Fatshark Dominator HD Review (RCSchim)

by RCSchim | September 6, 2014 | (9) Posted in Reviews

I was one of the lucky FPVers that got his hands one the first few Dominator HD goggles that were shipped - so I hurried to review it for you. First tests were a bit dissapointing. I compared them against RCV922 and AttitudeSD.
RCV922 has 46° fov and funny: it's sharp without diopter for me (I'm short sighted). AttiSD require diopters for me.
Initially I didn't use diopter glasses and thought the DomHD are no way as sharp as the 5 year old rcv922 ;-)
After putting on the diopter lenses now (the ones from AttiSD fit) - the picture is really good!
Most notably you get blown away by the color quality. Also you get less barrel distortion. These optics sure were hard to design!

FOV - screensize
For me it was always the most important factor to really get immersed with FPV - big screen! The RCV922 were great regarding this - but you couldnt read OSD info in the edges...
AttiSD were better for OSD - but not so good immersive feeling.
DomHD now delivers both - quite sharp on the edges and huge screen. On the last FPV meet I tried many different models (AIO, Skyzone, Cinemizer). Most of them have around 30° fov - way to little for my taste!

Wearing comfort:
I always preferred the foam from rcv922 over the rubber eyecaps. So old ones are nicer to wear for me.
With AttiSD and now DomHD I get ugly eyerings with fpv sessions ;-)

IPD adjustment:
is fine for me - almost sharp in all corners - much better than with RCV922 for sure.

DVR:
Super option! I tend to fly just with 5.8 nexawave RX without groundstation. Just makes no sense flying miniquads with huge groundstation. Keep it portable here! So DVR is a good safety option if you crash. One wish: please make the DVR autorecord after powerup. May be energy waste and SD card wast - but also use cycle recording!
And: if you crash and panic and tear away your goggles you may be dumb enough to just unplug power and not stop DVR rec first. In that case the DVR recording is lost.
So we have to get used to always stop REC after crashing ;-)
Other than that: rec quality is really good, 720x480 30fps with 8mbit

Verdict:
First I was a bit dissapointed - but now I don't wanna use the other goggles ;-)
Diopters were needed - that was one dissapointment - and I couldnt believe the high price (650€ in germany!) - but now I learned here from Fatshark that the LCDs are making it so expensive.
Funny: altough my shop stated rx module and headtracker is OPTIONAL I got at least a headtracker module preinstalled (now with multicopters I don't really need it - but maybe I can apply it to Zenmuse tilt on my Phantom2).

COMMENTS

Gopherdave on September 7, 2014
Great review! Tons of good info about goggles and getting an immersive experience. I was wondering about the black box display that you liked. Is it the HK one with a better monitor? The antinov fly by was too cool, can't plan stuff like that.
Thanks again
Dave
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canuck on September 6, 2014
Love the review. You include all the important information and unbiased reviews are so important. Obviously nothing is going to be perfect but understanding the benefits/downside of each feature allows you to make the best selection from the products out there. Keep it up.
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rogerjiangcf on September 7, 2014
After some math, I found out that the pixel density of the Dominator HD is almost the same as the Attitude SD due to the larger FOV but im sure that the "HD" much more immersive.
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Fatshark Dominator HD Review (RCSchim)