today i'm introducing you to a front and rear 4k dash cam, new for 2022
it's the Zenfox U1 4k dashcam with 4k front and 1080p rear cameras.
This Zenfox U1 4k dashcam has literally just come out for the 2022 model year.
I've been very lucky to get this two-channel version.
my previous dash cam fell off its mounting and broke
I'll give a quick unboxing and introduction to the features and show the installation in my Saab.
You may ask: "why do you need a dash camera". My last dashcam saved my entire no claims bonus
when this <****> in a Jag pulled out and slammed on his brakes!
OUCH!
A few months later an uninsured driver smacked my back end.
I've got a whole playlist about the repairs.
Fortunately, that was an open and shut case because I didn't have a rear dashcam at the time
A friend of mine was the victim of a "cash for crash", luckily he had a dashcam
and the footage was instrumental in 1) saving his no claims bonus and
2) helping the police catch a criminal gang who were performing several of these scams daily.
In fact, that leads to the first top tip: one of the things we learned from the Police was that
the gangs who carry out these cash for crash scams, pick on their victims very carefully
and they do look for whether you have a dashcam
and if you have they will move on to find an easier target.
That's the rear camera - very rinky dinky!
As is the front camera! It's got a cinematic wide screen.
Looks big enough you can at least see what's going on and use the functions and
watch the video back if you've had an incident.
You'd download the video and watch it on your laptop or your computer for editing.
Also nice to see it comes in a stout box and is well protected by a foam insert,
which is great because the chances are you'll be receiving this through the post, maybe internationally.
User manual and a whole host of accessories.
This looks like the front to rear camera cable
Power lead
a good length and can be plugged into a usb source
and comes with a power socket to usb adapter. A GPS module and mounting bracket that sticks to
the screen. It even comes with a tool for installing the cables and hide them behind trim.
Spare sticky pads ... cable clips ... a usb adapter
One way it's designed to be slim is by putting the buttons on the underside.
On the basis of unboxing, so far I'm happy with this
it feels quite substantial too. I ordered a Zenfox supplied memory card
and got a 64Gb Samsung Pro No cheap rubbish here.
so now we'll get to installation. Before installing the card in the camera
Use the adapter that comes with it and your computer to format the card.
Win10 does not allow formatting to FAT32 if the partition is more than 32Gb and
I have a 64Gb card so I'm using an app called AOMEI Partition Assistant standard edition
which will allow me to format it to FAT32 I'll link in the description a help page that
shows you what to do and where to get the app from
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Put the card in the side of the camera by the red button gold pins facing rearwards like the screen
Put in the slot and lock into place. Take the mount / GPS module and clip it into the camera.
[bell ding]
I'm going to mount it behind the interior mirror.
Where you mount it will depend on what car you're putting it in.
if you can mount it in such a way that you can see the screen above the mirror then
that would be great unfortunately that's not possible in this car because the mirror is mounted
not to the glass like in many other cars but to the roof structure and is very
close to the ceiling i'm going to put the dash cam approximately here so that i'm sticking it
to the blackout portion of the top of the screen but the camera can see out of the clear portion
within the wiper sweep area. Mount the camera any way you like within
reason and subject to any local laws. It has a little bit of movement on the mount.
First, clean the area where you're going to mount it
with some isopropyl alcohol or some meths, (even a dab of brake cleaner would do) and
a freshly laundered microfiber cloth and then peel off the backing paper. Start at one edge
I'm starting at the top edge because it's the easiest edge for me to see.
Fold it down onto the screen and press hard for 5 or 6 seconds to make sure that it's well stuck
stuck power supply-wise i'm just going to plug this adapter that came with the
dash cam into the power socket in my dashboard and just dangle the cable over the mirror
into the base where it connects to for the moment and the purposes of this video
because I did already have you can see it dangling here an integrated power supply already hidden
behind the headlining for my previous dash cam but unfortunately, I cannot reuse it for this one
because it's a different type of plug this was a mini USB and this dash cam takes a type c
so I either need to get another power supply module or an adapter. It's easy enough
to install an integrated power supply though, it's a simple little box
with 12V input on one side - so it'll have a wire that you can take to a 12V supply
and a wire on the other side with the appropriate type of plug on it for your device.
