(Finally) A Real HD Mini Keyring Spy Camera #11 808
Friday, February 18, 2011 at 9:09PM After having my hopes raised and dashed in quick succession by a number of "HD" spy cams - I've finally managed to get hold of a real one. It's the latest version of my previous favourite, the DVK808 Keychain spy camera #3, and it's unofficially known as the #11 808 camera. 
First a quick word about some of the (non) HD cameras I've received in the past. Some people are still surprised that there are dishonestly advertised Chinese products available. In comments left on my youtube videos, people can't believe that my HD spy pen wasn't really HD, and my 720p Car Recorder doesn't record in 720p - they naively suggest that I must have been using them incorrectly. Surely someone wouldn't sell a jittery SD product claiming it was HD, would they? Well normal trading rules don't seem to apply in China, and to me that's all part of the fun.
If I wanted to guarantee that I got a real HD helmet camera, I could always go and spend £200 on a GoPro or a Contour HD, but where is the fun in that? I give Amazon £200 and they send me exactly what I paid for..... sounds a bit dull to me. I'd much rather send some bloke in China £30 and see if what turns up in the mail a few weeks later. Finding out if a product lives up to the grandiose claims in it's Ebay listing is a big part of the enjoyment. It's like a lucky dip, some you win, some you lose.
This time I won big..... this camera is the real thing. The video quality on this is astounding considering the size of the lens and the £26 cost. You'll need to watch the video to learn all about this amazing little camera - I will warn you that you may shed a tear at the end, I nearly did.
Where can you get one from?
At the time of writing the Ebay sellers who offer this camera are all based in Hong Kong. A few example names of sellers are below (I am not endorsing any of these, but they seem to sell the #11 camera).
eletoponline365 -----> My order from here only took 10 Days to get to the UK!
How can you make sure you are buying the right camera?
Look for the following info in their listings, H.264 .MOV file format, 1280x720, #11 HD car key camera (or words to that effect).
If you see a 1280x960 HD camera advertised don't buy one by mistake, they aren't HD and are only 640x480 upscaled.
How do you change the time?
Here is an example of the TXT file used to set the time. Download this, open it in a text editing program, type over the appropriate time and date, save it and copy it to the memory card in the camera.
Example Photos
It takes mediocre quality photos, nothing that any modern camera phone couldn't beat.
Below are some thumbnails which link to the original untouched photos taken by the camera in photo mode.
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UPDATE - 21 FEB 2011 - It Lives!
After the video, I retrieved it from the bin and left it on a shelf for a couple of days. I thought I'd give it one last try and put the old firmware back on a Memory stick again. Plugged the camera into a wall charger and tried to switch it into webcam mode. To my surprise it came on and then re-flashed the old firmware. Pushing my luck, I decided to try flashing the date removal firmware again and it worked this time. I now have a time & date free camera. I may even upload the new firmware to the site now.....but don't come running to me if it all ends in tears.
Update 22 FEB 2011 - Firmware!
OK, I've relented. For those people who want to try and delete the Time & Date stamp - the firmware is uploaded on my Files & Drivers page or you can just Click Here to download it directly. Just a couple of pointers, make sure the camera is fully charged. Put the firmware on a memory card (preferably using a card reader). Just put the FW96630A.bin file in the root directory - not into any folder & also don't change the filename. Insert the card into your camera. Tap the On button and then wait a few secs - the orange light should flash, wait another couple of secs and then switch the camera off. Remove the card, put it back into your computer and delete the firmware file from the card (if you don't delete the firmware, the camera will just try to re-flash it every time you switch it on). I take no responsibility for anyone who kills their camera trying this....good luck.
(Too many people were reporting errors with these firmwares - so I've removed them)
Update 20 MAR 2011 - Video Editing Issues.
