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Abee M7 review

When I saw the specifications for the Abee M7 , I could not help but really want one , seriously can you blame me ?  With up to 2880 x 2160 resolution this cam offers some serious capability for capturing what is happening in front of you on the road . Now from the factory the focus on my sample was on the soft side , and when I opened up the cam to adjust focus . It is a little more than your average cam on the inside I can tell you . It looks and feels like a higher quality cam than your usual run of sub $100 cams . Still there is that soft focus thing , and there was an issue with the audio as well ( which was not good ) . I get more into the negatives later on ( there are a few to talk about , but for me - not really deal breakers ) .

Lets look at the first video , Abee is at 2560 x 1440 - 30FPS

 

 

Abee @ 2880 x 2160

 

Abee @ night

 

 

I did say the Abee was a little soft on the focus , after turning the lens in about 5mm , here is the result .

Abee @ 2880 x 2160  VS  Abee re-focused @ 2560 x 1440

 

 

And here is the Abee @ 2880 x 2160  ( Edited to 2560 x 1440 )

 

 

Did I mention a few issues ?  I think I did , and I started with the audio .

So here is a sample , notice the old FILM style click click of film running on a spool . ( not good for modern digital audio )

You may wish to bump up the audio to hear it clearly .

 

 

 

Now the other thing is enabling WDR ( ? ) , what is WDR ?  . Is it wide dynamic range ?

Instruction manual says nothing , your choice is to enable or disable ( default setting = disabled )

But enabling it results in banding on the video , here is a sample of WDR enabled .

 

 

 

Hmmmm , for the price I paid I really like this cam , its not perfect and to be honest I have not found a sub $100USD cam yet that is perfect .

So issues are , not the best sound ( leave it off ) , WDR enables degrades the video ( leave it off ) , and the soft focus ( can be corrected ) which might be a deal breaker for some as correcting it will VOID WARRANTY !

The potential for this cam to be awesome is certainly there , but we will most likely have to wait for an updated version .

Last thing , you really want to charge the internal battery before putting this cam in the car , it took about 8 hours for the battery in my cam to fully charge , if you don't put the cam on the charger , the battery will most likely go flat in the car and this may cause issues .

So out of 10 ,   .5 for the long long battery charge time , 1 point for WDR , and 1 point for the audio , and another point for the soft focus ..  That leaves us with 6.5 out of 10 for this cam .. Abee is on the right track , but these minor annoyances can be deal breakers for people who don't like issues , even minor ones . 

 

Update 4 March 2016

 

I did mention the long long battery charge time ..

Ok looks like it is going to be an issue unless you drive your car a lot .. 

I have done a moderate amount of driving since getting the Abee M7 and today it was beeping at me and turning on and off ..

Because the battery was flat

So I have put the Abee M7 on a charger ( USB Wall charger ) ..

But it looks like the Abee battery is charged way slow ..  ( Too slow ) In the car . 

If mem serves it took 8 to 10 hours last time to fully charge from the USB wall charger @ 0.5A going to the Cam . 

I think this might be a bit of a problem unless you drive a fair bit ...