Speed camera detectors

sallysaver

Hi,
I am looking to buy one of these gadgets. Can anyone give me any reccommendations i.e. Talex, snooper, road angel which would give the overall best performance. I am not a speed merchant by any means but am straying onto strange territory soon. Thanks Sally

vikingaero

Talex seemed to have been in administration and re-appeared again.

There's an old review of speed camera locators in Auto Express:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/products/products/205113/speed_camera_locators.html

I would avoid the Road Angel 7000 like the plague. I have one as a paperweight.

To be honest you would be better off getting a sat nav like the Tom Tom One for £100ish and using the speed camera facility on there.

bargepole

The TomTom and other satnavs will warn you of upcoming fixed cameras (Gatso, Truvelo and Specs), but tbh, if you're paying full attention to the road ahead, you shouldn't get caught by one of these, they're painted bright yellow and have warning signs at least 1km before the site.

You're far more likely to get zapped by a camera in a mobile unit, usually LTi 20-20 or Prolaser, and the locations of these vary so your satnav won't have them in its database. The vans they use aren't always as clearly marked as they should be, and the [strike]stealth tax collectors [/strike]"Safety Camera Partnerships" like to hide behind trees and above bridges.

If you know which area you're going to be in, go to http://www.speedcamerasuk.com/locationsdatabase.htm
where you can click on the map and it will list the commonly used sites.

LandyAndy

Sadly there is no substitute for paying attention and driving within the law.

westy69

i would reccomend a road angel compact it will warn you of fixed cameras and possible mobile scamera van sites having a sat nav with this built in is pointless IMO as you need to have the sat nav on all the time but wach to their own i also have a tomtom with the speed camera database and 50% of the time it misses cameras

:beer:

Northsea77

I have a 'radar detector' and laser detecor.

It's next to useless - even it clear sight it provides a warning about 10 foot away, so if you are even doing 30 you don't have much chance to be fore-warned.

Tomtom is great - but as someone else said you are far more likely to be caught out by a man in a van, or by traffic cops on the motorway.

Easier and cheaper to stick to the limit (plus you savwe fuel)

BTW i am no speed freak, i am just a bit gadget obsessed - and wanted to see if they worked. It was always meant to go back on ebay actually, but is still in my car glovebox. more trouble than it was worth - i only had a small car and the drain of having it plugged in meant my alternator was on more - which when driving in congested london traffic meant my car overheated and radiator blew a small leak! luckily i had a can of radweld in my boot!

boatman

Buy a Tomtom ONE for £90 from Currys and subscribe to the pocketgps camera updates, it alerts you to all the fixed and mobile camera sites. If you need Europe as well buy the Tomtom ONE Europe edition or the Garmin NUVI 255.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/203972/gps-tomtom-one-gb-v3-89-99-delivere/
http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/modules.php?name=Cameras
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Nuvi-255-European-Mapping/dp/B00151USEQ/ref=pd_sbs_ce_2

westy69

just to reiterate in my experience no detector will 100% pick up mobile cameras and if they do the chances are you have already been zapped, my RA compact picks up ALL fixed cameras, roadwork cameras and average speed cameras (as long as the subscription is paid £3.99 a month and upto date downloads are added on by me) it also as i said warns of possible mobile sites which i think is great and accident blackspots but you can select/customise what you want to be warned of, if you keep an eye on ebay you can sometimes pick up bargain units with 6 or 12 months subscriptions already paid.
For all these people that say "oh just stick to the speed limit and you will be ok" - please are you telling me you have never done 34 in a 30 ir 45 in a 40 etc because thats all you need to do for the local camera partnerships to snap and fine you, 10% over the limit and you will get fined, we are all human and we all do a little over the limit at times.

bargepole

westy69 wrote: »

For all these people that say "oh just stick to the speed limit and you will be ok" - please are you telling me you have never done 34 in a 30 ir 45 in a 40 etc because thats all you need to do for the local camera partnerships to snap and fine you, 10% over the limit and you will get fined, we are all human and we all do a little over the limit at times.

Not quite right, the threshold for prosecution is 10% + 2mph, so that's 35 in a 30, 46 in a 40 and so on.

However, as I've shown on other threads, sticking to the limit does not guarantee you won't get a ticket, thanks to dodgy cameras and even dodgier practices by some of the SCPs.

anewman

Apparently there are some gadgets you can stick in your car to make the mobile cameras not get a reading on your car, but apparently they take note of registrations where they continually can't get a reading.

economiser

sallysaver wrote: »

Hi,
I am looking to buy one of these gadgets. Can anyone give me any recommendations i.e. Talex, snooper, road angel which would give the overall best performance. I am not a speed merchant by any means but am straying onto strange territory soon. Thanks Sally

Why do you need a detector? They are big bright yellow boxes with white stripes in the road, how can you fail to see them?