I've come across a strange problem with the .MOV files that this camera creates. iMovie sometimes wants nothing to do with the video files and refuses to import them. This only happens with the 20 minute files that the camera has closed off itself. If I start and stop the recording manually, then the resulting video clip imports fine. So for example if I were to record 30 mins of footage in one go with the camera, the first 20 min clip wouldn't import, but the last 10 min one would. This is weird, its as though the camera is corrupting it's own clips when it closes them. I've get the same results with both my cameras (one with the date stamp firmware and one without). The only way I could get my footage into iMovie was to transcode it first. I tried a few transcoding programs that refused to touch the video, erroring out with unrecognised/unsupported file type messages. Luckily I found that Handbrake was happy to transcode the file into an MP4 which I could then proceed to import and edit in iMovie.
This might not be an issue to many people, and if the above paragraph means nothing to you then you are probably one of them. If all you want to do is capture video and then play it back through Quicktime or VLC then you are fine - but if you actually want to edit the footage you have shot, you should be aware that it is likely you will need to transcode it first.
Update – 25 March 2011 – New Continuous Recording Firmware
Reader Comments (204)
sorry... do you suggest or not to remove the data and time using bin file?
I'm in two minds. It worked for me in the end, but it's not without some risk. You'll have to weigh up the pros and cons for yourself. It also depends how much £30 means to you.
First, sorry for my english, i'm spanish. Very useful your review about this camera, i bought one of this in ebay 5 days ago, i hope arrives soon.
One question, i'm a padel tenis player, do you think this camera is good to place in a cap peak? or too many movement? xD
Thank u and congratulations for your web!
Attaching a camera to your head generally reduces any shaking to a minimum as you tend to keep your head still. The only problem will be that you will have to face the object you are filming without moving your head from side to side which might look a bit strange if you stand and stare at something for too long.
Ok, thanks, I'll show you the results ;P
Did you test the camera on your scooter? I ordered a couple of chinese camera's to record some of my travels on my motorcycle. Some worked, some didn't. But I don't really care. We seem to have the same approach to these products. In my opinion there was only one thing that was missing and that was a HD-camera. Now that is resolved I hope it will be a good one.
I do intend to take both my HD cameras out on my bike as soon as I've got a couple of days off work in sunny weather. I was thinking of attaching one to my helmet and the other one very low down on the bike near the road, I just need to find a way to mount it securely.
Mouting it securely without to much vibrations is indeed a challange. You could start with industrial Velcro. I ordered some through eBay.
just search on 3M SJ3540 HEAVY DUTY DUAL LOCK. This is secure but on my 2-cylinder bike it didn't filter the vibes well enough. I'm now testing al kinds of padding. And this seems to work. I'm still not really satisfied but I'm getting there.
I just received this camera today off Ebay for $40 (Aus) and can confirm the flash does remove the date time stamp. Very easy to do, worked 1st shot.
I'll be using this to replace my gum stick spy camera I've currently been using to record youtube vids with when I'm on the bike. If it wasn't for the review on this camera I was about to fork out a few hundred for a Go Pro or equivalent. So you've saved me a few $. Thanks.
Oh, the #12 camera????
Power duration 4-5 hours
Power supply Embedded 550mAh Li-polymer Battery
US $41.24 / piece
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/387429228-Free-Shipping-New-720P-Car-Key-Chain-Hidden-Camera-DVR-1280-720-Support-TF-Card-wholesalers.html
Is it true?
Chuck Lohr had an early look at an 808 #12 camera details here ..
http://www.chucklohr.com/808/C12/index.html#110201-C12-720P-AVI-MJPEG
It seems to have dropped frame issues, but perhaps you should get hold of one to try it out.
Thanks for checking in...
Techmoan
Have you seen a review and a sample video of this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5WwUAooQAg&NR=1
I can not find any information about it nor sample video.
it has motion detection that I am interested in.
Can you recommend a good camera of this type that has motion detection feature.
@Jim - Sorry for the delay in responding - that video link you sent, goes to some chap on a bike (with an interesting taste in music) using what seems like a #3 808 camera (identified by the font/colour/size) of the date & time stamp. As far as motion detection goes, there are some keyring cameras about that do this - just try and avoid anything with a 1280x960 resolution (upscaled & jerky 640x480 cameras with a poor frame rate).
Thanks so much for the effort put in sharing your find.
I'm gonna get this one for sure and most likely from your proposed -ebayer.
Glad to help j0n.
