Dash Cams

[aDumpsterJedi]

Looking for what dashcams everyone's running. Prefer something that records front, back and in cab. Also that's hard wired in and doesn't take up alot of window space. Tell me about yours and if you think it's worth it or not.

 

[socalvn]

Thinkware U3000 great picture night vision front and rear Etc not super user friendly as far as preview on videos probably would have chose a different one check out Vortex Radar on YouTube he's the number one guy for dash camera/ radar

 

[Ah GetFd]

I installed dash cams on two My23 Stingers recently.

Australian/New Zealand brand GPS manufacturer NAVMAN Auto 550 Dual Dash Cams front and back. 1080 Full HD

Navman is an aftermarket GPS Provider. GPS capable dashcam. Provides Satnav features Red Light Speed Cameras Schools level crossings. Speed zones. Updates once a month.

Full colour reads number plates, Zoom Function. Laptop software. Front and rear camera files

Although I am an electrician I didn't bother to hard wire. Plug in to rear 12V socket ran cables both sides, one rear camera, other power cable to dash mounted front camera 2CM screen. Mirco SD card, re writes roughly every 4 days. 1 minute or 5 minute saves.

Happy with it. AUD$299. I bought on special B4 Xmas AUD$149.

 

[Volfy]

I've got Rexing dashcams in all my vehicles. A few things I like about them:

1. Solid body mounted on windshield, with adjustable-angle lens. I've had ones mounted on a swivel, and they always get bumped out of alignment, or the plastic ball/socket would eventually fail.

2. Super capacitor, instead of internal battery. Capacitors are a whole lot more durable than any type of battery, which would fail after a while. Then it would end up corrupting the last video files when the ignition is switched off and the camera loses power.

3. There are several styles of direct wiring kits available for it, some allows for the camera to maintain power with ignition off, which allows it to record continuously or when a high G-force is detected.


Whichever dashcam you choose, get one with rear camera (at least 1080P). A 3rd cam option might not be a bad idea for monitoring inside cabin, especially if the system is set up in surveillance mode.

If I didn't already have dashcams in my Stingers, I would seriously consider buying this: Plug and play Dashcam The integrated stealth install makes it a great setup.

 

[Thomby]

2. Super capacitor, instead of internal battery. Capacitors are a whole lot more durable than any type of battery, which would fail after a while. Then it would end up corrupting the last video files when the ignition is switched off and the camera loses power.

That's interesting, is it a capacitor combined with a battery, or just to stabilize voltage from the car? I wouldn't expect a camera to need big quick current spikes (like a car stereo), and caps hold very little actual energy, so is it just to allow a soft shutdown? Or to ease the switch to internal battery maybe?

 

[Volfy]

That's interesting, is it a capacitor combined with a battery, or just to stabilize voltage from the car? I wouldn't expect a camera to need big quick current spikes (like a car stereo), and caps hold very little actual energy, so is it just to allow a soft shutdown? Or to ease the switch to internal battery maybe?

The capacitors are used to power the camera for a few seconds right after external power is cut off (when ignition is turned off) - just long enough for the camera to close out the current video file and then safely shut down. Those with internal batts do the exact same thing. None of them have large enough capacity to last much longer. The Rexing dashcams I have are capacitors ONLY.

The previous internal-battery ones I had would start accumulating a bunch of corrupt video files that couldn't be opened. Not only was I losing potentially valuable video segments, also depending on how large SD-card I had, the corrupt files would start filling it up, and I would have to delete those files manually to reclaim the storage space. Quite often, I'd have to run a disk scan to repair the partition's file lookup table. Royal PITN.

 

[Thomby]

just long enough for the camera to close out the current video file and then safely shut down. Those with internal batts do the exact same thing

Oh gotcha. I guess having a battery live just inside your windshield, nice and high in the car, is about as bad as it gets in terms of direct & indirect heat.

I've seen the ones you can hardwire into your car battery that shut off once battery voltage drops to a certain level, but that seems like a big hassle to give yourself a permanent parasitic drain.