Here's a good gif

For those who are curious, it looks like the BlackVue DR650GW 2 channel is on MassDrop for $299.






 
 

I've been interested in dash cams for a long time and after reading this thread I finally bought one today from Amazon. It was very hard to make a decision with all cams out there but I finally went with this one. Looking forward to getting it.


 

I bought a Spy-Tec A118-C wedge style dash cash several weeks ago. Work kept getting in the way, but I got the thing hardwired into my old, 1986 Chevy K20. These were shot as dusk was approaching, on an overcast day. For the price of the camera, I was pretty happy. If you pause the video, you can make out the road signs reasonably well. License plates directly in front of you can be seen well, but those in the adjacent lanes are much harder to see. You'll see some fish-eye distortion especially on the light poles as they go by.






ETA: Yes, I'm aware that my truck could use a paint job. I don't care. It's for rabbit hunting, and going to Home Depot and taking the Boy Scouts camping.




















 
 
 

 

All these different cameras make my head spin, I'm about as far from a tech guy as possible and still be alive

Question is, is there a dual camera rig of some kind that videos out the front windshield as well as the back window? That way you could have a split screen video recording of what's out the front and the rear of your vehicle at the same time.

Along with the unit being portable, able to move between a rental car & then a work vehicle and personal vehicles.

for temporary use, I use my iPhone set to "record video" mode. It works well enough. I bought a little suction mount at a truck stop and it works amazingly well.

Fun from last weekend

The gif here is huge and I can't embed gifvs so here's a link

lucky the collision was relatively low speed.

Thought about that, but it just does not do what we are looking for.

Found this

http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00C86TSWU/ref=dra_a_rv_ff_fx_it_P2000_1000?tag=dradisplay0c-20&ascsubtag=c5efed82fed66c915fbdf90856b53c20_S&dra_hfr=x&dra_ohs=24-48

and this

http://www.amazon.ca/4Sight-LLC-4SG-4SK606-Original-English/dp/B00DC3KRZA/ref=pd_sim_sbs_422_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0NR0KATN61YAZPTF38JX

Don't seem to bad

Terrible resolution on the first, and only slightly better on the second.  It's your money and your car of course, but IMO in this day and age you shouldn't settle for less than 1080p/30fps.

Hit and run (link so you skip the first bit of the video)
thread where car is IDd

now I need a carfax account

Didn't know you could run tags with Carfax.

I also learned that in that thread

How detailed is it? I assume to just gives the VIN?

This is what he posted in the thread I linked to:

So the VIN would give you the make model and year, the color and place of registration may have come from elsewhere. I know in Washington you can find out where a car is registered by searching the emissions database (for counties that have emissions)

So I got my Street Guardian up and running and thought I'd post a video. I don't know how long it will stay up apparently there may be some copy right infringement from me playing the radio. A couple of the reasons why I chose the unit is because it got mostly good reviews and it is compatible with 128GB SD card.
 

Just a note on my G1W, I had mentioned a while ago how it was not correctly saving the last file from a trip, and I thought it was the fact I was using a 64GB card in it.  Well, I switched back to the previous 32GB card, and the last file is still showing an error.  I believe the file would be recoverable using more sophisticated editing software instead of the default media player, but it is still a real inconvenience.  I will be investigating further.

ETA: Looking around online, one problem report indicated SD card compatibility problems and switching to a 2-minute file solved it.  Since this was working previously, I don't think this would be my problem.  From the G1W review on https://dashcamtalk.com/g1w/ I find this:

I've been using the Lukas 9750G (GPS) since it was released in February. 2 Channels of 1080P, 2 card slots that support up to 256GB per slot (1 FS SD card and 1 Micro SD (note the micros don't go up to 256GB yet and it's cheaper for me to get the 64GB at this point.)  The larger, 256GB SD I can afford saves all the front and rear video in 3 minute increments. The smaller 64GB micro SD saves events so anyone within a certain range of the camera in park mode that sets off the motion detection or any "impacts" will automatically save the clips both on the main SD and backed up onto the micro SD for quick reference and redundancy. I've noticed, driving on average 2 hrs a day, that the cards take 3-4 weeks to fill up. Now the system will automatically overwrite the oldest files on the cards. One glitch I notice is the screen will turn "off" while recording when the cards are full and doing the overwriting. Took me a little bit to figure that out. I use the dual format feature on the camera to just clear it all and it's back to normal, since I like having the live video showing.

The camera runs fairly hot. I have it mounted to the left and slightly below my rearview mirror. It is out of the way of any vision though it sometimes bothers me when I go to look at the mirror. In any case, I don't mind, I wanted the screen. I leave it on live front view all the time. It has live rear view. Also has Split screen vertical and split screen horizontal of front and back. Also has PIP, main screen Front, little screen back, and the opposite as well with rear on big screen and front on little screen.

Since I live in sunny Arizona, I opted to buy the polarized lens to attach to the camera. I do take it off at night because it obstructs a tiny bit of light and as we all know, cameras suffer most at night due to lack of lighting. Takes a second to screw on and off so no big deal.

I'm tired of fucktards hitting me so it was worth whatever I paid for it. I don't recall, $400 maybe? $500 with cards? Something like that. I have not bothered to hide the wires. I could but I'm too lazy

Powering the unit was easy. I started to get special fuses to attach to then I said "fuck that" and just pulled the appropriate fuses, stick the wire under it, and plug the fuse back in. It already has fuses built in line, I don't need to run it through yet another fuse. Just need the power. Finding metal to ground to was actually the hardest part.

