Some interest on this forum, so posting a quick review about my initial take on the Tooo Cycling DVR80 rear camera/light. The DVR80 is a frontal assault on the Cycliq Fly6 camera.
The stats are easily available to compare on the respective Web pages. The big attractions to the DVR80 are very long battery life (claimed up to 7-9.5 hours of camera recording - I assume depending on light usage) and good storage capacity with circular overwriting (12.5 hours with 64GB card). The price is also reasonable.
Purchasing
I purchased it from overseas. I’m in the U.S. and apparently they don’t have inventory here yet. But it was still easy and relatively quick (a week or so). I ordered it with a uSD card, but it shipped without one and the difference in price was automatically refunded without my involvement. A good sign about business practices.
Unboxing
I won’t post the pictures I took because they’re exactly the same as what’s on the site. The box is very nice, with magnetic latch. All the mounting options are included - no need to buy a separate aero seatmast gizmo. And it included two mounts for a “normal” seattube, an nice touch.
Installation
It mounts great. This is the mount for round seattubes, but it seems to work just fine on my “D-shaped” Kamm-style seattube. Obviously using the o-ring style attachment system. Two sizes are included. The rubber interface seems spongy enough to hug a D-shape tube well enough. The device itself is detachable using a proprietary linear, sliding mount, vs the quarter-turn style. It seems like a solid connection. Good satisfying click when it locks in. On the downside there’s apparently no back-up safety lanyard system like with some cycling electronics. I don’t anticipate it falling off with the seemingly solidly thought-out mounting system. But things happen, of course. I thought it looked less ungainly and clunky in real life than the pictures online look.
Build Quality
Hard to gauge quality on a first take. But it seems decent. Everything worked out of the box. The USB connector (USB C) and microSD card slot are protected by rubber inserts, like the Cycliq. They seem solid. And are easier to close than some of Cycliq’s where you have to kind of massage the long inserts to get them to fit in right. No massaging on this one.
It seems well sealed. I wasn’t getting “junk vibes.”
Phone App
There is no app. Next. To adjust the date you have to edit a file by hand, just like with early Cycliq units.
Light
Seems to work great as a light. It has the usual selections of modes and intensity. It’s easy to switch between with the one-button interface, even reaching behind the seat while riding. I have no reason not to believe the specs on lumens, etc. It seems nice and bright in daylight.
Video
OK, this is where things take a turn for the (slightly) worse.
The only way to get the video is to pull the microSD card and mount it as a drive, or use the USB cable. I used a USB cable to a Windows PC. It was easy to find the files. All nicely listed by date, all in a manageable size.
But they all use a “TS” extension. Not MP4, or any of the formats commonly used by GoPro, Cycliq, and others. Odd. I had to convert the file I wanted to edit before uploading to YouTube.
But the below note aside, the video and sound are two big steps below GoPro and one step below Cycliq. It gets uncomfortably close to what I’d call “bad.” Poor color depth, blotchy compression artifacts (even with the raw TS file). Anyone’s gonna have a hell of a time reading any license plates.
Sound is “meh.” You can hear people talk, but I got a ton of wind noise. Not unexpected. But still not great.
Watch me throw down in a futile old-man criterium attack:
Note: This YouTube video quality is a bit worse than what I’m seeing straight from the TS, even though it’s uploaded as an HD video. This is probably a result of either my TS->MP4 conversion or my video editing tool. I’ll update this review with better video once I figure that out.
Runtime
The big test. Does it really run 9.5 hours with no light? I’m running it now. Will update this with the results.
