Suggestions & advice for an in-car cameras

Henzo

Hi everyone
I'm considering investing in an in-car camera for my car . My budget is flexible not sure the type I need to have . Will be very grate-full for advice , whether u have one or not . Not sure what kind I should be getting . You hear and read about the ever increasing threat of crash for cash scams and insurance injury liability claims. Or the more common encounters on a daily commute with bad drivers who have absolutely no discipline or care what they are doing is damn dangerous . And having this camera footage for evidence to support or disapprove a claim , would make it hopefully more easier to settle . I'm looking for one facing forward . I been told you can attach them to your sun visor via your car cigarette lighter . Or the more professionally installed ones . Would these cameras be able to make out a car reg in case it needed . They come in audio too , :undecided uh ? Do they work in the dark or the night too ?
Again any advice given would be most welcome...

roddydogs

Got the Basic one £20 thats all over E-Bay, it works OK but its hopeless at night, supposed HD, but of course it aint. Even in good light hard to make out reg nos further than about 20' away.

forgotmyname

Some wont read a car reg, But they are not really designed for that.

Tons of reviews on youtube. I bought one after a review on the techmoan channel. He tests loads of cheap chinese ones off ebay.

I have a twin one front and rear camera. But he tested one very recently and it seems very good for the money.

Henzo

Thanks guys , you probably right . All I really need is just get a simple one . The ones you have how long is the recording on them ?

OddballJamie

Henzo, most will loop until they sense a bump, then they will save that portion. You shouldn't need to record everything constantly unless you're visiting local beauty spots late at night

hewhoisnotintheknow

dont buy anything from topbosses on ebay, total scammers

forgotmyname

The recording is endless... Its looped and overwrite's the 1st recording.

16GB or 32GB card easily fit a full 24hours of driving on one.

If you have a bump they usually save that segment and it wont get overwritted. But get a fast 16GB card or bigger.

roddydogs

You dont need a large capacity card as it just overwrites, if you have a bump, youll save to a computer anyway, wont you.

Henzo

OddballJamie wrote: »

Henzo, most will loop until they sense a bump, then they will save that portion. You shouldn't need to record everything constantly unless you're visiting local beauty spots late at night

Lol , My camera usage will be for vehicles with wheels only .

Strider590

Recently (ish) got myself an Ebay bargain Sanyo VPC-CG20, genuine full HD video camera mounted on a windscreen 1/4 whitworth threaded camera mount.



30mins = 2.2GB and the detail is very good, you can easily pick out number plates, even on oncoming vehicles passing at 140mph (70+70).
There are other brands which might fit the bill better (like Sony for example).
One hassle is because it mounts upside down, the video needs to be flipped later in PP.

Battery life is a problem (around 45mins), but spare batteries are dirt cheap (£5) and it's not hard to rig up a USB to 4mm power jack cable.

It's much bigger than the cheap dashcams, but even with those you should always check you have space to legally mount it.
Having a more visible cam does seem to adjust other drivers behavior, you only need point at it and that tailgater or brake tester with soon leave you alone

It's got to the point where these dedicated dashcams are becoming popular enough for the price to become unreasonable. It's hard to know which one to pick, there a few good ones and too many poor copies of the good ones.

This Sanyo i have can be bought new for £95..... The next one down has a longer battery life and records in 720p (as opposed to 1080p). A good dedicated dashcam will set you back MUCH more and probably won't have the anywhere near the same quality. Most also seem to upscale from very low resolutions to achieve "HD".

I won't be buying any more cheap dash cams, they're no longer the bargain they used to be.

Strider590

roddydogs wrote: »

You dont need a large capacity card as it just overwrites, if you have a bump, youll save to a computer anyway, wont you.

In my experience, that type of system works fine until the new file is larger than the oldest one.

File size depends on how dark/light it is, so your morning commute in the dark will have a smaller file size, then when it tries to overwrite that with a larger file later on, it just crashes the camera and you end up with a corrupt memory card (which then needs reformatting). Talking from experience of 3 different camera's with this "feature".