Dash Cams

[RussH]

I was wondering if anyone here had an opinion on aftermarket Dash Cameras? I see a lot of cool crap when I'm on the road and obviously you can't just whip out your phone and take a picture. Plus some jack wagon almost hit me pulling out of daycare the other day. I would swear I was right but the way it would have happened I would have been "at fault". You guys know how it is.

Anyway, Seems like they've become way more affordable now. I was looking on Amazon and in the 100 dollar range they all look the same except the reviews are questionable. So I was wondering if anyone had something and liked it at all. I don't wanna spend 300 bucks on a Garmin one, it doesn't seem that important to me just for a new toy and I have no need of a GPS on my dash when I have Waze.

[Duffman]

I do not have one in my personal vehicle but the fleet I work on has a cam in every vehicle.

What I can tell you is we tried numerous cams (brands and price ranges). It basically comes down to what ya spend. The more $ the better the video. The $100 cameras were absolute garbage if your looking for a clear video.

[shrimpman steve]

Funny, saw one on either qvc or hsn don't remenber, just the other day. 1080p and under 100. Maybe you can find it online.

[RussH]

Funny, saw one on either qvc or hsn don't remenber, just the other day. 1080p and under 100. Maybe you can find it online.

Oh there's TONS online for under 100 bucks. They all seem to use the same combo of chipset and lens. Kind of like those stupid hoverboards that were blowing up left and right around Christmas? I'd assume it's a few factories all using the same parts. The imported ones at least. The reviews on Amazon seem to be mostly positive on basically anyone you pick. That said they all sound a bit off. As if it's the same person doing the reviews and many of them say they were given a sample to make a review.

I'm afraid what Duff said is probably the correct answer. You get what you pay for. I may just buy a cheap one to play with and then if I like it upgrade eventually. I was hoping someone here would have had real life experience, but so far no such luck. On the highly technical board I'm on the few people who answered it either came with their car, or they have the high end one, or they made one themselves! Either way not exactly real world experience from my peers.

[RussH]

Think I'm gonna go with this one. I have prime so if it sucks I can return it for free with zero worries. The company seems to be the most helpful of all the foreign ones. If I like it I'll eventually get something better. I'd actually like to put one on our work truck too. But that's up to the bigger boss.


http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00X528FNE?m=A6UEJTLUY290N&ref_=v_sp_widget_detail_page

[courbeco]

Russ, Costco has them for about $79.00. I'm thinking of getting for the same reason(s) you mentioned.

[RussH]

Russ, Costco has them for about $79.00. I'm thinking of getting for the same reason(s) you mentioned.

I'm not a member, but I do have a prime membership. I ended up getting it, with tax and free shipping and a Class 10 32MB SDCARD I payed 109.99. I'll have it Thursday. So I'm sure by Monday I'll have some thoughts. And like I said, with Prime if I hate it I can just drop it in the mail for free and they'll credit me no questions asked.

[RussH]

I ordered and received the one I posted a couple days ago. It's not amazing, but I just uploaded video from the time I installed it. It catches everything that's in front of you. The picture is fair to decent. You can read license plates. The audio is a bit better than I'd like honestly. For 100 bucks I'm happy with the purchase. The real catch will be if it lasts more than a few months, but that's a guessing game with anything I suppose. Still being from China the build quality seems good. I guess this is upper end Chinese. Maybe I'll post a video to Youtube later so anyone who is interested can see what it looks like.

[Sharkyispy]

I got one for XMAS which was made by Cobra. Very good recorder, continuous looping recording, wide angle lens and has the G sensor feature if impact occurs, auto record.....so far impressed....

[Duffman]

I ordered and received the one I posted a couple days ago. It's not amazing, but I just uploaded video from the time I installed it. It catches everything that's in front of you. The picture is fair to decent. You can read license plates. The audio is a bit better than I'd like honestly. For 100 bucks I'm happy with the purchase. The real catch will be if it lasts more than a few months, but that's a guessing game with anything I suppose. Still being from China the build quality seems good. I guess this is upper end Chinese. Maybe I'll post a video to Youtube later so anyone who is interested can see what it looks like.

Def interested in seeing what you record. Post up when ya do. Curious to see the vid quality

[TAB95]

Use a mirror tap when you install it. Nice and neat / clean install.
You must have power to the rearview mirror, i.e.: auto dimming mirror.

[RussH]

I tried to put something on Youtube but I haven't figured out how to CLIP the .MOV files yet. I thought you could do it natively in Youtube or Quicktime but apparently those are pro features. I'm gonna download a file to do it. Putting up a whole video is doable too, but also boring and potentially incriminating. Okay maybe not, but still you don't need to hear me on the phone or coughing or get turn by turn directions to my house!

[RussH]

Use a mirror tap when you install it. Nice and neat / clean install.
You must have power to the rearview mirror, i.e.: auto dimming mirror.

I'm not sure if the Rogue mirror is powered, I think it is. Regardless I just ran the cable inside the upper shroud and down and around to the accessory port. It's fully hidden you can only see the 6" of cable going to the camera itself and not form the outside because that part of the window is tinted very dark. I like it. Very stealthy.

[RussH]

Here this video is from today from Garfield to my workshop. Just a few minute drive. It starts at 45 seconds.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcpKCgxryXw&feature=youtu.be

[Duffman]

Damn man! That is really good vid quality. Definitely surprised especially considering what you paid.

Like I said, tried a ton on the fleet and the cheaper stuff sucked. Yours looked great.

BTW, nice music choices...:D

[RussH]

Thanks. I was talking to my friend who has one of the 50 dollar ones and it's absolutely terrible. I think 100 may be the current sweet spot where paying more only gets you more features. That may not have been the case even 6 months ago. The technology changes so quick and there's so many bad companies out there. But like I said let's see if it's still working in 6 months to a year before getting too excited.

[shrimpman steve]

Looks great and now I know where you work:D

Is the motorcycle shop still there

[RussH]

Honestly I would have assumed you always knew where my place was. Nah tootsies has been gone for a long time. We have half of the old auto body shop. It's a good spot for us because we don't do a whole lot of retail work.