9:04 getting air over the rr tracks at 90+ mph.  Those guys were serious assholes for speeding like that in the park and then through the crowded road at the end.

Just installed the DR650 2 Channel this evening.  We will see if I get anything mildly interesting.  I sure would have if I had installed it this morning.

I hope his helmet cam makes the insurance claim process easier

Video of above, but it isn't much better than the gifv

insurance scammer gets crushed

This guy's a steely-eyed missile man - two nice dodges

Why not brake check a semi?


I think I'd ask for the officer's email address so I could send him a link to the video


So much bad driving

First off, I wanted to say great thread and have been meaning to do so for a while.



I purchased a dashcam from the BlackBox seller off Amazon prior to reading this thread. So far, I am satisfied.  



I had a few growing pains regarding camera placement.  A few videos have the Chrysler emblem from my Jeep windshield prominently displayed.  



Still, I am glad I purchased one and recommend to others.  Sadly no cool dashcam footage...yet.

Which dashcam did you get?

I purchased the Blackbox G1W like a lot of other posters.  



It appears to be about 10 dollars less not, I think I paid 60 for mine.  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FONBG1A?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00



 

Did you read the reviews on that amazon link?  Looks like about half the people who bought the G1W from Amazon received a cheap knock-off.
 

It all depends on WHO you buy it from on Amazon.  There are some legit dealers, and some that aren't.  I don't feel like looking it up right now, but it's all out there on the dashcam forums.

Not sure if "deluxe essentials" is legit or not.  I don't remember seeing it flagged either way on forum lists.

I got the G1WH and like it a lot. One question though.

I have a 32 gig card in it. However when on a trip the cam seems to shut off about every hour or so. If I restart it, it continues and will shut down again in an hour or so. I checked the card and the files are 1,488,xxxKb long so there is plenty of room on the card.

Is there a setting I'm missing that tells the cam to only record an hour or so.?

EBR

So I have this piece of crap wired into my fusebox so its always on 24/7. Well it got hot to the touch for a few months and the front cover of the camera popped off because the battery inside was bulging and about to explode.

I am looking for a new one, a little smaller form factor as well and one that is heat resistant. Any idea's?

I have been happy with my G1W-C which uses a capacitor instead of a battery.  I believe the G1W has been notorious for battery issues relating to temperature.  If you were satisfied with the output of the G1W you had previously, you might look at a G1W-C to remedy the problem.

G1W not good to go for Texas heat?

I just bought a new car, and figure it's about time to get a little more technology involved with this one.

Get the G1W-C.  It has a capacitor so it won't explode in the heat,  but is otherwise identical.

That means I don't get the benefits of recording while parked?  Unless I can change it so outlets are hot when the car is off.

Or hardwire it yourself.   If you have the least bit of skill and access to the fuebox under the dash, you can run a USB cable from the camera to an adapter that plugs into the fuse box.  Took me about ten minutes and 5 bucks.

As an added bonus, it looks much cleaner.  You can hide the cable, and then it won't be hanging down from your windshield.

I've posted the method and parts needed before, but I can post it here again when I get a chance.

Excellent. I'll ask about for that. Kinda makes me nervous to be changing things in the new car.


Need to look and see how easy that is. I haven't really explored this thing well yet. BMW has a much different build than Chevrolet, apparently. Might be over my head.

The only question you need to answer to find out if you can do it is "do I have access to the fusebox under the dash?"  

If yes, it's no problem.  There really won't be any difference between a chevy or a toyota or a BMW or a yugo, at that point.  It's all the same (I think).  If you DON'T have access, then it becomes more of a pain and probably won't be worth it.


If you do, here's how it's done.  No need to solder anything or whatever.  Just need a pliers and maybe a fuse tester if you can't read an electrical diagram.  And much cleaner than dangling a cord down to a cig lighter.

Here are the parts you'd need:

Fuse tap/add a circuit  (obviously get one that fits the fuses on your car)

Buck module/step down (buy a couple just in case, since they are so cheap).

10 foot mini USB cable  That's a two pack; you can find single cables for much cheaper if you look.  

The fuse tap hooks up to the positive lead on the buck module, and you ground the negative.  Then you just plug the USB cable in and run the wire, hiding all the excess.

Follow the instructions here.  Note that they want to sell you the package, but you've already built it from the above parts for much cheaper.

http://thedashcamstore.com/advanced-dashcam-installation/

Yeah, if it's an expensive car it might be worth doing that.  I used clear caulk, but my car isn't an Audi.  

I was more referring to doing a clean hardwire vs permanently hanging a cord down from the cam to a modded cig outlet.

ANYBODY??

This is great information, thanks.


Yeah, this is my feeling. I'll have to scout out what it's going to take tonight. I need to add a radar detector, too, so might as well do it all at once.

If you have multiple things that need hiding, and the car is nice, what I would recommend is to take TGM's advice and have shop do the actual USB cable running - just have them run it from the camera to the fusebox.  You can save some money by doing the actual hooking it in yourself, but avoid the hassle and potential messing up of your new car.

If the radar detector is USB powered, as an FYI they make buck modules with 2 USB ports coming off of it, so if you choose a circuit that has enough power to begin with (I chose the radio fuse personally, since it's ignition-only power and usually has some extra headroom for aftermarket options), you can hook both items up to the same hardwired circuit.