Roadhawk

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Sun 2 Jan 2011 21:44
Roadhawk - Civman

Hey,

I know some of you guys have the roadhawk fitted, I recently purchsed one but am not really that happy with the quality of the video it gives.

Do you have yours mounted using the plastic mount? if so do you have the mount attached to the screen with the longer piece of black plastic at the bottom or the top?

What has your footage been like during the winter months?, I am seeing a very washed out and pixelated image (link below).
http://fsfa.org/1.avi

also, night footage seems to be very very dark?

Thanks in advance

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Sun 2 Jan 2011 22:54
Roadhawk - Lygonos

Linkfail I'm afraid.

I don't have a Roadhawk, but they appear to have at least 2 possible resolutions, 640x480 and 1280x960 giving different framerates (30/sec vs 5/sec apparently).

Maybe you need to change resolution ?

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 10:12
Roadhawk - injection doc

Link failed I'm afraid so can't see image.

I have 4 road cams in 4 cars & no problem with image in any of them. You have to remeber the purpose of the camera & its not designed for HD quality.

Hight time image is dark but it can still prove whether you were moving or stationary or whether you were to blame or not in an accident.

If your worried about capturing a reg number in the dark just shout the reg number out & it will capture it on the audio.

I use the plastic screen mount, not the suction disc, the mount is up different ways on different cars to allow for the rake of the screen.

I may try & post screen screen shots later

You can always ring them they are very helpful.

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 10:20
Roadhawk - injection doc

Found an old link going back to 2009, of a screen shot. The lines in the sky are from the heated screen in my Landrover

s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/injectiondoc/?act...g

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 16:58
Roadhawk - Civman

Thanks for the replys guys.

Your image quality is a lot better than what I am seeing, I'll try the link again.

http://fsfa.org/1.avi

I did contact them before the new year and they said it didnt look right, but then obviously not much happened because of all the bank holidays and partying :P

My main reason for getting it was because of the quality in the videos I had seen on youtube, but now it looks as though smart witness has a better image quality and similar features.

My problem is the angle at which the windscreen is on the civic, the only real way I can get a half decent image is if I stick it in the middle of the screen, but this then fills half the screen with the dashboard.

Cheers

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 19:30
Roadhawk - injection doc

I have fitted all of ours at the top of the screen just below the roof lining. the lens angle can be changed & depending on which way you use the mount, the angle of the camera can be changed.

The camera is fitted above the mirror and out of view in all our cars and no problem with the image

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 19:39
Roadhawk - injection doc

I have managed to watch the footage & it would appear you have the lens too far away from the screen & the lens set too low. Its picking up a lot of reflection back from the screen. I have the lens a couple of mil away from the screen & aimed higher up.

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 20:19
Roadhawk - Civman

The camera is as close to the screen as I can physically get it in that video, if I move the lense up any further the image gets even darker as the camera tries focusing on the sky.

In the still photos I have turned the mount around, which means the camera is further away than the video.

I think the refelction is caused by the slope of the windscreen as it is one of the newer shaped honda civics.

I might try putting it in the back window and see what the image is like, the rear window doesnt have such a deep slope to it.

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 19:49
Roadhawk - Civman

I'll see what the dogcam guys say tomorrow after they have viewed the examples I sent them.

It could be something inside the unit isnt working properly, or it could just be the winter days and lack of sunlight.

As the videos dont seem to work for you guys I stuck a couple of photos up.

http://fsfa.org/1.bmp

http://fsfa.org/2.bmp

Thanks for all your help it really has been appreciated.

Edited by Civman on 03/01/2011 at 19:51

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 20:26
Roadhawk - injection doc

Here's how I have fitted mine. You will see its close to the roof and the top tint does not effect it.

s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/injectiondoc/road...g

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Mon 3 Jan 2011 21:34
Roadhawk - Civman

unfortunatly I'm limited on where I can put it as the car has a big bit of plastic running down the middle of the windscreen.

If I have it too high the cameras view is restricted (you can see it to the left of the image on the video.

http://honda.co.uk/cars/civic5door/_assets/images/galleries/large/04_exterior.jpg

You can see what I am on about as well, in this photo.

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Wed 5 Jan 2011 14:47
Roadhawk - injection doc

Managed to paste a couple of pic's, one is driving on the freeway from Tahoe to San fransico, 2nd is in the dark when my daughter was turning right at a roundabout and a youngster decided to overtake a stopped car & drive through the roundabout at 40+! how they missed I have no idea as you can see how close it was !