Thanks for all the great info on this camera. I've ordered a #11 and my main concern is that it won't save readable files if I leave it running until the battery dies. I understand the best way around this is to update the firmware so that it goes into continuous recording mode. However, the only ZIP I can find to do this also patches the Time & Date, which has the associated risk of killing the device.
Do you have the firmware for just changing the recording mode and not the time & date? If not, could you advise me on how I could rollback the firmware if indeed I do brick my camera using the recording mode/time & date firmware you have in your Files & Drivers section?
Thanks.
@ Jon M
Updating the firmware runs an equal chance of bricking the camera irrespective of whether the time & date stamp is deleted. It’s the actual act of flashing the firmware that carries an inherent (albeit relatively small) risk. I don’t suppose this risk is any greater than updating the PS3 firmware or the OS on an iPhone.
The usual rules apply, make sure your camera is fully charged, that you are installing the correct firmware and don’t interrupt the process half way through. I’m going to be flashing my second camera with the Continuous Recording firmware tonight and I’ll update the review/blog post with the details. I’ve never bricked anything yet (although it initially appeared that I had in the video).
You’ll have to weigh up the risk/reward yourself, but for me the benefits in the new firmware are worth me taking the chance.
I've had the mini HD camera about ten days now and the picture quality has started to degrade. Every video now has a rather burned out look with speckles appearing all over the place. I suppose it must be the cheap ccd chip - I've done about 7/8 hours videoing in total. What a shame!
@Andy That doesn't sound good. I hope this isn't a common problem. It's still early days yet, so we'll have to see if anyone else experiences similar problems.
Your review was awesome, I am actually in Helsinki and I would really like to buy that camera. I have checked the links to buy that camera from ebay.co.uk but I have not found the product still. Could you recommend me some link so I could buy that camera? Thank you so much for your help
@blackie I'm not sure why you can't find them on eBay. If I put the text from the line below into an Ebay.co.uk search box and select International, I get 35 results,
Hd 808 #11
First, thanks so much for this detailed review. Ive been looking for a small camera I can take anywhere with me & use - but that can produce moderately good image quality. This one sure seems to fit the bill & I ordered mine this week. Its tough to know what is real & what is just hype on ebay, so thanks so much for giving us some clarity.
Second, if you ever find an HD (true HD, not upscaled) spy pen, please let us know. This key-ring camera will work for me, but a pen would certainly be a bit more convenient in the long run.
Thanks again. Love your site & youtube channel.
I tried it out attached to my Lambretta yesterday morning, footage is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLe3kxbuExk
I just attached velcro to a magnet, and stuck that on the front fender. Obviously, the vibration caused quite a bit of "jelly" effect. I need to work up some vibration damping, perhaps neodymium magnets and a couple layers of inner tube rubber? I still think it looks pretty great.
Hi Techmoan, big thanks for your GREAT reviews.
Today I tried to remove the time from my 2 new HD car key cameras
1st one I copied the FW96630A file to the root directory while Micro SD card was inserted in the HD car key camera. The RESULT? camera #1 is dead. No reposnse at all.
2nd Camera I copied the FW96630A file to the root directory in the Micro SD card in the HD car key camera (through a USB card reader). The RESULT? camer #1 is dead. No reposnse at all.
What am I doing wrong? Both cameras just arrived to me TODAY.
When I plug then in a USB slot the LED light comes on but nithing else. By pressing any buttons get no response at all.
Any help please?
Thanking you in advance
Sounds like what happened to me. Make sure they are fully charged, and if possible attach them to a USB wall charger whilst you do the next step.
Put the original firmware back on the memory card (The Date On firmware). Try and switch it on, by tapping on (and letting go). The light should flash once, go out and then come on again after approx 5 seconds. If this doesn't work then press the front button (nearest the lens and keep it held down while you press the other button...hold for a few secs until something happens. I can't really say for definite what I did with mine, it just eventually came back to life once I put the original firmware back on it. Once the camera light is back on you should turn the camera off and delete the firmware from the card before switching the camera on again, or you'll just end up reflashing it over and over again.
After mine had reloaded the original firmware it was fine for all future flashes. Good luck.
