I recently purchased a Navman MiVue 4K Pro dashcam from the Qantas store using points plus pay and thought I'd share my experience. Qantas had the MiVue 4K Pro discounted about $40 off and I was able to use my Qantas points, so ended up getting the MiVue 4K Pro for about $30 out of pocket.
My main reason for wanting the MiVue Pro 4K dashcam is I produce driving videos and moving to 4K from full HD felt like it was the right step. Personally, I also use the dashcam in case the footage is needed for evidence. Not so much for accidents, but more so from fines from government bodies. The government is tightening down on everything and whilst it's claimed to be for road safety, the clamping down seems to be making little difference to road safety, but it is certainly increasing government revenue.
The government is not immune to making errors. If I'm in the wrong I'll pay the fine. I won't be happy, but I'll take it on the chin. A s an example I once drove around Box Hill looking for a parking spot after dropping someone off at a hospital. I spent 10-15 minutes looking for a suitable parking spot. I found one in Medway Street, Box Hill and left the keys with my wife so she could use the car to drive home. I took the bus home. I was very careful and checked all signage. Turned out I was parked in a 2-hour parking area. One side of the road had no restriction and the other side, electric metered parking. It made no sense to me why I was booked.
After checking all the signage I realised the issue was the placement of the parking signs. I couldn't see the parking signs in one direction as thick trees blocked the view and in the other, the sign was on an angle leaning into the trees. I learnt from this, don't just look for the signs, look also for the poles. You shouldn't have to make this amount of effort to see parking signs.
However, I was parked midway between the signs (50m from each) making the distance between the signs 100m. Checking the Australian standard revealed the maximum distance should not exceed 75m and so the parking signage exceeded the standard, which means in my mind they're void. I took the matter to court which took nearly two years to resolve and the case was dropped by the Whitehorse City council. No skin off their nose wasting people's time, they get paid their salaries, but a huge waste of my time and plenty of angst. The dashcam footage was evidence for me, but in the end wasn't needed. I'm happy to take an issue to court if I think the government is wrong, but it is a long process, hardly worth the time, feels like extortion as the risk is you lose financially can increase significantly, and in the end, it boils down to whatever the magistrate rules.
So, for me the dashcam provides evidence and also enables me to capture material for my YouTube channel.
The following is what I've found over the last few months of using the Navman MiVue 4k Po dashcam.
The 4K image is slightly better than the full HD Navman MiVue 150 Safety camera I already owned. Initially I found it very difficult to see the better quality. My screens are FHD and not 4K, but over time I used techniques to zoom into the video and you could see it was easier to read number plates, lines on the road were sharper and road signage was slightly easier to read.
Keep in mind going from FHD to 4K means two pixels instead of one in each direction. In effect it's like being twice as close. Reading a number plate on a car on a FHD video further away than 3-4 metres is usually not possible, whereas the 4K video gives a little extra distance. Not much, just a little.
From an accident point of view, the likelihood of getting a number plate you can read is unlikely, unless you run up the bum of a car in front and then you're the one in the wrong. Cars from the side, or rear, you're not going to get the number plate. But you will get the environment and what was going on at the time of the accident. Will it make a difference to your insurance claim? Probably not, it may make it a little easier, and if you're in the wrong, makes it easier to prove you're at fault.
In terms of video quality the MiVue 4K Pro produces a slightly sharper image, however what I've found is there's more white specs in the image. What may be bark or leaves on the road, looks like white specs so it tends to lose a little detail.
The MiVue 4K Pro has what's called ADAS features, (advanced driving-assistance system). There is lane departure warning, forward collision warning and forward moving off warning. There are also safety features including notification of fixed speed/red light cameras, school zones, train crossings, check speed zone and accident blackspots.
So far, I've found the lane departure warning useless and warns all the time when you're not departing a lane. A slight curve, a run-in lane on a freeway, almost any reason will set if off, so often it is useless. This was turned off after a few days.
The second feature is the forward collision warning which advises you that you are travelling too close to the car in front. Very rarely are you travelling too close. Sometimes there's not even a car in front of you and you're told you're too close. When you take off at the lights and the cars are spreading out you're told you're travelling to close. But when you really are travelling too close as in you've taken too long to slow down so are getting very close to the car in front of you, not even a peep. So, a pretty useless feature. I turned this off after a few weeks.
The train crossing ahead gave a false alert on a freeway when the railway was under the freeway. I don't see any use in the train crossing ahead alert as train crossings are pretty easy to see in advance.
Check speed zone seemed to come on when it made no sense and the accident blackspot doesn't seem relevant when you're driving along. You can't disable these features individually.
I do like having the red light, speed camera notifications which also gives the speed, although these can get out of date so can advise the wrong speed. I'd suggest Waze is probably a better tool, but it does mean your mobile battery gets drain on your mobile if it's not plugged in. Waze also lets you know if you're speeding at any time, although Waze isn't good at school zones or variable speed limits as you get the default speed and that's wrong at certain times.
Overall, I find the advanced features of a dashcam to be a waste of the additional money and using Waze and a more basic dashcam more cost effective. Unfortunately, sometimes to get the better-quality video from the dashcam you have to move up to a more expensive unit and these features are included.
Installation of the MiVue Pro 4K was a bit tricky. You first stick an electrostatic sticker to your windscreen and then stick the mount onto the sticker. If you get the placement wrong or want to move it you can, but you can see the sticker picks up dirt left even after thoroughly cleaning the windscreen. You can't adjust the angle horizontally after you've affixed the dashcam.
I like that the dashcam sits flatter on the windscreen, but that also creates a problem. The display is on more of an angle and difficult to read. Very difficult to read compared to the older MiVue 150. I now struggle to read the display with the angle meaning using it to check my speed is more difficult.
I've found the power lead connection to be very loose and has caused the MiVue 4K Pro to fail. You need to make sure the dashcam is on every time. I'll end up using one of my older cables as the cable is far too loose when plugged in.
My older memory cards would not work in the MiVue 4K Pro. I was OK with that. There's a feature to test if the SD card is suitable but this test feature is useless because if requires electronics on the card which isn't on the card I purchased that was recommended by Navman. Initially I thought the expensive card I'd purchased couldn't be used. Turns out the card is fine, just that the test requires electronics that doesn't exist on the card.
Would I buy the Navman MiVue 4K Pro again. For me the answer is yes as I wanted the 4K quality for my videos. You like to improve the quality you deliver to your viewers. I really would be happy to continue to use the MiVue 150 dashcam if I had not purchased the MiVue 4K Pro. I think the extra features are a waste of money and time. I do like and use the GPS data that's recorded with the videos and some cameras don't record this data.
In terms of image quality, I have noticed an artifact appear at the bottom of the video which is a large bluish spot when driving towards the sun. This does not happen on the MiVue 150.
Overall, I'd say the Navman MiVue 4K Pro for me at least, is not good value for money. This isn't to say other 4K dashcams would be any better, just that for my needs and the extra money, the MiVue 4K Pro fell short of my expectations.
Kelvin
