Cheap dash cams

knightstyle

I see dash cams for sale at under £15, are they any good?  This for example  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385795943317
I don't need GPS or WiFi etc.  So is it worth paying more?

Robbo66

Having had many cheap cams in the past I now have something in the £200 range. The cheap one have very poor video quality even to the point you cant even read number plates of the vehicles in front of you, footage is blurry and at night you may as well not even have it.

born_again

Have a look on u-tube & see if there are any reviews. Often these are just rebranded camera's & there are loads that all look the same under different names.

@ that price, worth a punt, but at least you have to by a sd card, but only upto 32 gig, so is not going to keep much data in a decent file size. 

forgotmyname

Cheap cams are mostly fake specs.  Bought one from Amazon and it was clearly not what they claimed. I did a thorough test on it
and found it was slightly less than 720 upscaled to just under 1080 and they claimed it was 4k. Quite a bit more thanm £15 also.

The actual video quality was terrible also.  If you needed to use it for evidence it would be the red blob is car 1 and the blue blob is car 2...

I left suitable feedback on Amazon and they offered me a full refund and extra money to remove it. I refused and said stop selling fake junk.

I have a Viofo A119 which is probably the price point where you need to look for a reasonable unit.

KXL88

I bought a dashcam by Nextbase for £89, usual price around £129. It has full HD 1080 60fps. With these settings night or day it could pick up licence plates 100% of the time in day and around 70% of time at night. Already saved me twice re parking tickets. But when I dropped it down to 1080 30fps... seemed inferior quality. So probably stick to the big brands, Viofo, Nextbase, Belkin, ring, Thinkware. At least 1080. Funny how the non big brands tend to have 4k recording for only about £50, but big brands you need to spend a lot more. 
Mine is a 322GW

[Deleted User]

I bought an ePrince one about 10 years ago due £40. Still going strong, no issues. Video quality is excellent. They are basically a mature technology, so no need to waste  £200 on one.

Video quality wise, forget the claims that you need to be able to read number plates from 50m. You just need evidence that you were not at fault. If someone hits you they will either stop, be close enough to read the plate, or you can read it yourself and it will be recorded on the audio.

The only things worth paying extra for are a rear camera and parking mode. The latter only if you intend to chase for carpark door dings etc.

Goudy

Have a look here
DashCamTalk

They review all the cams and there's even forums for individual models that discuss setting and problems.

I would have to also say the Viofo A range of cameras have been a good entry point for dashcams over the years.
They constantly update them and support them with things like new firmware.

I run a Mobius Action camera in it's Dacscam setting and it's totally rebuildable, there are different lenses available, lens extender cables, different mounts, new batteries and so on.

It's handy if you need to get out of the car and film as it'll run on the press of a button on battery for ages, just like a normal action cam.

EssexExile

Goudy said:

Have a look here
DashCamTalk

They review all the cams and there's even forums for individual models that discuss setting and problems.

I would have to also say the Viofo A range of cameras have been a good entry point for dashcams over the years.
They constantly update them and support them with things like new firmware.

I run a Mobius Action camera in it's Dacscam setting and it's totally rebuildable, there are different lenses available, lens extender cables, different mounts, new batteries and so on.

It's handy if you need to get out of the car and film as it'll run on the press of a button on battery for ages, just like a normal action cam.

I have Mobius front and back, they are great but not exactly intuitive to set up! The back one has been useful so far.

[Deleted User]

I'd ignore that forum. The people there are not looking for basic models that will provide enough evidence to establish fault in the event of an accident.

One other thing I forgot. GPS is useful for proving your speed, if the other driver or the police falsely accuse you of speeding.

chrisw

[Deleted User] said:

One other thing I forgot. GPS is useful for proving your speed, if the other driver or the police falsely accuse you of speeding.

Or may implicate you...

Goudy

EssexExile said:

Goudy said:

Have a look here
DashCamTalk

They review all the cams and there's even forums for individual models that discuss setting and problems.

I would have to also say the Viofo A range of cameras have been a good entry point for dashcams over the years.
They constantly update them and support them with things like new firmware.

I run a Mobius Action camera in it's Dacscam setting and it's totally rebuildable, there are different lenses available, lens extender cables, different mounts, new batteries and so on.

It's handy if you need to get out of the car and film as it'll run on the press of a button on battery for ages, just like a normal action cam.

I have Mobius front and back, they are great but not exactly intuitive to set up! The back one has been useful so far.

I originally ran mine in the rear but I changed my car and the Viofo wedge shape didn't quite fit the front screen due to the brake support camera my new car had fitted to the top centre of the windscreen, plus there's a band of speckled black dots that act as a sun screen across the top of the window.

I cut a Mobius mount down (they come is all shapes and sizes) and fitted it up the underside of the brake support camera casing and it's all neatly tucked out of the way.

I get what you mean about setup, but once it's done, it's done.

I've a Mini 0906 in the rear now and that's a pretty good camera for the price but I was tempted to run another Mobius with an extended lens cable.
Fit the camera body inside the roof liner and attach the lens to the top of the rear window.