HaloCam C1 Dash Camera Review

Author:

Published:

61rvds22UL. SL1000 1

Affiliate Disclaimer

As an affiliate, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. We get commissions for purchases made through links on this website from Amazon and other third parties.

The Halocam dash camera takes an unusual approach to the in car camera market, rather than offering a camera unit with built in screen, such as the Vantrue N1,  the unit is a small, screen less, cylinder that makes use of your smartphone’s screen.

In the box you get the camera, long power cable, power port with 2 USB sockets, sticky mount, instruction manual and small button.

The mount is a sticky back mount rather than suction mount and it’s not especially easy to attach/detach the camera. The mount was very stiff and while it might ease up in time it does mean you’re not going to be easily removing the camera from the car to start with, it’s disappointing it wasn’t easy to use out of the box.

Once you’ve added a microSD card and positioned it on your car you’ll need to connect to the cameras WiFi in order to use the app to control the remaining settings, such as the cameras clock or picture setting such as white balance.

The app allows you to create an account and there is the ability to share your trips with other users of the app.  The button can be stuck to your dash and when pressed the unit takes a photo and saves a section of video.  This feature wasn’t tested, the idea of pressing a non standard button driving seems a little dangerous.

HaloCam C1 Sharing

If you’ve got an OBD port and the correct cable (not supplied with the unit reviewed) you can connect this to your car to take advantage of additional features such as vehicle diagnosis. Some models come with an additional rear camera which plugs into the main unit via USB.

Rather than R2-D2 like beeps and whistles, the HaloCam C1 gives spoken instructions, for example when initially powering up it’ll refer you to the app to set the time or format the memory card.

Once on the road the C1 is a small unit that you won’t notice.  It’s got a wide angle lens to capture a the full wide of the road or motorway you’re driving along and as well as video it captures in car audio via a built in microphone.

The footage generally look good.  You can read the number plate of the car ahead, see what’s going on at the side of the road and it even copes well in dark/rainy conditions.

One thing noticed on review of the footage was occasionally it seemed to stutter.  It didn’t happen often, and it only seemed to be for a moment, but in car accidents a moment is all that’s required to miss some vital incident you really wish was captured.

The use of the app is frustrating, while it keeps the camera compact it’s annoying to have to pull your mobile out and start the app to check the camera position or adjust a setting, it’s much easier with a small built in screen.  However the app makes a lot more sense if you’ve got the additional rear camera as your mobile can act as a parking screen.

The HaloCam C1 is available from:

– Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2yz7obp
– eBay: https://ebay.to/2hBTvpN
– Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/2fygfCv
– Amazon.ca: https://amzn.to/2xI7BtF

HaloCam C1 Dash Camera Video Review


About the author

One response to “HaloCam C1 Dash Camera Review”

  1. Avatar
    Justin Martin

    I had an issue with the app so I contacted the Developers. 4 days later and they have now emailed me to tell me that they cannot access their Google Play Store account meaning that they cannot update or even access the halocam app on Android. For this reason halocam app has been removed from Google Play Store meaning if you have an Android device the Wi-Fi feature on this camera no longer exists. This camera is useless to android users.

Latest Posts