Hey it’s Andrew with Car Cam Central
If you’re looking for a stealthy
high end, front back dash camera
the Thinkware F770 should be
at the top of your list
While expensive it has many useful features
including a stealthy appearance
top of class video quality
advanced file protection
and great energy efficiency
If you want to know what a $400 camera
will do for you let's get into the review
[Intro Music]
The F770 was launched in May 2016
and priced in November at $300 for the front camera
and $400 for the front and rear camera
It’s designed by the Korean company Thinkware
better known in its home country as iNavi
Looking at the shape and design
it’s fairly unique and stealthy
It’s similar to a highway toll transponder when installed
which means most people
won’t even know it’s a camera
One on side you’ll find the power port
and the USB connection for the rear cable
These ports are hidden by a plastic flap
On the front we find the glass lens
but there’s no information on aperture
or the number of elements
To adjust the angle
you can use your fingers or a coin
and there’s enough rotation
for trucks with vertical windshields
to use this camera
Next to the lens is a translucent slot
where the security LED shines from
It’s quite fancy
and there are a number of different patterns
This feature is meant to scare off vandals
during parked recording
but may also attract unwanted attention instead
On the back is the SD memory card slot
which supports up to 128GB cards
During video recording the
F770 records at 1080P
30 frames a second for both front and back cameras
As well there’s an internal GPS
which logs your speed and position
It also has WiFi which can be used to control
the camera
download saved videos
and change settings
which is handy as there’s no LCD screen
to control the camera
We’ll explain more later on
On the bottom you’ll see four slots
which hold the 3M adhesive mount
Looking more closely at its construction
the plastic seems to made
of a high quality polymer
Pressing all around the camera
and looking inside at it’s construction
I thought it was solidly built
Looking at the rear camera
it’s significantly smaller than the main unit
It rotates 360 degrees
and it feels sturdy when pressed
and it has a refined look to its design
On the side
it has the USB port
Digging into the packaging
Thinkware did a great job on style
but less so on protection
It’s attractive on the outside
but the cardboard was thin
compared to other companies
which use a double walled box
to guard against shipping damage
The camera is snugly placed at the top
and wrapped in plastic to prevent scratches
Both the front and rear camera lenses
have an additional plastic protector
Below the cardboard cradle were the accessories
You’ll find the usual power cable, manual
and extra mount
There’s also an SD card reader
a branded 16GB thinkware microSD card
and 5 cable holders
which aren’t typically included in cheaper cameras
The rear camera comes in another box
with the camera safely nestled
in a 20 foot, 6 meter long usb cable
Disappointingly there wasn’t
an extra adhesive pad included
After unboxing I went to install the F770
which is made more difficult
because of the rear camera
While you don’t need tools
it will take longer to route
and secure the rear cable
to prevent tripping or damage to your wiring
The front camera is easily installed
like most dash cameras
Align your camera
and press the adhesive pad against the windshield
Next plug in the 13’ power cable
It’s long enough for larger commercial vehicles
What was difficult was plugging the connectors
into the small enclosure
even with my slimmer fingers
Unplugging the cable was harder
as my fingers constantly
scraped the sharp plastic
surrounding the ports
This was not an easy camera to remove
you’ll want to be comfortable
leaving it on your windshield
Next is the rear cable
Each car is different and
you’ll probably want to run it
next to
or under your seats for the easiest installation
The cable is thicker than most
which is good for durability
but can be a challenge in tighter spaces
If you get it professionally installed in a hatchback
you may not have room
to thread it through rubber connectors
I’m not a pro, so I left mine in the open
but it worked well
as I kept the wiring clear of the hinge
After installation
the camera can be used right away
but you may want to change settings
like the time and date
While there is a PC program
and a Smartphone App
the PC program is missing many settings
and is better for video playback
Going to the App
Thinkware has created
an iOS and Android version
Both have the same layout and functionality
Overall it's easy to use but
I thought getting started could have been better
it’s missing a walkthrough
and the default WiFi password
is buried in your manual
You will need to manually turn
on the camera’s Wifi
which is good for security
>> F770: WiFi Enabled
Once connected
recording stops
>> F770: Connected to a smartphone, recording stops
Inside you can quickly stream videos
from your camera
but finding the right file was harder
as the folders aren’t well named
and there isn’t any thumbnails
only a time and date stamp
To stream
you’ll need to install the required MX player
Once installed with one press you’re ready to view
