When I needed a new dash camera I found good reviews on the Crosstour 1080P Dashcam Dashboard Camera with 3″ LCD and decided to buy one and see how it performed. It seemed to get good reviews, was one of the most popular Amazon dash cameras for cars, be a little more in line with what I wanted, and was at a great price point.
Manufacturer specs:
- 3 INCH LARGE LCD SCREEN CAR RECORDER – Combined with 1080P Full HD and 12MP resolution, this dashcam can provide insurance claims to prevent disputes. Super large screen shows the realtime image, helps you clearly see every detail when playing back and brings better visual experience in the upcoming holiday.
- 170° WIDE-ANGLE DASHCAM – 170°wide angle lens allows a larger viewing angle to be recorded. For example, you will be able to see 4 lanes of traffic. The more you see, the safer you are. 6 glass fixed-focus provides better light transmission, thus recording crystal clear video.
- BUILT-IN G-SENSOR CAR DASH CAMERA – With built-in G-sensor, this dashcam can automatically detect a sudden shake/collision and lock the footage to prevent the video from being overwritten even in loop recording. The accident scene can be truly restored.
- BIG APERTURE AND WDR TECHNOLOGY – Combined with big aperture and wide dynamic range(WDR), you can get comparatively clearer footage and image at night. Car license plates can be easily seen in low light conditions. The safety of driving at night will be improved a lot.
- 7 IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS AND EASY TO USE – Loop recording, motion detection, on/off audio, license plate stamp, time stamp, auto power-off, screen saver, burst photo. All of these functions basically cover what you need for daily driving. It comes with 1 suction cup, easy to use. Everything you need to get holiday ready.
When I was looking for a dashcam I was replacing an existing one that I really didn’t like very much. That first camera taught me a lot about what I did not like which included a tiny screen, a suction cup attachment to the windshield, and buttons too small to press.
The Crosstour 1080P dashcam has a much larger screen but not so large that it gets in the way of your view or distracts you from driving. I mounted it using the included hard mount and double-sided tape up behind the rearview mirror. In order to see the screen, I have to lean to the left and forward a bit to look around my rearview mirror. This is great because I do not want the distraction while I am driving.
The buttons on the Crosstour 1080P dashcam, while still small, are much easier to press than the last one I had.
The larger screen of the Crosstour 1080P dashcam also allows me to see that it is indeed recording when the vehicle starts up, which was a challenge on the old one.
There really was no setup and installation was a snap. Other than mounting the Crosstour 1080P dashcam to the windshield I inserted a Sandisk 32gb Micro SD card which is the largest size they recommend and plugged in the power. Fortunately, this used MINI USB to connect just like my old one so the power wire I ran under the headliner, down the pillar, and through the dash to the fuse box, and still worked just fine.
The default configuration of the Crosstour 1080P dashcam is exactly what I wanted so I left it alone. The Crosstour 1080p manual was not needed at all.
This is pretty much an auto camera recording system. Basically how the Crosstour 1080P dashcam works is that when you turn the car on you hear a chime as it powers up and starts recording. For a couple of minutes, the LCD display is on showing you what it is recording and the symbols that tell you it has a card in it and is indeed recording. Then the LCD turns off.
When you stop the vehicle and turn off the ignition, a little battery inside the Crosstour 1080P dashcam keeps it running for a couple of seconds in case something happens as you are exiting the vehicle. After that, the unit shuts off.
The recording is continuous and it overwrites previous recordings as it goes. I read somewhere that a 32gb card would give you somewhere around 4 hours of recording in the Crosstour 1080P dashcam. This means you should have plenty of evidence should something happen and you need it.
If something does happen the Crosstour camera locks the last sections of the video so that they can not be deleted or overwritten. They suggest you format the memory card to remove the locked video after you are done with it.
The video that the camera records is very good quality for what you pay for the thing. No, it is not as nice as the 1080p video that my Nikon DSLR or even GoPro records, but I never expected that. It is very clear however and that is what I was looking for the most. I am also impressed with its views at night. Although this is not a camera with so-called car cameras with night vision, it does a fine job of recording what the driver would see at night.
Getting the video off the camera is easy enough, just remove the Micro SD card from the camera and put it in your computer. You can then play the video right off the card, or even better, copy the video over to your computer. Either way works fine, I just prefer copying all the videos to my computer first as it makes it far faster to search for the segment I want.
Once you are done, you can either just put the Micro SD card back in the camera, or you can format the card first which is usually the recommended way to do things. It keeps the car better organized and allows for the camera to start recording on a clean slate.
So far I am very happy with my Crosstour 1080P Dashcam Dashboard Camera Full HD with 3″ LCD Screen and give it five out of five stars.
I hope this article on the Crosstour 1080P Dashcam Dashboard Camera with 3″ LCD has helped!