For the rear camera lead you could use the tool that's provided to
get under the edge of your headlining all the way around across the top of your screen and
your doors and feed it through. You might have to remove the grab handles to be able to
pull down the headlining a little bit easier, but what I've done because I've got these flexible
cable feeding rods, I've dropped the cover off the centre console and fed the wire using
these fishing rods through past the rear light and brought the cable out next to the CHMSL.
That way the wiring is hidden. It was very easy to get it through and all the
excess cable can be coiled up behind the headlining. You don't have to use these if you
wanted to do the same you could use a short length of twin and earth cable
as your fishing rod with a little bit of stiffness to push through.
You might have to pull the headliner down a little bit at the rear light or at the rear, there's
probably some roof supports. If you click show more and expand the description below the video
I'll put links to tools, leads and bits and bobs you might need and also a link to this camera
on the zenfox website with worldwide delivery. The power supply plugs into the side of the base
which also has the GPS receiver in and the rear camera lead plugs into the top of the
main camera body. Download and install the Zenfox app onto your phone, apply power to the dash cam
and straight away you will see what the camera sees through its front camera. Don't forget to
remove the small protective tape from the lens. Switch off recording with the second button,
and use the right hand button to press and hold and turn on the wi-fi and on your phone
search for Zenfox U1 network. Connect to that network and the default password is
12345678. Open the Zenfox app it'll ask you to click on connect camera and
on your phone you'll be able to see a live view of exactly what the camera is seeing.
Using the camera rotation button can switch between different views. Now go to the back,
connect the rear camera and use live view to position the camera. If I connect the rear
camera. Remove the lens protector. Set it up so the heated rear screen
wires don't interfere with the picture. Once you've got your position of the rear camera sorted don't
forget to clean the screen before you stick it on. Come back to the front and position the [front]
camera to get the best possible view forwards. Tilt the camera so that it's looking downwards
ever so slightly. My experience with other cameras would suggest that it's better if the camera is
tilted down a little bit so that it doesn't get too much sky at the top of the picture, because
if it does, on a bright day that tends to wash out the picture. So try and get a little less sky
even if that means you end up with a bit more bonnet. If you've got any questions or comments
put them down below in the comments section and I'll endeavour to answer them for you.
Using the record button on the app, stop the recording and you can go into settings. You
can scroll through and there are lots of settings there. Increase the loop recording up to
five minutes - one thing I found with previous dashcams if the loop
recording is short, is when it stops one recording and starts the next recording
there's ever such a tiny time period of events that don't get recorded and I actually
had that issue in the video I showed you earlier when I hit the Jag so if you make the
loop recording time longer you get less of those the chances of an accident or other incident falling
exactly on one of those becomes much much less. I couldn't find any instructions why it is
it's beeping at me but hey ho. I think it's probably because it's ON and not recording.
There's an option in these settings called 'rear camera rotate' which you can have on or off, I'm
suspecting that enables you to rotate the rear image 180 degrees which enables you then
fit the camera in the rear exactly how you want it - doesn't matter which way up you put it.
So you can make it fit to suit whatever car you've got, I wish I'd known that before I fitted
the rear camera because I would have fitted it the other way up. Notification sounds off,
stopped it beeping. GPS is on. Speed units I'm choosing miles per hour. You can change the
wi-fi name on it as well if you want to and the password. You can also put your car license plate
number in, not quite sure what benefit that gives you. Set recording going again, when you start
your engine it'll start recording whilst you're driving. When you stop your engine stops recording.
All that's left to do now is tidy my mess of wires which I'll do off-camera and
over the next couple of weeks, I'll take the car out and I'll drive around in a variety
of different traffic, hopefully weather and also daylight conditions and get a variety of videos
taken and download them and I'll do a proper review of the quality of recording
I'll also try out some of the functions like the parking function and see what use that is.
There's something in the parking function called time-lapse and i have something in particular in
mind for that which I'll reveal in the next video when I do the full review but so far so good.
It was stoutly packed, it feels good quality and well made. It fits reasonably easily, obviously how
easy it is to send the wires around your car will depend on which car you're fitting it to.
It seems to do the job okay, the picture quality that I was getting on my phone was very good,
better than other cameras that I've had so I have high hopes. In the meantime if you've got
value from this video please consider supporting the channel and I shall see you next time.