Z-Edge Z3 3-Inch 2K Ultra Full HD1296P 2560x1080 Car Dash Cam with 32GB Card & Parking Monitor

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Product Specifications

Voted best 2016 dash cam by Wirecutter - Super HD dashboard camera focusing on great image quality and reliable, automatic operation each time you get in your car - thousands recording with this top rated windshield camera that avoids pricey, unnecessary features such as GPS and Wi-Fi
ULTRA 2K HD IMAGE QUALITY: Record every moment in exceptional 2560 X 1080p super HD resolution at 30 frames per second (the current maximum available in consumer dash cams) - broad 145-degree field of view (FOV), offering useful details when you zoom-in with minimal fisheye image distortion
Automatic Safeguards: Records automatically during vehicle ignition - switches off automatically with ignition off - energy saving LCD screen off timer - loop recording feature for efficient storage management - manual and automatic video protection from deletion - in-built G-sensor / accelerometer triggers crash detection recording - parking mode watchdog for ²⁴⁄₇ surveillance of your vehicle
Never Miss a License Plate: Featuring best-in-class color CMOS image sensor and processor to capture details at a distance crisply and across a variety of light conditions - 3.0-inch scratch resistant LCD display screen - USB and battery power for reliable performance in hot and freezing conditions that ordinarily impacts pure battery power
Now 32GB Kingston SD memory card inside every pack - solid suction mount with screw-in attachment, fully adjustable for best viewing and quickly removable - extra long 157-inch USB cable for easy routing inside your vehicle’s interior - dual port USB adapter - 30 days money back guarantee - 18 month warranty - lifetime support

Product Description

Z-Edge—–From Zero to Hero

Z-Edge Z3 ,the new pick for the best dam cam by Wirecutter. According to the WIRECUTTER (Feb 23, 2016), Z-Edge Z3 wins the competition because of its great image quality with great video quality in the wide 2560x1080-pixel format across a range of difficult outdoor light and reliable, automatic operation .

Other Features:

Higher configuration: While most dash cams in the market are based on Novatek chips, the Z-Edge Z3 is built on high end Ambarella A7 processor, features higher stability on seamless recording. The OV4689 Color CMOS image sensor captures video in 1296P resolution.

Loop Recording: Automatic seamless video recording in loop to use the storage efficiently, with the earliest unlocked video clips being overwritten when reaching the storage card’s maximal capacity. Customizable video clip length of 1, 3, and 5 minutes.

Ignition detection: The device is automatically turned on and recording when the engine starts, and automatically turned off shortly after the engine is off (working for most Car Models except those always having power supply in the cigarette lighter even when the engine is off).

Motion detection: The device automatically pauses video recording after the vehicle stops moving for some time, and automatically resumes recording when the vehicle starts to move.

Crash detection: Highly-sensitive G-sensor powered automatic video recording and video file locking when a collision or crash is detected. The sensitivity of the G-sensor can be set to low, mid and high levels.

Vibration detection: In parking, the device is automatically turned on and recording when a vibration is detected.

Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) Technology: the car dvr’s range is extended to cover a greater span between bright and dark areas in the image.

Product Reviews

Be careful which 64GB memory card you use in your Z3. They don’t all work!!!

Six of my friends claimed their Z3 died within a few months of purchase. THEY WERE WRONG!!! In each case, I showed them that the extremely popular 64GB memory card they purchased should NEVER BE USED in the Z3. All these people were using a 64GB SanDisk ULTRA card. They purchased it because Amazon shows on the Z3 page that it as frequently purchased with the Z3 dash cam. (AMAZON, PLEASE STOP DOING THAT!!!) The problem is that the card has a “Write Speed” that is too slow for the Z3 (the “Read Speed” is OK, but the “Write Speed” sucks!). After the SanDisk Ultra card finally becomes full and the dash cam begins overwriting the oldest video files, the camera stops operating correctly and the user believes their camera has just died. (The Z3 is not harmed by this, and changing to the correct memory card fixes the problem.) SanDisk makes memory cards with faster Write Speeds. A Write speed of 20 MB/second works just fine. Faster than that is unnecessary. The Write Speed of the 64GB SanDisk Ultra card is only 10MB/sec.

