Vanture Element 3 dash cam review: Classy, three-channel goodness

Price When Reviewed

$299.99

Best Prices Today: Vantrue Element 3 sprint cam

$299.99

My final have a look at a Vantrue sprint cam was the Element 1 (E1), a intelligent, compact design with weak video captures. Day captures had been satisfactory, however essential particulars in night time captures akin to license plate numbers had been practically unimaginable to discern. To optimize the picture required both including or eradicating a polarizing filter.

That was then; the three-channel Element 3 (E3) is now, and it’s a unique animal solely, producing superb captures day and night time from all three of its cameras. Good on the corporate for the polished comeback.

Of course, the E3 can also be twice the value at $300, however in efficiency and options, it’s aggressive with the top-ranked Cobra SC 400D, which prices $100 extra. The E1 wasn’t aggressive with a complete lot when it got here to video.

Note: This assessment is a part of our ongoing roundup of the best dash cams. Go there to study competing merchandise, what to search for in a splash cam, and shopping for suggestions.

Vanture Element 3: Design and options

The Element 3, because the title hints at, is a three-channel system that includes 160-degree field-of-view 1440p entrance captures, plus 165-degree FOV/1080p inside and 160-degree FOV rear captures. All at 30 frames per second. There’s additionally a 2560x1994p mode for the entrance digicam, although the uptick intimately is delicate.

Note that 1994p takes round 120MB of storage per minute, 1440p takes about 100MB, and the 1080p lower than 80MB per minutes. Recordings are, after all, deleted as want be (except saved by you or the digicam), however the bigger the TF (micro SD) card, the higher. The Element 3 will settle for as much as 512GB (U3/Class10/A2).

The entrance and inside cameras are housed in the identical single physique, whereas the rear digicam attaches to the again window and is linked by way of a cable. All connections are Type-C. Nice.

However, this brings me to the one subject I had with the Element 3—the cable that connects the rear digicam to the principle physique makes use of straight quite than right-angled Type-C connectors.

The cable being thick makes it considerably tough to bend and the straight connections stick out in ungainly vogue. This made hiding the cable tough on the rear window, and negatively affected my capability to position the entrance digicam the place I needed it. Hardly a deal breaker, however puzzling on such an in any other case intelligent design.

Note that there are angled Type-C adapters accessible on Amazon for lower than $10. Not that that excuses Vantrue.

Vantrue would possibly’ve mitigated the impact on entrance placement should you might join the rear digicam to the semi-adhesive mount, however that solely helps the Type-C energy cable, which, paradoxically, is angled! If you forego the rear digicam, you may join the angled energy cable to the principle physique. Then once more, purchase a less expensive entrance/inside digicam is that’s what you need.

While the semi-adhesive mount of the entrance/inside unit is adjustable solely vertically, the entrance digicam’s lens physique may be tilted each vertically and horizontally—a intelligent trick I haven’t seen earlier than. It may even settle for the non-compulsory $20 polarizing filter. The rear digicam additionally makes use of a sticky mount.

The Element 3 opts for bodily multi-function buttons on the underside of the principle physique quite than a contact show for navigating options and setting issues up. Said setup was comparatively simple and also you’re walked by means of the method if you first energy on the digicam. The supplied show, whereas not contact, is a really crisp and colourful 2.5-inch IPS unit with huge viewing angles.

Vantrue features a Bluetooth distant “emergency” button that may be mounted in a handy location so that you don’t have to succeed in as much as the digicam to avoid wasting a snapshot or the present video.

The E3 additionally helps voice instructions, together with such all-time hits as: “video start” (begin recording), “take photo,” “lock the video” (emergency file save), “turn off/on audio” (microphone off), “turn off/on screen,” “turn on/off Wi-Fi,” “show front/rear camera,” and “inside video on.”

Of course, every part should hook up with your cellphone today and the E3 does that. I wax cynically, however the app may be very useful, permitting you to dump movies and work together with the embedded GPS data to see precisely the place you’ve been. Note that the E3 and cellphone talk by way of Wi-Fi so your cellphone will lose its Wi-Fi web.

Vanture Element 3: Video and efficiency

Having been singularly unimpressed with the Vantrue Element 1’s video (particularly at night time), it was good to see the corporate again on its sport with the Element 3. The video captures from all three cameras had been wonderful in the course of the day. Of course the 1440p entrance was extra detailed than the 1080 inside and rear captures, however all nonetheless confirmed good element, colour and movement compensation.

I’m paying particular consideration to the latter today after my latest expertise with the Garmin DriveCam 76 and its shot-through-jello wobbling points. (Once an indicator of older GoProfessional know-how.) The Element 3’s seize high quality isn’t fairly the most effective I’ve seen, nevertheless it retains the horizon regular.

As with the Element 1, I discovered the entrance captures barely over-exposed on the default setting. This may be ameliorated within the settings part. All the captures proven under had been taken on the default publicity settings.

Jon Jacobi

You would possibly discover a particularly faint horizontal line by means of the rear captures (the primary is instantly under). It’s a heater wire, not a defect within the digicam. It’s what occurs if you set up with out measuring. Regardless, you may see that the overall high quality from the rear digicam is sort of good.

I did have to scale back the g-sensor sensitivity to cease the digicam from saving every part within the “Event” folder. But that’s common for my automobile with its stiff road/monitor suspension (Ohlins, should you should know).

The Element 3’s greatest space of enchancment over the Element 1 is the night time captures proven under. They had been A-OK throughout—i.e., from all three cameras. This is, once more, with out the polarizing filter.

Above is the entrance nighttime seize, which reveals way more element with the Element 1. Below, you may see that the nighttime inside pictures are additionally nice due to the infrared lighting.

You may even discern element out the rear window utilizing the inside digicam, and there’s not one of the blow-out from the infrared that you simply see with some cheaper models.

The rear captures at night time are greater than satisfactory, as properly. Note that my window wasn’t pristinely clear and there’s nonetheless the blurry line within the center from the heater wire. Sorry, I used to be completed testing by the point I found it. Don’t make the identical mistake with placement in order for you good captures.

One small subject with the E3 was tremendous delicate/aggressive energy biking. Merely turning the ignition key from inside power-on to crank-the-starter place precipitated the digicam to close down and restart. Not an enormous deal, however a tad annoying and it takes 10 seconds or so earlier than you’re recording once more.

If you haven’t learn our “What to look for” part in our Best dash cams roundup, a brilliant capacitor akin to that within the E3 will final many extra cost cycles and performance higher within the chilly, however not often preserve the digicam powered on for longer than it takes to avoid wasting recordsdata. Batteries enable the digicam to remain on longer in case the 12-volt is killed in in incident, however ultimately wears out and doesn’t carry out properly below actually chilly circumstances.

Should you purchase the Vantrue Element 3?

The Element 3 proves Vantrue again on level when it comes to video captures and design—the adjustable lens physique is a very intelligent characteristic. If it weren’t for the ungainly rear digicam cable and barely over-zealous default publicity setting on the entrance digicam, I’d haven’t any complaints in any respect. Still, it’s a worthy discount of a three-channel system.