OT - Dash Cams

[jm714]

I searched through the threads and didn’t see any recent posts on them. Thinking of a dash cam, looking at crutchfield I will probably just go with the Garmin for $130. Curious what other people are using?

[unterhausen]

The garmin mini 2 is the one I keep thinking about buying. I don't really feel like I need one, but if I lived in a place with more traffic, I would get one.

We went to NYC a month ago and, in separate incidents, 2 people who had almost missed their exit pulled in front of me and stopped. If I weren't quite so quick on the brakes it would have been nice to have a dashcam

[jm714]

Similar reason here too. My son was cut off and honked his horn, the guy brake checked him and my son tapped his bumper leading to a claim. A dash cam would’ve sorted it out and now it is he said he said thing.

[EliteVelo]

Have a Vantrue and love it. So much that I bought my family members one for Christmas.

Fortunately, neither one of us has had to utilize it for a claim in question, but every now and again I pull out the memory card and look at the video. Crystal clear. Will never be without one.

[yngpunk]

This site has good prices and reviews...multiple options...

https://www.blackboxmycar.com/

[R3awak3n]

Best bang for the buck is viofo. Good quality and a good price.

Dash cams are mostly the same because they all have the same sensor, there are very few sensors out on the market so they all kind of use the same crap. The most expensive dashcams have cool features like cloud uploads and stuff but dont necessarily have quality to match. From my research viofo has as good quality as blackview for about half the price

I recommend get 4k front camera. Most important thing of a dash camera is reading plates and the more resolution the easier it is to do so. 1080p and even 2k cameras lack resolution. So get a 4k camera. Also the enemy of dash cams is light and motion blur, at night time most dash cams are kind of useless because no light and motion you will not be able to read plates.

There is also parking mode, which is amazing. I have a viofo a129 pro. Front camera is 4k, back 1080. I have it plugged into an external battery ( forget the name now but neo something). This lets me park my car and the cameras stay recording for about 18 hours. Its wonderful. You can have a setup that the cameras connect to your car battery and will record till battery drops a certain voltage and then stops. This is ok but i dont want to ever worry about killing my battery so I bought a neo. Its not cheap but works great.

So yeah I rec you get a a129pro from viofo. I like having front and back but st least get a front.

Oh and yes blackboxmycar.com is great. They in canada but ship super fast, good prices, legit.

[scoobydrew]

Came in to recommend the Viofo too. I've got the A129 on one car and A119 on another. One of them has the rear camera as well (highly recommended if you can spring for it). Each camera bakes inside the car all day but have had absolutely no issues with either.

[eippo1]

I've got a Rove and it's perfect for me. Wanted something that was easy to move between our cars.

Rove R2- 4K Dash Cam Built in WiFi GPS Car Dashboard Camera Recorder with UHD 2160P, 2.4" LCD, 150° Wide Angle, WDR, Night Vision https://a.co/d/hpJ8T5U

[tuxbailey]

I am currently using KingSlim Dual and find it to be quite good. This is after wasting some money on the cheaper ones.

https://www.amazon.com/Kingslim-D4-T...GWR/ref=sr_1_3

[makoti]

I'll add a question
Are you guys using/suggesting 1 channel (front only) or 2 (front/rear)?

[R3awak3n]

Originally Posted by makoti

I'll add a question
Are you guys using/suggesting 1 channel (front only) or 2 (front/rear)?

as I wrote above, 2 channels is optimal. but your rear camera will almost always have worst quality than front.

A lot of stuff happens behind you so having a back camera is almost as important as having a front camera.

Here is a good example -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGVrimSW5nI&t=367s

if he had not had a rear camera they would have not caught the guy. That video really shows what I mentioned above, how bad cameras are in low light + motion blur. All his 5 front cameras did not catch a plate. His back camera caught it because car stopped behind him.


the only negative side of a 2 channel is installation, clean install will have you remove some panels from your car to get the wire going back there, its not hard but some might not want to do it, could always have someone install it for you, this way you can have em hardware the camera so you don't have cable dangling down to the cigarette lighter.

Also really recommend this yt channel and his website if you want to buy a dash camera or radar detector. 2 things I would not go without in my car.


Best way to install is look on youtube to see if someone has done a similar install in your car, I found one and just followed for what I could.

Front Camera

Wires That had to go to the back of the car since BMW has the battery + fusebox in the trunk + rear dash

Rear Camera

Cellink Neo External Battery. Camera connects to this battery and battery connects to car battery.

External battery sits on the right there. This looks like I re-wired the car or some stuff but its really just the external battery going into the fuse box



Looks complicated but really wasn't that bad. Was pretty fun to install. I assume a place could do this in less than an hour.

[jm714]

Thank you for all the input. I’ll check them out. The Viofo’s look promising.

[Veloo]

I've had a couple of cheap, sub $100 ones. Just unreliable waste of money.
I recommend getting at least 1080P, preferably 4K.
Current set up is the Papago S37 on the front which is no longer made. I got another for the back later which is a MyGekoGear Orbit 530.

I like having the LCD screen and buttons so I can confirm that the unit is actually working.
One of the cheaper ones stopped recording on me and I was driving around with it for months before I realized. Now I do a monthly check on the SD to make sure it is reading and writing properly.

The Orbit 530 has an app that you can use but I find it slow.

A friend was wrongly accused by a cop of making some wrong turn but he knew he had footage to prove otherwise. An app is handy for these situations but being able to playback on a small LCD screen may be more reliable.

Get ones that use a capacitor vs a battery.

I run them with a long cable to a double USB cigarette lighter adapter. Get a decent adapter if you plan to do the same.

I keep a USB battery bank in the car for those times when I don't trust where I'm parked and just plug in the cables to the two cams. R3awak3n's set up is interesting tho.

[Likes2ridefar]

D

[eippo1]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

This looks great and the link makes it too easy to get…3 hours? Ok.

Is there a question there? If so I do not understand. It has worked fine for me. Clear images and I put in a Samsung 512 that I had lying around. I also like the parking mode where it has a few minutes in the battery charge that will activate and record if someone hits you while the car is off.