Philippine Traffic : The importance of having a dashboard camera – Hungry Geeks

In today’s monster traffic jam in the Philippines, people are more agitated and irritated causing violence and accidents to be more feasible in the streets. Being a defensive driver isn’t enough today anymore, you have to be smart as well against crimes, accidents and even simple people crossing the road illegally.

According to Top Gear last 2013 79% of road fatalities are caused by human error which translates to more than 11 thousand accidents in the Philippines per year. The number is significantly increasing every year as more and more cars are registered in the streets.

So that’s why we were glad when people from Zumi wanted us to try out their Dashboard camera specifically the “Zumi Dashcam”. Now is the best time to invest on a dashboard camera as we could never really know when it will be handy, either to assist us in recording an accident or simply a video defend ourselves when the situation is really tight.

Setting up the Zumi is really easy, provided with the suction bracket to place behind the rear view mirror makes it convenient to access.

On the bottom of the panel are the keys for navigation, the navigation is really easy where all are icon based status for easy understanding. Overall the build of the camera is good where it doesn’t feel awkward to place in your windshield.

The display of the dashboard camera is low resolution which is given to such dashboard cameras. It can take videos up to Full HD 1920x1080p, but viewing the livefeed will only show up to around 15fps which is normal due to the recording size.

It even has guide lines to make sure it is aligned properly. Plus the display is bright and making it okay to see even if the environment around is too bright. Unfortunately the display is not IPS so you might have to adjust sometimes if you want to see the real colors, as the viewing angle is limited.

Sample video shots are good when visibility is good, details are clear and plate numbers are visible which is the most important part. All are in FHD 1080p resolution and in 30fps frame rate for reliable documentation.

The wide angle lens is sufficient enough to capture 3 lanes without any problem, so even your dashboard is seen. Convenient indeed for those much needed capturing of all that is happening in front. 

On the night mode, despite with a night mode video capturing the details are very limited which could be a deal breaker for some. But when you view it via video, the video is fluid but details are really sacrificed.

Video recording in FHD with sounds takes around 8GB of storage for 1 hour of driving. After that you need to manually delete the files if you don’t need them. So we suggest you fill up to 32GB Micro SD card storage so you don’t frequently delete files. Unfortunately there is no feature of auto-deleting videos when the storage is full just like CCTV cameras.

Overall video quality and colors are great given sufficient lights. On Night time, the story is different due to its weak night capturing skills. So if you have a tint in your front windshield, you might need recheck or test first.

The Zumi Dashboard camera is a standard to be recommended to everyone, especially at being affordable at Php3,300. For us it’s not really the price that matters here, but more of the safety and assurance it can provide when just in case (*knock on wood) problem arise on the road.

The Zumi Dashcam is vailable at Lazada Philippines and Kimstore with free 8GB Micro SD Card. Thanks to Big Step Enterprise for the opportunity to review this, you can also visit their website at www.zumi.ph

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Franklin Garcia

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