Anyone experience with FITCAMX dash cam?

[John Nooij]

I found this FITCAMX dash cam on the internet, that should well integrate with a Lexus IS:

https://fitcamx.com/collections/fitcamx-for-lexus-rx/products/fitcamx-for-lexus-rx?variant=39781101240492

And this is a video with the installation instructions:

Youtube video

Everything should be very easy to install is the story they tell.  Just a "plug to plug" connection to the existing ACC connector in the roof (I didn't know it was there).

Looks very interesting, but on the other hand it all seems a bit too easy to me.  Does anyone have experience with this kind of dash cam?

 

 

 

[Herbie]

I would stay well clear of it because it seems to be overcomplicated and they are tying you into their ecosystem.

There is nothing whatsoever that is 'car-specific' about a dashcam. Any dashcam can be installed in any car, but this proprietary cable and plug means that you have to stay with this company.

If something went wrong with my camera I could just leave the wiring in place and get a new cam from any manufacturer and there is a 99.9999% chance that it would just plug and go. If the same thing happened to this, you'd have to go back to them for a replacement or do the wiring again.

I have one of these Viofo A129 Duo sets in my car and they're brilliant. Also, because it uses the same connectors as almost any other cam, I can leave the wiring in place if I ever need to change cams.

[John Nooij]

Quote

Any dashcam can be installed in any car

This is really true, but the handy thing about this FITCAMX seems to me the way it fits nicely in (or around) the existing windshield panel, that it switches on with the car and that you don't have unsightly power cables running through your car to the nearest cigarette lighter.  Or am I very wrong here?

[Gaurav Bhandari]

This really looks amazing!!! At least no hassle cable, unless you want rear view camera, this is great. I however got the one installled from Lexus dealer only who have done a fab job of hiding the cables.. But they did not install rear cam stating that the rear cam interferes with DAB radio, not sure how true was it...

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, John Nooij said:

This is really true, but the handy thing about this FITCAMX seems to me the way it fits nicely in (or around) the existing windshield panel, that it switches on with the car and that you don't have unsightly power cables running through your car to the nearest cigarette lighter.  Or am I very wrong here?

I think it looks good and it's great how it fits, I'll give you that.

But I would never use a dashcam with a cigarette lighter adapter. I hardwired mine by using a piggyback fuse in the fuse box and running the cables behind the trim. The only wires you can see in my car are the power cable to the front cam and the cable from front to rear cam. There's a very small amount of each wire poking down from the roof lining. And they should all switch on/off with the car (that's a basic rule for dashcams) unless the camera also has a parking mode.

Front

Rear

 

1 hour ago, Gaurav Bhandari said:

This really looks amazing!!! At least no hassle cable, unless you want rear view camera, this is great. I however got the one installled from Lexus dealer only who have done a fab job of hiding the cables.. But they did not install rear cam stating that the rear cam interferes with DAB radio, not sure how true was it...

It can interfere with the DAB radio but only if you run the camera cable close to the DAB aerial cable. The easiest way to avoid this happening is to just install the camera cable on the opposite side of the car to the aerial cable.

[John Nooij]

That's also a nice solution Herbie.  Well, I have a few questions:

1. How are your camera's mounted to the windshield / rear window? Self adhesive? Suction cap? (not I guess ;-)

2. You had to take off the roof covering for the wiring, is there a guide for this or you tried it yourself?

3. The FitcamX camera has a 64GB memory card, is this sufficient for dashcam purposes, I have no idea?

[Herbie]

On 4/30/2022 at 8:37 AM, John Nooij said:

That's also a nice solution Herbie.  Well, I have a few questions:

1. How are your camera's mounted to the windshield / rear window? Self adhesive? Suction cap? (not I guess 😉

2. You had to take off the roof covering for the wiring, is there a guide for this or you tried it yourself?

3. The FitcamX camera has a 64GB memory card, is this sufficient for dashcam purposes, I have no idea?

Sorry John, only just seen this.

1. The cameras come with 3M adhesive pads in the box so I'm using them.

2. No, I didn't drop the roof lining, that's a really big job. If you put your fingers at the front edge of the roof lining and windscreen, you'll be able to pull it down slightly, just enough to insert the cable. You can then just go along with your fingers, working towards the passenger side A pillar, just pushing the cable up into the roof space. I took off the A pillar trim so that I could feed the power cable down towards the fuse box in the passenger footwell (sort of behind the glove box) and also keep feeding the cable to the rear camera into the roof space while working towards the rear of the headlining (you'll probably need to take off the B and C pillar trims as well).

3. I use a 128GB Samsung Endurance Pro card. 64GB is a bit small because, although it just fills the card and then starts to rewrite from the beginning again, they only have so many read/write cycles. The Samsung Endurance Pro cards are specifically designed for dashcam/bodycam/security cam use and are amongst the best, if not THE best available.

[John Nooij]

You took of the A pillar trim, that sounds interesting.

I searched the net for instructions how to remove this in a IS300h and found a lot of guides and video's (also on this forum) but they are all for other Lexus models. 

To be honest: I'm a bit anxious to use too much force on the A pillar trim (you know... airbag...)

Is it something like in THIS post?  Or is there an A pillar trim removal guide or video specific for the IS300h (and perhaps also for the B/C pillar trims)?

 

 

 

[Herbie]

4 hours ago, John Nooij said:

Is it something like in THIS post? 

Yes it is. It'll no doubt be slightly different but by and large, the basic principle is the same. Just be careful with the retainer clips on the A pillar trim and try not to break them.

If you haven't already got a set of plastic pry tools like these then I'd suggest you get some They're very useful for doing stuff like this and once you have them, they'll come in handy for all sorts of things

[John Nooij]

So, I took the plunge and ordered the FitcamX for my IS300h.
Shipping barely took a week and a half and today I mounted the camera in the car.
Mounting the camera is a piece of cake. It takes at most 10 minutes. There's a YT instruction video that. The entire unit is custom built for the IS. See the photo, taken after mounting.  No single cable is visible.

The image quality is perfect. The removable 64GB SD card in the camera can store about 7 hours of footage (4K resolution) before it is overwritten in a loop.
There'a s WiFi connection possible with the camera, so you can read out and configure the camera if you have the FitcamX app installed on your phone.

Highly recommended!

[JLC13]

I have just installed one in my Lexus NX 450h+. Same observation as John Nooij, super-easy installation, OEM like result, very discreet device that doesn't attract attention, you barely can notice there is a dashcam in the car. The image is good enough for what it is intended for, which is not a Hollywood movie!

[John Nooij]

In the meantime I've also mounted the FitcamX rear camera, of course not attached to the rear window with the supplied double-sided adhesive, but neatly mounted on the headliner board.
Only an inch of the cable is visible near the camera itself, the rest of the cable is hidden in the (bottom) door trim panels and between the rear window, windshield and headliner board.  Very pleased with the result.