Kapture dash cam reviews
Today I'm reviewing two models of Kapture dash cams
- The KPT-722
- The KPT-850
The first model I purchased (from JB-HIFI) was the KPT-850
I set it up in my car and all seemed well but the device has no built in LCD so there's no way to interact with it until you've installed the app for your phone.
Source - www.kapturecam.com.au/in-car-dash-cameras/kapture-kpt-850-discreet-dash-cam-1080p-with-gps-wifi-super-capacitor.html#product_tabs_description_tabbed
So I installed the app and quickly realised it is one of the most invasive apps I've ever used, it needs permission to pretty much everything in your phone and won't get past the setup stage unless you give it all those invasive permissions, so I saw it as a security risk.
I wanted to get the bloody thing working as I'd handed over quite a bit of fiat/monopoly money for it, so I reluctantly assigned all those permissions and then found that it had problems connecting to the internet through my mobile data connection on the phone which basically rendered the app and the entire device useless.
Then I found out whenever the app is running it basically takes over the phones data connection and renders the phone useless for anything else requiring a data connection.
I was very disappointed with the device as it just wouldn't work on my phone and even crashed my phone a few times when the app hung if it couldn't get what it wanted. It seems like the developers expect everything to work every time ,so if something fails there is no provision for it and the app just hangs.
So I took it back and exchanged it for a different model and payed the difference in fiat/monopoly money, that's my next review.
The KPT-722 Dash cam
This one had its own LCD screen and all it's controls are on the unit, it also comes with a reversing camera which seemed like a good idea.
Source - www.kapturecam.com.au/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/736x460/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/k/p/kpt_722_1.jpg
I got this one setup in my car and it all seemed to be working well, but when I read through the instruction manual it stated that the device was not suitable for use in high temperature environments and had a maximum temp tolerance of 60 Deg Celsius. I was a bit shocked when I read that, it seems like it's not even fit for purpose just because of that.
The controls are a bit confusing as it has two buttons marked with an M, one is for menu and the other is for mode. Some of the other buttons are a bit confusing as well but it didn't take long to get used navigating through the devices operating system
It seemed to be working OK, so I took it out for a test drive to see how it would fare. After a few meters of driving the display went black and all I could see was two LED's flashing at me. I had it set to record three minute loops, so when I got back from the test drive I checked out the saved clips and found all it did was record short clips ranging from 2 seconds to 9 seconds and it missed most of the drive I'd just tried to record.
I thought there could be a problem with my micro SD card, so I tried another one, both were new and purchased from JB-HIFI in a three pack when I bought the original camera. It did exactly the same thing and just recorded short clips for a while and then the entire device froze and became non-responsive. None of the buttons would do anything and even powering it off and back on didn't resolve the issue.
So I took it back and got a refund.
The refund process from JB-HIFI was a very slow protracted affair. They made me feel like I was begging to get my own money back for these faulty pieces of crap I'd been duped into handing over all that fiat/monopoly money for.
They wanted to know my name, phone number and drivers license number and also wanted my signature. There was no way I was giving them all that, it was a fiat/cash sale that didn't require any ID, I didn't think they were entitled to any of my personal info, so I just made up bogus info and put that on their paperwork.
I don't think I'll buy anything from JB-HIFI ever again just because of their returns policy.