Thank you very much for your quick reply, very much appreciated.
I'll try to do that. I hope I get results and will post it here.
What should be the name of the .TEXT file for the time please?
TAG or
TIME or
TIMESET ?
Once again your help is greatly appreciated
it is TIMESET, I got it thanks
I'll try to bring LIFE to the dead ones now !
Techmoan, you are a life saver !
They both work, BRILLIANT no time stamp.
Thank you
Excellent work !
I was able to flash both the revised versions of the software without problems, both worked, but I found the latest (4gb filesize) firmware has a white balance which is so warm that the camera is of little use indoors. Whites are dark orange (well, medium orange, in any case :) ). Is there a way to fix this?
@ Trevor Marshall. I've always found these mini cameras to be pretty inadequate indoors....the size of the lens/optics are insufficient to capture enough light. Are you sure that the firmware has altered the colour temp..I wouldn't have thought that this was possible. At the moment I only know of three different firmwares....the original, the date-off and the continuous recording firmware.
OK, I have some more testing observations.
Firstly, my 808 #11 camera arrived in an envelope and plastic bag, exactly like yours, earlier this afternoon. After evaluating a few test scenes, he first serious test I did was to plug in a known-fast 8 GB microSD card and make sure the camera would film over the original 20 minute limit. It did that very well. I then flashed your latest (4 gig filesize) firmware and left it filming (while on a charger) for just over an hour. The camera failed to extend the 4 gig file, and stopped filming at that (53 minute) mark. So I have now flashed the "Date off" firmware, which also failed to extend (at the 20 minute mark). I tested the "Date off" firmware again, after having reformatted the SD card this time, and it again failed to open the second file at the 20 minute mark. I have found with other cameras that the FAT decoding software they use in these small Chinese cameras is happiest if cards are reformatted after they have filled up a bit with erased files, so I am trying a different (4GB) card... It is always possible that my camera initially had a later version of firmware, and, if so, I will ask the vendor about getting a copy of that :)
Hmm.. it seems that when I plug in USB power, the camera will not open another file when the 20 minute (or 4GB) limit is reached with the "Date on" (or the other two) firmware versions. That seems strange... I just managed to run the camera on the battery alone (no power cord plugged in) until the battery went flat, getting two 20 minute segments on the 8GB card. A recovery utility found another file, which was presumably not closed properly when the battery went flat, as you have reported... Have you played with unit much while it was plugged into the charger? Did you see anything like this?
There is a lot of info there ... And I'm not quite sure I followed it all. You are aware though that the power wiring on the USB plug is propriety and the only way that it can be powered to continue recording past the 4GB Mark until the card is full is by using the supplied car adaptor. No other USB cable is designed to power the camera. The other USB cable included with the camera is only for Data transfer, not powering it.
Not sure if this addresses your issues.
You are 100% correct. Sorry that I took up so much of your blog. There is something very special about the wiring of their car adaptor. I thought I knew "all about" USB power adaptors. Sigh... If you use a standard USB cable, and plug it in as you did in your review video (after starting the recording), the camera will record only one segment onto the card. But if you use the special car-adaptor which came with the camera everything works as expected, and the recorder continues until the card is full (I tested it with an 8GB card). I found about 6 seconds were lost between segments with the original software, and haven't evaluated how the latest software works in that regard. I will look into that tomorrow. Thanks for putting these firmware updates on line -- they worked perfectly, and 'as advertised'.
@Trevor... You aren't taking up space - your opinions and findings are very useful and will help other people.
Despite the length of my video review there were a lot of things that I couldn't cover in the time or that I never thought about. Your long-term testing is likely to highlight new things that my short term testing didn't so please keep reporting back if you find out anything interesting.
Using Techmoan's latest software, I measured the time between when the first 4GB file closes and the second one opens by filming an alarm clock with sweep second hand. There was a gap of 10 seconds with a fast Class 6 Transcend 8GB card and of 8 seconds with a (faster) Class 10 Wintec 32GB SDHC card nearly full of files, which I consider a worst-case scenario for FAT. It appears that the gap in the video is proportional to the speed of the card more than the total capacity of the card, or the number of other files on it.