within 6 seconds
and you can jump to any point in the video
If you choose to download
instead it’s slow taking 70 seconds
for a one minute video
but that’s typical
Moving into the camera’s settings
I’ll only talk about the most popular features
and a few issues I found
For a full list of settings see the F770’s manual
It’s fantastic
My impression was Thinkware
doesn’t allow a lot of customization
compared to other manufacturers
By default the camera
writes your speed in miles or kilometers
onto the recorded video
which can be turned off in the settings
Your speed and position will still be embedded
into the video file
You’re also stuck with the Thinkware branding
at the bottom
In the record settings
you can’t change the resolution
or length
it’s 1080P
1 minute long
and it always records on a loop
If you want action camera functionality
look elsewhere
You also can’t disable specific voice alerts like
>> F770: GPS Connected
There are a number of spoken languages
you can choose from
Once setup was complete
we looked at how easy it is to use day to day
As with all dash cameras it does two things
One
it turns on and starts recording
when it receives power
Second it overwrites the oldest files
on a loop so you never run out of space
When you first turn on the camera
you have no idea if it’s working
as there’s no LED status light
After four seconds there is a chime that plays
if the memory card is working
but you’ll have to wait until it fully boots up
before you see a GPS light and a voice alert
Thankfully it’s starts quickly
for a dual camera at 17 seconds
and in most vehicles the camera
will be covered by your rear view mirror
>> F770: Continuous recording will now start
I also tested the F770
under many conditions including a
missing, improperly formatted
and a failed SD card
You were always alerted when it wasn’t recording
and it would nag you until fixed
Be aware that the camera
is picky about SD cards
the camera will reject cards
based off on some unknown criteria
We recommend the Lexar 633X
Looking at the F770’s physical buttons
the emergency record was hard to use
When pressed it saves the previous
and following 10 seconds of video
in a separate file to prevent it
from being overwritten
Unfortunately the button is small and indistinct
It’s located in the middle of the camera
making it hard to find while driving
You might also turn off the
microphone by accident
There’s also Thinkware’s G-Sensor file protection
When a large shock is detected
it locks the 10 seconds before
and after the event from being looped over
At the same time Thinkware’s Dual save tech
will simultaneously save a second 6-second video
to the separate internal memory chip
This may protect your footage
if anything happens to your SD card
This is the first time I recommend
the G-Sensor feature
Most of the time it’s too sensitive
or not sensitive enough
Just for fun Thinkware dropped a car
to show off this dual save feature
[Epic Trailer Music]
The internal GPS has a number of benefits
besides tracking position and location
which can be visualized on a map
in the Thinkware Player
You can also be warned about red light cameras
Thinkware’s Safety Camera Alert
>> F770: Red light camera in 180m
In Canada from my tests
it wasn’t reliable
At some intersections I would only get alerts
driving in one direction
On the way back, nothing
The F770 also includes forward collision
and lane departure warning systems
which are supposed to help prevent accidents
and tickets
While better than many cameras
you’ll still get false or missing warnings
>> F770: ADAS Warning Sounds
Moving on let's talk about video quality
We compared the F770 side by side
against a few cameras we recommend
While it handily beats out the Blackvue DR650GW
it falls behind our recent favourites
the $100 Viofo A119 and
$250 Vicovation OPIA2
but that’s not surprising
Looking at the front camera
the video quality is about the same
as our $50 budget camera recommendation
The sharpness is good
and motion blur about the same
The field of view is pretty good at 140°
and for us is a good balance
between details and coverage
of the front of your vehicle
Against the popular DR650
the quality during the day was quite close
using the newest Blackvue firmware
which boosts the video quality
I thought the Thinkware
has a slight edge on sharpness
If you’re wondering the DR650GW
and the newer 650S
have nearly identical video quality
according to Blackvue
At night the Sony Exmor
helps boost the camera
with the video quality
just below our $100 pick
I’m impressed with the results
after comparing the clarity and sharpness
of moving objects
When compared with the Blackvue DR650GW
the sharpness is on par
but again the dynamic range
is better on the F770
You can see into the shadows
which gives you a lot more protection
when it comes to capturing pedestrians
or animals if they run onto the road
Against our $250 single lens recommendation
the OPIA2 is way sharper and clearer
but it’s not a good comparison
as each camera serves a different type of user
Let’s look at the rear camera
Its main purpose is to add context
to what your front camera captured
If someone was driving aggressively
you can show that their actions
affected your driving
During the day the quality
is against quite close to the A118C
