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Transcend DrivePro 200 review: an odd looking dashcam with night time prowess

In our tests of the trio of dashcams Transcend  we couldn’t help noticing that while l three were priced differently, their overall build and recording prowess were so very close in quality.

The DrivePro 200 shares many similarities with the cheaper DrivePro 100. You’ll find mostly the same accessories in the box – a 16GB microSD card, a mini USB-to-cigarette lighter cable and a mount to put the cam on your windscreen.

The first difference you’ll find is a component video cable that you can use to plug the 200 directly into a screen for better playback (either NTSC or PAL). The 200, then, has a video out jack that the other models don’t.

drivepro-200

We haven’t seen component cables in more than five years, so we were baffled by the decision to include this. A micro-HDMI output would have been far superior in terms of quality and compatibility with modern screens.

The next difference is the much larger housing in the centre of the unit. The 200’s killer feature is the F/2.0, 160° wide angle lens which (in theory) should outperform the cheaper DrivePro 100 and the more expensive DrivePro 220 with their F/1.8, 130° wide angle lenses.

For those unfamiliar to camera equipment, the “F/2.0” and “F/1.8” is the camera’s aperture. This refers to how wide the lens opens, how quickly the picture is taken, and also how much light is let in. The lower the number, the wider the aperture – resulting in a quicker shot and and shallower depth of field. A higher number provides more depth of field with a slower shutter speed.

The measures of degree simply refer to how much of the 180° in front of the camera that the unit can capture.

At the end of the day, looking over the footage with our camera expert Shayne, the 200 did capture footage at a slightly wider angle, as well as being just that little bit sharper in darkness (when compared to both the 100 and 220 models.

drivepro-200

You’ll see that the 200 also comes with wi-fi. We initially thought this meant the 200 could connect directly to wi-fi to update itself or transfer video over a local network, we were mistaken.

Instead, the wi-fi is used to connect to a phone or tablet and communicate with the DrivePro app (available on Android and iOS for free). Once paired with your phone or tablet, the 200 will stream the live video it is recording.

While you can’t save it to the app, you can view the image (with a noticeable delay) as a kind of second screen. You can also use the app to mess around with settings and update the firmware.

We didn’t get a lot of mileage out of the app. The most useful part of it is the firmware update as you don’t need to fiddle with external downloads and moving them between your PC and the  microSD card.

The “second screen” feature doesn’t make a lot of sense to us. If you’d rather use your phone or small tablet in a mount as the 200’s screen, you’ll be locked out from doing much else with your device. In addition, fiddling with it further to access music or make calls while driving is just plain dangerous. We’re sure there are people out there you will love this app and what it offers, but we didn’t.

The 200 was the problem child in the group. Our box didn’t come with a microSD card, but we’ve been told that retail boxes will come with one. The mount that you’re given is attached with adhesive tape instead of a nice suction cup that the 100 and 220 come with. Transcend does offer other mounts you can use, but it will be a separate purchase. Finally, there’s no internal battery to speak, so don’t even think of unplugging it.

Don’t forget to read our review of the DrivePro 100 to read some of the nitty-gritty details of the options available in the 200.

 

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