You may wish tio zoom in on the 2nd as its a screen shot. She was still travelling at 14MPH & the ABS was full on!

s739.photobucket.com/albums/xx33/injectiondoc/?sta...l

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Wed 5 Jan 2011 16:50
Roadhawk - Civman

Thanks for that,

That certainly was a close shave, hope everyone was ok.

I sent the roadhawk back today, they are going to replace it with another unit, hopefully it was a faulty camera I had.

Must say the guys at DCS are very fast to respond when it comes to support emails, and are very helpful.

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Wed 5 Jan 2011 20:03
Roadhawk - injection doc

You know civman, daughter rings me up in tears! "I nearly had a crash " I thought yeah yeah yeah, & she said the bloke was a numpty & I thought bound to be some exageration but when i saw the video I couldn't belive it! you can see where the other car had stopped for her turning right! & this guy ploghs through the roundabout at 40+ in the dark in a 30mph.

hence to say daughter won't drive now without a camera. best bit was she didn't even swear bless her cotton socks & she even found time to parp the horn!

There is a guy on another forum who just had an accident with a cam fitted & the other guy claimed a different story. the outcome was when the evidence was shown in court he got a wacking great big fine for making a false statement!

camera is worth every penny.

I even used mine once when I was told I had driven through a red light in Northolt when in fact it was clearly amber on the playback so worth it weight in gold for many applications

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Thu 6 Jan 2011 08:57
Roadhawk - xam

Mine is the same as bothe examples!

I believe that the camera is of fixed aperture and it is the variation in light levels that make the difference in clarity . Sunny days are good pictures - Cloudy days are not so good

Xam

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 16:26
Roadhawk - carrig
Is the Roadhawk DC1 really as good as the makers claim? It seem to be very expensive considering some of the poor reports that I have seen . Is there an alternative? BFN
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Mon 17 Dec 2012 18:21
Roadhawk - MrEckerslikefromRamsbottom
Is the Roadhawk DC1 really as good as the makers claim? It seem to be very expensive considering some of the poor reports that I have seen . Is there an alternative? BFN

Yes, there are alternatives. I bought one of the fifty quid ones from Amazon, and sent it back because it didn't work. That is, it didn't work properly. It gave a few seconds of smooth(ish) video at a time and then stuck on one frame, missing big chunks of video. Customer reviews of this camera suggested that most buyers had had to return them. The video quality was about the same as the Roadhawk, which I've got fitted now. The Roadhawk has been completely reliable in the three months that I've had it fitted. I'm impressed with the video quality of the more expensive cameras that I've seen on various web-sites, but that's it -- they're more expensive and even buying the Roadhawk was not easy for me. Why have I got it? Got caught with cash-for-a-crash when a gang of hooded youths blocked in my car on the approach to a roundabout and a young asian girl reversed her Renault Clio into me. All the rear-light bulbs had been unplugged from the Clio. Anyway, I agree that the night-time quality is not good, but there we are. I'm sure that as these camera journey-recorders become more popular, they must become cheaper.

One other thing - like it says in the Roadhawk documentation, the GPS receiver can take some time to 'aquire' a signal. It's better with a clear sky, but on a rainy day - well, I drove all the way from Ramsbottom to the centre of Bolton before it gave the triumphal chime and the GPS led turned green!

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 18:23
Roadhawk - unthrottled

Got caught with cash-for-a-crash when a gang of hooded youths blocked in my car on the approach to a roundabout and a young asian girl reversed her Renault Clio into me

What happened? Did they get away with it?

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 19:19
Roadhawk - bathtub tom

That's why I got an in-car camera.

M1, two cars in front pulled alongside each other and appeared to be having a conversation, was sufficient to warn me. One pulled in front of the other and braked, I was far enough behind for ABS to pull me up in time. Perhaps they were novices?

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 21:59
Roadhawk - MrEckerslikefromRamsbottom

What happened? Did they get away with it?

'Fraid so. I really didn't know what they were up to at the time. I'd just driven three hundred miles, nearly home, and it all happened so quickly. No damage appart from paint cracked on front bumper. Didn't really understand that she'd reversed into me 'till I was talked through it by someone, and couldn't understand what she hoped to get out of it. Then she made a 'whiplash' claim and Churchill payed up and docked my NCB. Won't be back with Churchill when my insurance is due in Feb. I've learnt the hard way.

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 22:39
Roadhawk - unthrottled

That is awful. I feel for you.

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 22:54
Roadhawk - MrEckerslikefromRamsbottom

Right --- I think this will work. It's taken me an hour to find a way to upload these two RoadHawk videos - one during the day and one at night...

imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/oerwnguhqccxkkhh.../

img844.imageshack.us/img844/3100/dx6vponksvdixwtxz...4


Perhaps the original poster could compare the quality with his..

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