which is quite an accomplishment
Most people will be happy
Against Blackvue the F770
is clearly way sharper
compared to the DR650
which is limited to 720P
a much lower resolution
Moving to nighttime
Thinkware has done a really great job
with the rear video quality
If we compare it again with Blackvue
there’s a very clear difference
You can see license plates and
people’s faces much clearer in the F770
There’s a lot more to talk about
but rather than overloading you with details
you can see more
including downloading raw videos
in our written article
Overall the F770’s video quality
when compared to other 2-channel systems
is among the best right now
If that’s not good enough for you
your only choice for now is to
purchase two separate cameras
We also examined the audio quality
unfortunately you can hear the camera
giving off whines and hisses
[Annoying Electrical Sounds]
While you can make out conversations
it’s not as clean
I also froze the camera at -20C
for an hour to test winter conditions
Once I plugged it back in
I couldn’t detect any problems or delays
I also tested the F770 to see if the focus
is affected under hot temperatures
We placed it in our hacked thermal oven
at 60C for an hour
The max temperature operating temperature
Thinkware recommends
I didn’t see any changes in focus
which means Thinkware did a great job
with engineering
The F770 also benefits from using capacitors
not lithium ion batteries
These are used to store energy
to safely shut down the camera
after losing power
and are better at handling heat
Thinkware also added a thermal protection sensor
and when tested
found it shuts down the camera at 75­­°C/167°F
>>F770: Shutting down the system due to the low battery
This is great to protect the camera
on hot days
during parked recording
and shows Thinkware has a high opinion
of its heat resistance
as a lower temperature limit
could have been chosen
Looking closer at parking mode
it’s a special feature
to protect your parked vehicle
while saving space on your memory card
You’ll need to install Thinkware’s hardwiring cable
into your fusebox which allows to camera
to sense when your vehicle has turned off
but still gives it power
It has two connections
one to a switched circuit
the other to something constantly live
such as your dome lights
If this doesn’t make any sense we skipped
many details as it’s an extensive topic
We have links to resources
in the description below
For the parking mode
you can choose from either motion detection
or time lapse
In either mode the bitrate is cut in half
to save space
You don’t sacrifice much quality
as the environment is mostly at a standstill
Looking first at motion detection
the camera constantly records
but only writes to the memory card
when movement is picked up
in either the front or rear camera
I sat in my car and made notes on movement
so I could compare it against the recorded videos
Overall, the F770 was very reliable
in capturing closeby objects
at either medium or high sensitivity
The camera also has buffered recording
which saves 10 seconds of video
before motion was triggered
This is useful to capture more of the scene
as no motion sensing algorithm is perfect
In the time lapse setting
the camera is constantly writing a frame of video
every second to the memory card
Once parked recording has ended the camera
will let you know how many motion events
and G-Sensor incidents captured
>> F770: During parking mode
>> F770: motion detection recording, 4 and
>> F770: event detection recording 4, occurred.
The G-sensor events are especially useful
so you can check your vehicle for possible damage
The F770 also protects your battery
from being fully drained by having
an internal voltage cutoff device
You can choose the threshold in the app
ideally a higher 12.2 or 12.3 volts
to prevent damaging your battery
We also tested the energy efficiency
which largely determines how long the
camera can record for
We measured the current in series
and recorded 3.22 Watts
during two channel motion detection mode
Compared to the two channel Blackvue
it uses 23% less energy
My only issue with parked recording
is that you can’t easily turn it off
The cable is hard to pull out
there’s no physical switch
Overall I think you’ll be quite happy
about the F770’s parking mode
It’s effective
efficient
and it’ll shut down in extremely hot weather
to protect itself
So is it worth it to get the F770?
From our review and other tests
I think it is
Especially if you’re looking for a dual channel camera
for parked recording.
You’ll also want to make sure
you get the right SD card as well
as it can be picky
If you’re not as interested in parking mode
using two cameras may be of better value
especially in video quality
but you’ll trade off
in convenience
the dual save feature
and it’s another camera to maintain and check
We’ll be doing a full guide comparing
both types in the future
Make sure to subscribe if you want more
As well I want to give full disclosure saying that
I got the front camera from Thinkware
and the rear camera from BlackBoxMyCar for free
however
they had no editorial control
over what I could or could not say
And with that
that’s the end of this review
Please give it a thumbs up if you liked it
And
Thanks for watching