Owl Car Cam Review: Dashcam Meets Security System.

This is a serious drawback for anyone who typically parks their car over the weekend, during extended alternate-side-of-the-street-parking times, or in airport parking lots during business trips. The Owl also includes a "tuck tool" to help you wedge the connecting cable into the gap between the windshield and dashboard. Poor low-light performance Weak flash. Its designers have crafted the camera’s architecture so that it installs seamlessly in most vehicles. Videos taken by both of the Owl’s cameras were clear enough to identify any malfeasance taking place, whether it might be another vehicle or someone trying to break into the car.

Owl turns a svelte dashcam into a security system, but it doesn’t offer as many features as the competing Raven connected-car system. One only has to consider the $299 Raven connected- car device to understand the possibilities. Expensive Limited features.

Print options include a photo-booth layout of four images (hold the shutter down for 3 seconds and it will capture four images at 4-second intervals). Most are usually spartan affairs, focused solely on recording video and neglecting any design niceties like minimizing blind spots or tucking away stray cables. The battery is integrated into the camera and can’t be replaced, so if you’re at the playground, you can’t run to get AAs to restore power.

The footage was clear night and day with enough picture detail to identify another vehicle in a hit-and-run. The accelerometer was also sensitive enough to register when my car experienced some (thankfully harmless) jostling while it was parked. Owl turns a svelte dashcam into a security system, but it doesn’t offer as many features as the competing Raven connected-car system. And there’s an interior LED light to warn off intruders and help the camera take video in the dark. Taking in the Manhattan skyline, I asked it for a "Here’s New York" title but received an inscrutable "What are the things that are" label.

Visibility on the recorded videos was about average for a 1080p dashcam. Along the top, you’ll find the large shutter button, a self-timer button, an option to add a white border to prints, and a circular button for choosing color or special effects. The screen can also show both images in a split screen but when you download the video, it arrives as two separate files.

Against. By Theano Nikitas 18 November 2018. – Poor low-light performance – Weak flash. For both print and digital, the Snap can record in color, black and white, or sepia.

The camera saves a digital file for posterity, too. Most in-car gadgets — from portable navigation devices to radar detectors — give little consideration to how they should be properly situated in a car. Above the door, a trio of lights indicates the status of the battery, paper and microSD card.

Our Verdict. This sort of instant gratification has been reimagined with the Polaroid Snap, a 10-MP shooter with a built-in Zink printer that spits out a 3 x 2-inch hard copy of your image right after it’s snapped. + Excellent design + Solid security + Simple operation. Without the flash, the camera’s automatic exposure is prone to slow shutter speeds in low light, which may result in blurry images.

Design. It should fit nicely into all but the tiniest tyke’s hands. I tried to get a close-up shot of this kachina doll’s head, but the framing didn’t match up.

There’s enough internal memory to capture and print a single 5-megapixel image, but you’ll need a microSD card if you want to store anything more. (It’s compatible with cards up to 32GB.) A tripod mount is included on the Aluminium Towel Racks bottom of the camera body, and a tiny flash is located on the front. Performance: Crisp Video, Limited Monitoring Time. Given its minimal controls, the cute Polaroid Snap is a breeze to use, and you get instant prints. And the voice-recognition system for naming video files was a hit-and-often-miss affair.

The shutter button on the Snap is not as responsive as, say, the Fuji instax mini 70, but once a beep sounds to indicate the image has been captured, the 3 x 2-inch print emerges immediately. Tom’s Guide Verdict. The Snap has a minimal array of features, but the built-in printer gives the camera extra appeal.

Against. Apple-like design touches of the Owl include magnetic connectors for the cable that runs from the OBD-II plug under the dashboard on the driver’s side up to the camera on the dash, which means there’s less chance of ruining the cable or one of the plugs. However, if you’re looking for value and a full suite of connected car features, including diagnostic alerts and navigation, the $299 Raven can be a better deal if you stick to its lowest-cost subscription plan. A self-timer is available as well.

You can record both interior and exterior video feeds while driving. Given its minimal controls, the cute Polaroid Snap is a breeze to use, and you get instant prints. Design: Super-Slick.

