Dash Cam - What's Good & What's Not?

[mrbounce]

Morning all

One of my work colleagues wants a dash cam (I am also considering one) but I have realised that I know absolutely nothing about them.

Can anyone help me with ease of fitment, models to go for etc? Even how much they cost?

I am like Jon Snow. I know nothing!

[Mercdan68]

I’m interested in buying one too
Any info ?

[moglite]

My original one - a no name jobbie, became unreliable.
This one came highly recommended on Amazon, but was cheaper on eBay

It has only been fitted for a day, so no long term test, but picture quality seems good during the day, and decent at night - I've yet to play with the exposure settings.

Nice robust aluminium case.

I drove about 3.5 hours yesterday, and it wrote 18GB on my 32GB card

[xbl]

Nextbase ones are good, full HD recording and available with GPS and wifi to upload to another device (I have one of these in my Saab).
I've got a maplin one in my van which was £40, not that impressed with it though, it's only 16GB capable and misses patches of recording as it desires.

[haggis]

i have a nextbase 312gw. I paid £150 about a year ago and I think its £99 now.

My mate actually commented that its picture was better than what he could see at night

[chris y]

I have a nextbase one. Its great. I think its a 412GW. I think it was about £120 at Argos early this year.
Great picture quality night and day.
I researched a bit and they seemed to be the best compromise of quality and cost.

It has a quick clip on mount so if you have a few cars you can put a wired mount in each and just pop the camera in whichever you are using.

I used it on a trackday too with speed stamp on the footage.

The only downside for trackday use is that it records 5 minute videos (no gap) so sometimes a good lap will be on two videos.

[discostew38]

I have a nextbase In one of my cars and my wife has one in her car both are different models and both have different problems
Her one the picture freezes and it needs to be switched off and on again to work
Mine won't switch off with the ignition it just comes back on and off till its battery goes flat and it don't always record

As its something you need to rely on I can't recommend them
I'm looking into other makes at the moment

[chris y]

Oh yes, and as Haggis says you can see more on the screen at night than you can through the window.

[nomad]

I've got one that looks like a large rear view mirror that clips over your original mirror (£30 on ebay), a neat idea that isn't as obvious as a dash/screen mounted black box. The price included a seperate rear facing camera.
Wire up a cigar lighter that only gets power when the ignition is on, wire the camcorder to that and it's all automatic.
You can get some that have motion detection - handy if idiots bump your car when it's parked.

I've got some "interesting" footage of bad driving from mine but not sure how to share it? PM if you want a copy emailed.

Tip : I killed my first one, it was in a 1-into-2 cigar splitter, I plugged in a elec footpump and blew the splitter and camcorder. Just be sensible and you're fine.

[anils]

Got a link to the dash cam, Nomad?

[nomad]

Nov 19, 2017 15:10:43 GMT anils said:

Got a link to the dash cam?

I can't remember who I bought mine from but I think it was about £30 (now from about £10 ), to see similar put this into Ebay :
("accident","traffic","dvr") mirror recorder

Personal choice, some have obvious buttons - some are hidden, some have 2" displays - others have 4" or more...
The main unit is the front camera / recorder, the rear cam records on that.
Instructions say I can wire my rear camera so it comes on as a reversing camera but as there's no reverse lights on my car I'd need to change the gearbox first   

[skkylinedave]

What does everyone do about wires etc ? I bought one from Aldi but got fed up with the fiddly buttons to turn it on and the huge wire running back down to the fag lighter .

Anyone got any idea of one thats not much faff and not to expensive ?

[skkylinedave]

Also i keep seeing people driving around with the screen lit up recording in there car which i was under the impression was a no no ? Can anyone clarify that ?

[chris y]

On my Nextbase the screen is on while driving, I mounted it in the spot where I cant see it at all behind the rear view mirror.
If I want to see it, to check its aim or that its on for example I just pull the mirror backwards, fortunately in a Carlton the mirror seems designed to be able to pulled back easily then a quick push forward sets it back to where it came from.

[brachunky]

I remember reading (maybe on here) about the Goluk range of dash cams. I like the feature of it being a security device when parked up with its motion detector. They make the T1,2,3
en.goluk.com/pages/t2-overview.html

[xbl]

Nov 19, 2017 16:37:21 GMT chris y said:

On my Nextbase the screen is on while driving, I mounted it in the spot where I cant see it at all behind the rear view mirror.
If I want to see it, to check its aim or that its on for example I just pull the mirror backwards, fortunately in a Carlton the mirror seems designed to be able to pulled back easily then a quick push forward sets it back to where it came from.

There's a button to switch that off on mine, have to have mine off as it doesn't fit behind the mirror in the saab.

[Forty45]

This site has reviews of dash cams.

www.techmoan.com

[kieranv]

I've had a 0805 dashcam in 2 of my cars for the past 3 or 4 years now. They're absolutely fantastic and really discreet when fitted.

[nomad]

A couple of late answers to earlier questions (skkylinedave etc)
Wires - I ran mine down the side of the windscreen, tucked behind the internal trim, to an extra lighter socket behind the glovebox.
"Always on" display - I can set the display on mine to be always on, always off, or to turn off after 2 / 5 /10 minutes.

[gumpy]

I just fitted a nextcam 212 to my old man's ford kuga today,had a hardwire kit which is a piggyback fuse so I used the rear parking sensor fuse (only turns on with ignition) run the ground to a bolt behind the trim panel and all the wiring in the headlining took about 30 mins and looks neat and tidy as he didn't want to use the 12v socket and have wires everywhere. The night time footage is brilliant.