Dash Cams

FastEddieB

FastEddieB

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Fast Eddie B
I have recently started to consider one. We have some Paypal funds accrued from some eBay sales, so why not!

The recent crash in Taiwan brought the idea front and center.

I can see their utility when driving, but on long flights they could also capture things of interest.

A recent episode of "Before You Buy" happened to review a Papago model. I had never heard of Papago, but noticed that that was what captured the Taiwan crash footage.

Anyway, their review was a little mixed. Other brands and models are reviewed on Amazon, and I'm drawn to this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N8BM0BU...UTF8&colid=TYCHHVPXU7OL&coliid=I1G7X64NC4PA03

Anyone with experiences, positive or negative, either with one of the models or brands I mentioned, or dash cams in general?

Thanks in advance.
 
I have a GoPro.

The dash cams come on automatically with the engine and loop continuously. The beauty is, once installed you don't have to think about bringing it along or turning it on or storage management or whatever. If and when something of interest happens - accident, shooting star, interesting wildlife, crime in progress, whatever - its just there.

And the video quality they showed on the episode of "Before You Buy" was quite remarkable.

But thanks, and the GoPro is one option.
 
josephbelt01 said:
I don't know what your budget is, but I received a GoPro Hero 4 Silver $399 for Christmas and it's amazing. The video footage is sharp and looks far superior to that found in the cheap cams.

I use mine in the plane and also on a quadcopter / drone. You'll find lots of uses for it outside the cockpit. The mounting accessories are more important than you realize and GoPro dominates that area.

It was a little more than I wanted to spend, but who wants to watch grainy or blurred video footage? Do yourself a favor and look into GoPro.


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So you want to leave a $500 camera mounted on your dash for any miscreant to walk away with after breaking a side window ?

If you have to mount and uninstall the thing for every trip or even turn it on ot is useless.
 
I got a nifty dash cam on amazon for $20 several years ago. The beauty of it is that I plug it into the cigarette lighter socket and it comes on automatically when I start the car.

Mine runs on a 3 minute loop. It's always bothered me a little that I might be at the 2:55 second mark when an accident occurs.
 
Gerhardt said:
[...] Mine runs on a 3 minute loop. It's always bothered me a little that I might be at the 2:55 second mark when an accident occurs.
Click to expand...

This should be a continuous process, what means that after the first three minutes you should always be at 3:00. As new footage is recorded, anything older than 3:00 will continuously be deleted.
 
German guy said:
This should be a continuous process, what means that after the first three minutes you should always be at 3:00. As new footage is recorded, anything older than 3:00 will continuously be deleted.
Click to expand...


Alas, mine doesn't work that way. It's on a true 3 minute loop. But what did I expect for $20. Still, the few times I've wanted to capture I've been able to stop it alright.
 
The A118 continuously stores recordings in 3 minute or 5 minute segments. Those are overwritten, first in, first out. It has a button you can press to save the current recording in a separate folder so it never gets overwritten and a G-sensor that does that automatically after an impact..
 
mikea said:
It has a button you can press to save the current recording in a separate folder so it never gets overwritten and a G-sensor that does that automatically after an impact..
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The g-force sensor sounds like a great feature. Often, if one is in a hard collision, one can be knocked unconscious or at least be pretty darn disoriented (with airbags deployed etc).
I did not know that there was such a feature but when I do look for a dashcam, I will be looking for one with the g-force sensor.
Thanks!
 
Good news: The dash cam I received took really nice videos - I'll try to put together a very short YouTube video to link to.

Bad news: every 20 minutes or so it would just shut down. Not good if it might be off just when needed most.

I sent it back for credit. I also have a nagging suspicion it was a knock-off - the manual was abysmal and it was lacking an HDMI cord that other models apparently had.

Just received a different one - same model number but different manufacturer. Leaving on a trip shortly and I'll report back if this one works any better.
 
I picked up this one - http://www.amazon.com/2-5-inch-Vehi...=UTF8&qid=1426619806&sr=1-1&keywords=dash+cam

After hitting a lady who ran a red light and admitted to it. Then told her insurance company the next day that I ran the red light and she had the green. Lucky for me, a cop had been only a couple of cars behind me and stopped and cited her. Though it took about 4 months to get the police report, and another 2 for the other insurance company to admit fault on the part of their client.

edit to add, this one runs on 2 or 3 minute loops, and stores about 1hr 45 mins worth of footage, constantly rewriting over the old. It also doesn't look like as much like a camera as some of the others, and I haven't worried about it getting pinched. It does fall off the window though if parked outside in the hot Texas sun.
 
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Have any RAP power somewhere? I rigged up a USB power adapter on a relay triggered by the RAP offered in one of the electrical boxes in the truck.

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Pinstriper said:
I just got this one and stuck it on my he window of my cherokee . It takes great footage and at 14 bux if they bust my window to steal if from my truck I'll be ****ed since my window will cost 100 bux or more.. http://www.ebay.com/itm/141440293088?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT
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The form factor on that one just seems too big to actually conceal behind a rearview. Does my feeling match reality? I paid $80 for mine not only for the build quality, but for the form factor.
 
It's pretty small , and I'll post up some video from it later
 

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Pinstriper said:
It's pretty small , and I'll post up some video from it later
Click to expand...

That doesn't look too bad, but I still think it'd hang below my rear view and would annoy me... I like it tucked away and not obvious to the outside world. And I think I just realized how absurdly picky I was about my dash cam lol
 
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