I chose this particular camera because I heard it has good image-sharpness and night-recording capability and I haven’t been dis

This is my first dash cam (but I am not new to digital cameras in general).I chose this particular camera because I heard it has good image-sharpness and night-recording capability and I haven’t been disappointed with either of these aspects.I change vehicles as often as 3 times a day so being able to remove and reinstall my dash cam rapidly is important to me. Luckily each of my work vehicles has a GPS position-monitor complete with a USB-outlet in the windshield’s “top-right position”. (And in my country this is convenient because I drive while sitting on the right-hand side.) By running a narrow strip of sellotape into the mouth of the “standard USB” (at one end of one of the cables supplied in the box) I was able to cover the two inner contacts by which data is transferred. This left the two outer ones to act as my power supply. (If I don’t do this, my camera thinks the GPS is a computer and refuses to go into “video mode”.)To suit my purposes I turned off the following features:G sensorMotion DetectionParking MonitorBeep soundsAt first I turned off the “delay power off” function as well, expecting this to make the camera shut down immediately the power cable is unplugged. However this isn’t the case, so I settled for the fastest shut-down time instead, which is 15 seconds.With this setup, my camera records (flashing blue light the bottom right-hand corner) and charges (solid red light in the same corner) whenever I push home the USB cable into a GPS recorder. Similarly – I can stop the camera (with the 15 second shut-down delay) by simply sliding the male USB plug out of the GPS unit. (I found this more desirable that pushing camera buttons because pushing the buttons tends to move the camera.)The battery is small and hasn’t got much more capacity than is needed to finish recording once the cable power is disconnected. So don’t expect to use this camera unplugged without receiving “low battery” warnings.Other important settings I’m using are:Video Resolution: 1920 x1080 30P 16:9Image Quality: Super fineVideo Duration: 5 minAnti-flickering: AutoStamp Setting: Date and timeRecord Mode Setting: Auto RecordBacklight Off Setting: 1 minI’ve read complaints about the sound quality but find it’s OK for my purposes (and besides, I find it hard to imagine how any inside-mounted dash cam could ever provide a top-quality recording of outside sound).I formatted the 32 GB memory card using the camera’s inbuilt “format function” (without difficulty) because I understood it needed to be formatted before use.I found the card has two folders. There’s a NORMAL folder for storing the 1, 3 or 5 minute “routine/normal video clips” and an EVENT folder for storing the “incident/event video clips”.Videos in the NORMAL folder (starting with the oldest) begin being overwritten whenever this folder becomes full whereas videos in the EVENT folder are protected.My attempts to record Event Videos were at first unsuccessful because the instructions say only “the user can press the Menu button to lock the current video file”. In fact I found you must press this lower-left button TWICE in rapid succession because the first press simply turns on the camera’s viewing screen. And I learn’t that “event videos” are each of only 30-second duration (so the button doesn’t exactly “lock the current routine/normal video file” as the instructions appear to imply).Experimentation allowed me to also discover that pushing the event button (twice) causes:· The “event video” to commence 10 seconds prior to the “second touch” and end 20 seconds AFTERWARDS (so two thirds of the event is recorded AFTER you’ve pushed the button)!. The “normal video” that was in progress to end exactly on the “second touch” (so effectively we have 10 seconds of video duplicated), and· The next “normal video” to start 2 seconds after the end of the “Event Clip” so effectively 2 seconds of camera viewing is permanently “lost”Some of these effects/features came as a surprise but now that I know about them I’ve adjusted how I use the camera to avoid them being a problem. (I don’t simply use my dash cam to capture crashes or driving-misconduct, as you may have gathered.)Attempts to play the recorded videos on my old Windows XP desktop (that successfully plays all the Youtube videos I’ve tried) gave only “jerky video” whereas my Windows Vista desktop played them properly. I’m assuming this was due to the better video card in the Vista machine.I hope readers find this review helpful.BTW- I live in Wellington (New Zealand) and our local-body politicians plan to get rid of our clean-green electric trolley buses next year (for weak and dubious reasons) so the last couple of weeks I’ve been using my Z3 camera to take footage of them operating during their final years .At the end of this (hopefully) you’ll find a screenshot off one of the many trolley-bus video files I’ve downloaded onto my desktop (thanks to my Z3 camera):