Quain 04 October 2018. These prints automatically slide out from a slot on the right side of the camera. The Snap accurately captured bright colors from these fairy-tale characters and playhouses under both overcast and sunny skies. An Owl spokesman said the company was working on extending the parked Guard Mode to 72 hours. (For comparison, I left the Raven on in my vehicle for over a week before it warned me it had to power down.) The app allows you to see recordings, highlights from your travels, and, thanks to Bluetooth pairing to your phone, prevents false alarms when you’re around the car.

For those of an older generation, Polaroid instant cameras provided the first experience with photography: Take a picture, and then anxiously wait for the print to develop right in front of your eyes. Simple to use Creates digital files and instant prints Rechargeable battery. The Owl Cam is different. When several deer bounded out in front of my vehicle, a quick "OK, Presto!" started the recording and captured the event. Editor’s Note (9/18): Following updates to its software and features, we have re-evaluated the Owl Car Cam, and added our impressions to this review.

Available in a handful of colors, the Snap will appeal to kids who want a fun camera to use to take and share photos. So, if someone tries to break in, you won’t get a notification or a recording of the event. A text message and associated video revealed what had transpired. It is based on a 2.2-GHz octa-core Snapdragon system on a chip with 3GB RAM, the same type of design used in many mobile handsets.

There’s a 2.4-inch LCD touch screen to see what’s going on, as well as built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a cellular LTE modem, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a GPS and temperature sensors. In good light, the Snap produces accurate colors that are well-saturated. And it doesn’t include information such as how fast your car is going. Bottom Line.

To access videos from the past two weeks, you can use a direct Wi-Fi connection between your phone and the Owl Cam or do it over a cellular LTE connection. The company includes a variety of stalk extensions, so it will work on a range of vehicles from the tiniest compact car to the largest SUVs. It brings sophisticated, thoughtful design flourishes and intelligent security features to what has until now been a banal category. Excellent design Solid security Simple operation. There’s no zoom.

Our Verdict. More to Come? However, the camera is great for landscapes and wide shots, as seen here, demonstrating accurate focus and exposure. The Polaroid Snap, with its minimal controls, lets users do just that, with the added attraction of having both digital and instant-printing capabilities. – Expensive – Limited features.

Given its minimal controls, the cute Polaroid Snap is a breeze to use, and you get instant prints. For kids, and many of us adults, taking pictures is all about fun and creating memories to keep and share. A nice touch is a magnetic lens cap that won’t fall off under regular use but can easily be removed when the little one wants to snap some pictures. Instead, the camera has a fixed, 25mm (approximate), f/2.8 wide-angle lens.

Even the Owl’s packaging is well-considered. Battery Life. The Owl Cam, which supports most vehicles made after 1996, aims to put an end to that. A 20-sheet pack of film costs $10, while an 80-sheet pack cost $25 (there’s no cost savings when buying multipacks), but the Snap film is about 10 cents a shot less expensive than Fuji instax mini 70 film.

The Owl’s compact chassis and unique over-the-dash bracket mean it will conform with most vehicle interiors. Dashcams are ugly. Owl Car Cam Review: Dashcam Meets Security System. The flash is not very powerful, though, and images tend to be underexposed and unevenly lit in very low light, as you can see from the image below. That gives the Owl Cam features and capabilities that most dashcams lack, such as a persistent cellular connection (so you know where your car is) and security smarts (so you know what’s going on both inside and outside your car) — no matter where you are.

Features. The downside is that there’s no option to print only select photos; every photo will print if there’s paper in the camera. The Owl Cam has two cameras: a forward-facing, 120-degree, 1080p camera, and an interior-facing 720p camera.

And although the doll was framed perfectly when I stepped back, the lens is so fast (f/2.7-2.8), there’s very little depth of field. For example, unlike the Raven, the Owl Cam doesn’t offer any diagnostic information on your vehicle, even though it’s connected to the OBD port of the car. Setup: Stellar Instructions. Performance.

By John R. Bottom Line. It’s best to keep the images on the small side when viewing digital files; the lens isn’t the sharpest, which is evident when blowing images up to full size on the computer. Polaroid Snap Instant Digital Camera Review: Fun for Kids of All Ages. You can also opt to have a white border on the prints.