The special car-charger puts out 4.3 volts, and there is presumably a diode-drop within the 808, as the battery discharges to about 50% as a recording progresses. Initially the 808 pulls its power from the 808 battery, and as the battery discharges the current drawn from the 'car-charger' increases steadily, eventually reaching the point where all power is being supplied from the car-adapter, with the 808 battery essentially floating at a partial discharge point. I am still analyzing how their USB plug power works... I have two more 808 #11 on order, and will be able to see whether that 4.3 volts level is important or not...
Oh - the car-adaptor feeds its +4.3V power down pin 4 of the mini-USB plug, which is reserved for "ID" and is typically GND or NC.
http://www.zytrax.com/tech/pc/serial.html
It is not a good idea to connect this power adaptor to other mini-USB equipment :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLvPP2YcBtE
Mine arrived the other day and I had a chance to test it out on my bike today. I'm fairly impressed with it so far, but I need to see if I can do something about the terrible audio. The easiest way round it will probably just end up being a seperate device for audio.
I just got the hd version and it's great. One question...Where do you get the original firmware in cast the new one doesn't work?
@Mafutha. The original firmware is also contained within the "Time Stamp Removal Firmware" zip file on my Drivers & Files page
My camera is now effectively dead. I connect it to the usb cable and the light goes red for a couple of minutes then nothing - if I press the larger button it goes yellow for a couple of seconds - no other combination of pressing of buttons does anything. I tried to reset but when I insert a pin into the hole it just goes into a void. Shame!
My camera is now effectively dead. I connect it to the usb cable and the light goes red for a couple of minutes then nothing - if I press the larger button it goes yellow for a couple of seconds - no other combination of pressing of buttons does anything. I tried to reset but when I insert a pin into the hole it just goes into a void. Shame!
@Andy Clarke
Don't worry Andy, it'll come back to life.
Just let it rest a while. Follow techmoan's instructions here as he described at the FIRTS page and it will come back.
Hmm, I've received mine, not yet flashed it, but all of the footage runs at double speed! Any idea how to fix this?
Turns out the double speed problem was unique to Media Player Classic; Windows Media Plays plays the videos at normal speed. However, a new issue: since flashing the continuous recording firmware I swear the recording seems to lag a bit more than it did before, almost like it's running at about 22 fps instead of 30. Anyone got any idea about why this might be? Or can anyone who has got footage from before and after they flashed the device compare the two? Thanks.
Where do the firmware updates originate? I've already grabbed the Continuous Recording firmware from your files & drivers page in anticipation of mine arriving any day now (it's been twelve days since I spunked twenty-six quid on eBay, and I'm starting to twitch with excitement), but I'm wondering where I might go for future firmware updates. Do you program them yourself, or do you have an inside line to the manufacturer?
Googling "dvk808 firmware" or "808hd firmware" or "808 11 firmware" or various combinations thereof don't return any definitive results beyond various advert-spamming websites offering me "free" downloads, none of which remotely resemble what I want.
@Alex. The firmwares seem to originate from the sellers of the camera. I'm just reposting the ones that have been obtained by the members of the RCGroups Forum. They are contained within their massive thread about this camera.
Right-oh. Cheers for that. I'll bookmark that forum for future reference.
Awesome review.
I was thinking of extending the recording duration of the HD808 (which I have on order) to take into account longer rides.
It claims that a 32gb card is the maximum (and I’d opt for a class 10 just to smooth out the recording rate) – what’s stopping the use of an external battery such as the link below to allow for extended recording? 32gb will take up more than the installed battery has charge for so this could be a solution.
Or is this issue to do with the way the USB car charger works prevents us from doing this?
Any ideas would be really appreciated? I hope to try this out.
@Jez. You guessed right, the weird USB lead wiring means that you can't record for extended periods of time unless you use the supplied 12v cable. I've seen people over at the RCGroups forum trying to work around this, and you might want to have a look at their massive thread to see if anyone has cracked it. I'm not sure what you are riding, if it's a motorcycle then you might be better just fitting a 12v socket to it, if it's a horse then you are out of luck.