$100 bucks saved $$thousands$$

Yesterday I realized why I’m glad I bought this camera! I was involved in an accident where I had the green and another driver turned left in front of me at the intersection. Police came out took her statement first then came to me and said other driver had a witness on the street who was ready to say I was at fault for running the red and she had a protected green signal. I busted out this camera and showed him right there and he said that is all he needed to see. That night I called her insurance company and they said she had taken full responsibility! Damn this small investment saved $ not to mention weeks and months of headaches! So do yourself a favor and buy this camera!

Great when working, failed after 6 weeks, Z-Edge sent me a new one in under a week!

I purchased this camera from Amazon early on October 2016. I opened the box, played with the camera on my kitchen table to get acquainted with the controls, etc. and it worked great. Resolution is great, control more or less obvious. Comes with 2 USB cables, a memory card, and a windshield mount.Camera sat on the kitchen table for 2 weeks before I installed it into my truck. Installation was straightforward, apply mount just above rearview, run the long USB from the 12v adapter, tuck in wires, off we go. Start up the truck, camera comes on, start taking video. Perfect. Took the memory card out, put it into an SD adapter, in laptop, all’s well, perfect. VLC, Media Player, all work, but CCCP worked best to show the video immediately after opening the file.I took a few weeks off work during December, so camera didn’t get much use. When I did go out, it turned on, LCD was light up for 1 minute, flashing LEDs were fine, charged up, and again, all is good.Now comes January 2017. In NJ, so not the frigid cold of the North Pole or anything, but come Jan 9th.: started up the truck, and the camera chimed as normal, but the LCD was just one color - purple. LED was not flashing, buttons did not respond, nothing. Took it inside, let it come to room temperature, still, one purplish color on LCD. Pushed the reset button, charged it, did everything one would consider doing to try to reset, but no difference, purple screen, no button response.So I sent off an email to Z-Edge Customer support through their website, stated my problem, and they promptly responded. They asked that I send a video or picture of the camera. So I complied, took a short video with me pushing the reset button, showing that there was no button response, etc. To Z-Edge’s credit, I had a new camera by Friday. Camera failed Monday, sent email Tuesday, had new camera Friday. New camera came in Amazon Prime Box, clearly through Amazon fulfillment (they sent me the order number screenshot which was all Amazon!).So … rated 3 because the camera failed after approximately 6 weeks of daily use. Operational camera is wonderful. Great picture, great resolution, can read license plates 10 car lengths ahead on the video. So infant mortality of electronics does happen, the company was fabulous to get me a replacement. The replacement was a whole new camera kit. They did not ask for the old one back, and I specifically inquired where to return the failed unit. (Could be that they know the failure mechanism by the video I sent them, and not worth the trouble). Anyway, as a result of this minor inconvenience, I have a second windshield mount, extra USB cables, and an extra 32GB flash card.You be the judge of how you would rate this…5 for company service, 1 for reliability, 5 for camera performance when working….looks like 3 to me.

Dead after first use

Read instructions, started up. Ran fine at first. Set up settings. Turned off. Wouldn’t power on again. Battery never charged during drive either.

Five Stars

working as advertised, so far so good

Great dashcam

I have had this dashcam for several weeks now and love it. I have had no issues so far, and it works as advertised.

Do not fall for the paid Hype!

Most of the reviews that you read in supposedly trade magazines are paid customers or have a vested interest.

Five Stars

great hd camera works great easy to use

Very Disappointed!

Product defective, wouldn’t even stay on long enough to set options in the menus. When I finally got it to come on, it wouldn’t record, it was stuck in standby mode, then it…

Five Stars

Excellent night vision

I love everything about this camera

I love everything about this camera, except for the battery. It no longer holds a charge. Plus, I am constantly getting a movie recovery warning after it wakes from being…