But they look fine for posting online and making small prints, either from the in-camera printer or an ink-jet printer. Instructions on situating and installing the camera are laid out logically on a single placard along with QR links to a video and the Owl iOS app, which pairs your phone to the device. And, you cannot remotely restart the security monitor should you want to check on your car’s status after that. Owl turns a svelte dashcam into a security system, but it doesn’t offer as many features as the competing Raven connected-car system.

So is the Owl Cam a wise idea for in-car security? It certainly is sexy — for an add-on car gadget — and fun to use. The Polaroid Snap’s rectangular, plastic body measures approximately 4.8 x 3 x 1.1 inches and weighs about 14 ounces. There also isn’t a navigation app, which would be helpful given the Owl’s heads-up design. The dashcam will also automatically record events should you be involved in an accident.

A locking door on the rear of the Snap holds up to 10 sheets of special Zink paper for instant prints. Designed for the ultimate in simplicity, the camera has very few controls. + Simple to use + Creates digital files and instant prints + Rechargeable battery. A fully charged battery on the Snap can last for a few days of sporadic shooting.

A speaker and two microphones assist in noise cancellation to help it understand a limited set of commands. On a busy highway, the voice commands required precise enunciation to overcome road noise. The monthly AT&T LTE service (included in the first year; $10 a month thereafter) includes up to 60 minutes of livestreaming video views on your smartphone and unlimited parking guard alerts whenever there’s a bump in the night or suspicious activity, such as a noise or vibration that might indicate breaking glass. (I received one breaking-glass alert that, thankfully, turned out to be a really loud passing truck.) The $299 Raven, by comparison, includes only three months of service in its price, with basic monthly subscriptions starting at $8 for 60 live-streaming "check-ins" up to $32 for 400 check-ins a month. For these reasons, it’s one of the best point-and-shoot cameras you can get for less than $100.

That way, you have the best of both worlds. In the parked Guard Mode, the Owl will turn itself off and send you a notification it is shutting down to prevent draining your car’s battery (it draws its power through the OBD-II port). It powers on when you extend the pop-up viewfinder and shuts off when you push the viewfinder down.

I was able to unload the paper when I didn’t want prints and reload it later, but it takes a little patience to put the paper back. The pop-up optical viewfinder is great for distant shots but is a little off for close-ups, so leave plenty of room around your subject to make sure you get the shot you want. The camera itself sits atop a curved stalk whose brace slides down into the gap between the windshield and dashboard.

In the interest of full disclosure, the interior view shows on the LCD screen if it is recording; a finger swipe turns it off. The $349 Owl Cam, whose price includes one year of cellular data service ($10 a month thereafter), is actually a smartphone disguised as a dashcam. The Snap has a minimal array of features, but the built-in printer gives the camera extra appeal. The only snag is that many vehicles today have a center speaker in the dashboard precisely where the Owl Cam should go. The background was in focus, but the close-up of the figure was not.

There’s a lot of untapped potential here. It’s a little tricky but is an important feature to master. To activate the tiny flash on the camera, you need to press the shutter button for a fraction of a second longer than usual.

The digital images are saved individually. I didn’t have any trouble checking the live video feed. until more than 24 hours had passed. Tom’s Guide Verdict. Images from the Snap are brighter and more vivid than those of the paler instax mini 70 in both digital and prints.

On the other hand, Raven works with far fewer older vehicles (since 2008) while the Owl security cam works with any car or light truck built since 1996. Because this device consists of hard plastic that can withstand minor bumps, it’s probably best to use the bundled wrist strap, to help prevent yourself from accidentally dropping the camera. Consequently, I had to place the camera slightly off-center over the dashboard in my 2014 SUV. The left side features a microSD card slot and a micro USB port for charging and transferring images.

But once you see a continuous light, the flash fires a bright burst soon thereafter. When paper is loaded, a print is made of each photo you take and the digital file is saved to the microSD card. Overall, it’s a great camera for teaching children the basics of digital photography, with a little retro fun and instant gratification added in.