but when the video is reviewed the recorded picture is stable and clear so I can put up with it. The mirror itself is blue and not clear glass like a normal rear view mirror,not sure how well I will be able to see out of it when I drive in the dark as,so far,I have only driving in daylight hours,but reversing into my garage I cannot see as well as I could with the standard mirror that comes with the car.Another issue I had was with the actual power plug that has to go into your cigarette socket,it is very small and I have to twist,turn and generally wiggle it about until it finally lights up blue to let me know it has power,very much a pain! Many minor niggles with this but the camera itself produces a crisp,clear picture. The microphone picks up your indicator clicking,which would be good in a accident as it proves you were indicating to go in a certain direction,but it also picks up the mirror wobble that I mentioned earlier. I have no GPS switched on,not sure how to turn it on or even if I need it on. More guess work I suppose?

I purchased this camera after checking out tons of reviews of various other cameras, and also trying to find an alternative to have an obvious camera mounted on my windscreen that might make my car a target. I went with this one because it appeared to be a more discrete option, plus Maisi are known for making other cameras so I expected the quality to be good (as opposed to various others that are reselling the same no-name branded dashcam under their own name).The first thing that strikes you as you take this item out of the box is how wide it is. This thing is huge, and needs to be in order to replace your existing mirror effectively.It clips onto your existing mirror by virtue of two spring-loaded clamps at the back, and supplemented by two rubber bands to hold it in place. My existing mirror is quite big, but this managed to clamp on to it just fine. There is no protection on the rear to protect your existing mirror from scratches, but hopefully if your existing mirror has a lip around it, this should suffice by providing a gap.The mirror itself is really good quality, very smooth and clear. It has a blue tint to it, which I imagine is due to the anti-dazzle semi-opaque nature so you can see the screen through it. The buttons feel quite solid, and it grips the existing mirror very well. The only niggle is that, over the course of general driving, it does bounce quite a bit, despite the tight grip it has. Unfortunately there's no real getting away from that, unless you replace your existing mirror with this one somehow, rather than clipping this onto the front. I can live with it, but you might want to bear that in mind. Also, as hinted to earlier, you can't flip this mirror to make it anti-dazzle, but the blue coating is supposed to take care of that for you anyway. I certainly had no problems with it.The camera is on the back/front (which ever way you want to look at it), dead center so you don't get any issues with not being able to angle it correctly. It swivels in all four directions, so regardless of how you position your mirror and angle it toward you, you can get the camera to point dead ahead.The power plugs into your car accessory socket (used to be called the cigarette lighter socket back in my day), and there's ample length to hide it around the trim of your car. When power is supplied, the camera starts up and begins recordings. The USB lead is not right angled, but you shouldn't have any problems with installation if you're mounting this on the front of your existing mirror anyway. I'm sure there's room above to camera to make this a non-issue.Whilst the screen is on, the picture is quite clear to see, and you can also see the road behind by changing what you're focusing on. You could leave the screen on, but there's little point. It's not like you can't see what's in front of you already. You can set it to automatically turn off after a number of seconds. There are several recording modes and resolutions to choose from, the best being a super-wide resolution for a ratio of 21:9. Essentially, this allows the dashcam to specifically focus on the road ahead and not waste processing power, etc, dealing with the extreme top and bottom edges which aren't going to benefit you much.The day-time picture quality is amazing, to say the least. Prior to purchasing this dashcam, I spent a lot of time on TechMoan checking out all the reviews and going over the sample footage (the actual footage, not the compressed YouTube clips). My test of choice is to pause the video as you're driving past other cars coming the other way to see if the licence plate can be clearly read. I'm happy to report that the PQ for this camera is easily among the best, with details come through very sharp.It will record at 30 frames-per-second, not 60 as some other reviewers have stated. This is quite sufficient to capture all the detail you need in the event of an incident.Unfortunately the night time picture quality isn't up to the same level. However, upon checking with other cameras that were rated for their excellent picture quality, this issue is common across all of them in that none could show a licence plate clearly, so I really can't hold that against this dashcam in particular. Even though it's not ideal, the bottom line is you're not going to find better anyway, particularly at this price point.Contrary to the description, this camera doesn't have night time IR vision, and that's actually a good thing because IR is used for total darkness and can only capture things immediately in front of you, meaning you wouldn't see as much as you can with the standard camera, and who drives around in the actual dark without headlights on anyway?I'll not upload the footage here on Amazon because they heavily compress the videos anyway and it wouldn't do the camera any justice. Take it from me though, the picture quality is excellent. You'll not be disappointed.I do take some issue with the buttons, they're not exactly intuitive, and sometimes you'll find yourself fighting with the menu system, but once you've got everything set up the way you like it, there's really no need to go back into the menus and everything is clear sailing from there on in.This camera also has all the other standard features, such as loop recording (1, 3 and 5 minutes), date/time stamp, driver identity, beep alerts, auto power on/off, etc. It also has a built-in battery to power the camera for a few minutes, no idea how long that'll last in all practical circumstances, since batteries tend to wear down quickly. Capacitors would have been a better option.It does NOT record the rear view. There is no capacity to add an additional camera, and it does not record the GPS data either. You need a separate add on for that, which is a shame because I can't imagine it'd be too difficult to add capacity for both. There are certainly cheaper rear-view mirror dashcams available that support front and back cameras. However, whether the PQ is up to scratch on those is another matter, and ultimately if you're unfortunately enough to ever be involved in an accident, you'll want to be sure your camera captured as much as it could. Medium picture quality won't be of any use if it missed off the significant detail, and I don't want to have the regret of not going for the best one I could have had.All in all, I really like this dashcam and am happy with my purchase. I was tempted to remove a mark because of the confusing buttons, lack of rear camera or gps support, or ability to replace the existing mirror entirely, but then again I bought it for picture quality and discreteness, and it has those. I've no idea of the longevity of the device, or even level of support, but as mine came with a faulty power-lead, I'll be able to test their CS out and report back.