Dash Cam - anyone?
 

with people getting ever more careless on the road, the time has come to install a dash cam on old green for a little added protection. seems every time we hit the road, we run into at least one driver who is texting, talking on the phone, or just plain distracted for whatever reason. or they are just horrible drivers.

after looking into several different models available now, the g1w-c seems like the perfect option for a permanent install. it is a capacitor model (no battery), so it will be fine in the wicked texas heat. as such, with a permanent install, it will begin recording when powered on and continue for ~30 seconds after powering off.

have any of you here installed a dash cam? the plan is to attach it to the rvm, but would like to hear any suggestions or recommendations you guys might have. TIA.

Im interested in adding a dash cam as well. Fools around these parts are getting worse.
The influx of "undocumented" peoples does not help.

A few weeks ago...
On my way home from work...

A little cholo pulled out in front of me and started making erratic steering adjustments.
He was right beside me after he figured out how to keep it on the road...

The sucker started... i dunno if he was trying to get me to race his little bucking and spitting 4banger or what... but just as the 2 lane narrowed to 1, he floored it to whip around me...

Then he slammed on his brakes... stuck his hand out the drivers window in the shape of a pistol, and made some "cacking" motions at me.

I dont take to kindly to being threatened... by anyone...

This is precisely why anytime im in my truck... so is my trusty 1911.
Had the subhuman puke escalated the situation... i would have been left explaining why there was a dead cholo laying in the street. A dash cam would serve to confirm my account of the event with little room for doubt.

Wrecks and crashes? Eh... its usually my fault anyway lol.

same here, brother.

things are worse down here (200 miles south of you).

don't carry a gun (might use it), but definitely have a bowie knife in the center console and a hatchet tucked in between the driver seat and console... just in case.

I have 2 of the G1w dash cams and they are great.
I bought mine for 60 bucks from Spy-tec in new york. G1W 1080P HD Car Dash Camera

This thing works as it should. Here is a sample of my recording.
I use software to convert it to AVI and then a AVI trimmer to make it short for viewing. It records in 3 min segments and over wrights the older segments. You can lock a segment so not to delete

I've thought about getting a dash cam fro the idgets among us. Never been threatened with a gun strangely enough.

I have 2 dash cams in my daily driver. One in front and one in back. Both record to their own 32gb micro sd card so I have about 2-3 hours of storage. The files are in 5 minute increments and the oldest gets deleted for a new recording.

Cameras were bought off fleabay, they are about 20 bucks each.

I too have been researching dash cameras but there are so many out there I am at a loss. Also I want to stay below $50 and not take up alot of space on the dash or block the windshield.
Here a link with some reviews. Dash Cam Talk

This is not unlike the Bluetooth OBDII adaptors. The units under $100 are mass-produced, copied, and cloned in China. I'm not saying they're not worth the money, but it might be an annual disposable thing. It's probably just as well... the technology in the imaging industry is far too fast to encourage throwing real money down on something as basic as a dash-cam.

The G1W-C is the one with the capacitor - but that doesn't cover tampering or hit & runs. The A118 has better construction, but it's perpetually backordered. If you do get one that does motion recording while parked, the power hog versions will drain your battery. If you get one with a GPS, you can possibly get a deduction on your insurance - assuming it consistently demonstrates you are a safe driver (speed, accel, decel). Many units out there melt in areas with a lot of sun and heat (Vegas, baby - yeah!)

Dashcams have a whirlwind of features, gimmicks, forms, qualities, and drivers' needs associated with them... I'd pare it down to what I need:

Best resolution I can find: The wide-angle lens makes distant items hard to see (like license plates), so more resolution helps.

Stealth: A sparkly frame on the lens can be easily viewed through the window... at night. Target for thieves. They can replay the recording of themselves stealing it - at their home.

Temperature tolerant: I live in the desert with 300 days of sunshine and heat high enough to burst the cheap butane lighters. I have lost many to this phenomenon... I wouldn't want to lose a dashcam.

Wide Dynamic Range. Tech-speak for "can see better at night". Yes... you will be driving in lit conditions - but the bright lights blind the camera from the areas not well-lit. A nice camera can see in the "shadows" better than the bottom-priced units.

Recording capacity and loop control. I want to be able to break the recordings down to 1-minute increments, with zero gap between files. Many units have a recording gap because it can't store video and write to the card at the same time. At these resolutions, a 1-minute video can approach 300 megabytes in size - a bugger to transfer the action shot to another device while your adrenaline is still amped from an accident. (Oh... if you are involved in an accident, don't share the vids without your attorney). 32G is a good minimum size. You need time available on the card to reduce the risk of overwriting an "event".

Recording media - SD or Micro SD is the trend right now. Do not get the kind with internal recording, the transfer is a pain in the butt, way too slow, or both... plus it's likely outdated by the time it reaches your vehicle.

For those seeking information overload: [LINK] [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]

I installed this unit in BigRed! I have it right next to the rear view mirror so it does not block my vision at all. I also hard wired the power to ign on and off . I ran the wires up into the front edge of the headliner so as not to hang down.:-X22 One of the things I figured out he hard way was you need a high speed sd card for most dash cams to work properly. The picture quality is great ! nice and clear and nite view is also very good considering the low lite!:-X22

Smokie

I like that camera. I think i might get a couple. One question, can you turn the audio off at all?

So with all that info, what product do you recommend?

Thats good to know Smokie, thanks.

how did you install?

got the rvm mount for the cam, and already have a homebrew cigarette adapter behind the stereo. plan to run wires behind headliner/pillar/panel and plug it in there. want this to be a permanent mount. on/off with key.


be careful buying these. fleabay is flooded with knock offs. would say chinese, but they are made there already, lol

spytec and gearbest are good vendors

I installed a BlackVue DR550 2 weeks ago. It did have some overheating issues till I upgraded the firmware which seems to have fixed it. I use a 64gb high speed card, 64gb is not natively supported and requires a few extra steps to format it with fat32 before it will work. The front and rear cameras are small with the front hiding almost entirely behind the mirror. There is no screen which helps keep the size down so you do all the setup over wifi with your phone.