Who here runs a dash cam?

[jyl]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Why should I have to remove the device from my car to deal with it?

The display is handy, the other day the cheap ass mount shifted and everything was blurry due to how the camera was hitting the windshield, it was focusing on it not through it.

Was nice to know that before needing footage and finding out after the fact that it had been recording useless video the whole time.

The display turns itself off after 3 minutes so it's no distraction whatsoever and the unit is small 2.5" W x 1.75" H x 1" and easily tucks behind a mirror.

Just depends how stealth you want it.

A unit with a display will be quite noticeable. After an accident, the police will see it and confiscate it to view the video. Maybe you don't want them to see the video.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by jyl

Just depends how stealth you want it.

A unit with a display will be quite noticeable. After an accident, the police will see it and confiscate it to view the video. Maybe you don't want them to see the video.

Depending on the circumstances, if I didn't want the police to see it after an accident, I'd remove it and maybe erase it before I undid my seatbelt. Mine should be here this week.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

Just depends how stealth you want it.

A unit with a display will be quite noticeable. After an accident, the police will see it and confiscate it to view the video. Maybe you don't want them to see the video.

Like I said, the display turns off by itself.

Most of them with a display do that.

Many even let you set the timeout longer or shorter than default.

I'd have to be in the highly unlikely circumstance of recording an accident in the first three minutes of driving and a cop being right there and him paying more attention to me than the accident itself.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

The $15 shipped camera arrived today. Looks great, tests to come. If it does well then I'm ordering a second to use as rearward facing.

That's exactly like mine, except mine doesn't have the HDMI port.

I've played with mine a bit over the past couple weeks and for the $15.00 it does a pretty good job so far. I'd be interested in your thoughts on yours after you have time to use it a few times.

I've gotten to the point where I just delete the files for each day without even watching them. But if something does happen - I'm glad I will have it to back me up with LE.

Cheers!

[jyl]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Like I said, the display turns off by itself.

Most of them with a display do that.

Many even let you set the timeout longer or shorter than default.

I'd have to be in the highly unlikely circumstance of recording an accident in the first three minutes of driving and a cop being right there and him paying more attention to me than the accident itself.

I don't understand the "first three minutes" part. The dashcam will record continuously.

Yes, you could quickly remove the dashcam and hide it. If you're conscious, thinking clearly, and mobile. And if you're not otherwise occupied. And if neither the other party nor witnesses see you running back into your car, pulling the unit off the mount, removing the mount from the windshield, pulling the cable out, and stashing it all away. And if your car is not impounded and searched. Etc.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by jyl

I don't understand the "first three minutes" part. The dashcam will record continuously.

Yes, you could quickly remove the dashcam and hide it. If you're conscious, thinking clearly, and mobile. And if you're not otherwise occupied. And if neither the other party nor witnesses see you running back into your car, pulling the unit off the mount, removing the mount from the windshield, pulling the cable out, and stashing it all away. And if your car is not impounded and searched. Etc.

We are talking about the display which has nothing to do with whether or not it's recording. They turn off, as in go black, as in after 3 minutes it's the same as not having a display on the camera at all so it's not going to draw any more attention or be any more discoverable than a camera without a display.

The display is useful.

An in car camera without a display is useful for just that, a fixed in car camera.

A camera with a display can be mounted and concealed just the same as one without a display but has the added benefit of doubling as a still camera or a video camera (different functional mode than in car recording) that can be used to document outside of the car as well.

[stomachmonkey]

The camera we are discussing with remote for size reference.

[Lapkritis]

Originally Posted by Baz

I'd be interested in your thoughts on yours after you have time to use it a few times.

I tried using a class 10 memory card that i already had on hand and the cam didn't work properly. I understand class 4 or 6 cards have to be used so I have a couple 32gb class 4 cards on order to deliver next week.

The battery is only sufficient to hold the settings in memory, not to operate the unit at all. It seems a bit quirky but perhaps that will change with the correct memory card.

I'll update here again once I have fully tested.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

I tried using a class 10 memory card that i already had on hand and the cam didn't work properly. I understand class 4 or 6 cards have to be used so I have a couple 32gb class 4 cards on order to deliver next week.

The battery is only sufficient to hold the settings in memory, not to operate the unit at all. It seems a bit quirky but perhaps that will change with the correct memory card.

I'll update here again once I have fully tested.

OK thanks. Yeah I ended up getting a new TF card from Amazon. I knew I had some here at home somewhere but I don't think (like yours) they ultimately would have worked so I bought new along with a reader.

Good luck and look forward to your input!

[Lapkritis]

Tested the $15 camera above and it works fine.



If you try a class 10 card then it won't work properly; this seems to apply to a lot of the import cameras that can be had for cheap. If you buy one and it doesn't work properly then check which class your memory card is... it'll have a number inside the letter "C" on the front. I'm using class 4 32 GB tf card and all is well. Records 1080P for $15... hard to beat.

[Oracle]

just ordered the same $15 camera.. we'll see how it goes...
thanks for the link

[Lapkritis]

The trickiest part is they ship with the default language as Chinese. Scroll through the menu until you get to "Abc" and select english... unless you prefer Chinese. You'll need to charge it through the USB first so the setting sticks; I used a usb cell phone charger I had on hand and their supplied cable. The battery inside the cam was completely flat when it delivered. Good luck.

[Baz]

Well tonight I finally had a chance to try out a night time application.

It worked really well. You could see the road in front - the car(s) in front, bicycles as I went by (as long as they had a tail light), etc. etc. In other words - enough clarity to provide good video in case it is needed later for reference.

The daytime video is really nice - especially in Florida and on the barrier island with all the tropical foliage and palm trees.....it's funny how it looks different seeing it on video than in normal vision - almost like a movie on TV.

I am basically leaving everything in the truck each night - unplug the cig. lighter power cord and take the camera down from it's mount and stick it in my door pocket. Then reverse this the next day. It's so easy and I now feel so much better to have some backup should an incident happen to me while trucking around every day. I tend to drive a LOT for my business and trust me...every day there are so many doofuss drivers it seems miraculous to make it through the day without a wreck happening.

Must be my superior driving skills.

Good luck with your dash cam endeavours...and if you don't have one yet - go for it!

[Lapkritis]

I ordered a couple more from a different seller for closer to $11ea shipped. These are different from the first that I bought; not 1080p as advertised and the angle on field of view is much narrower. Nearly identical retail packaging, and exterior appearance but no hdmi port. Going to be hard to weed through fakes and find the real camera. From the rear view mirror position the cheaper cam can only view one headlight at a time... the first cam view extends beyond each.

[Amail]

I've got one of these - Papagogo cameras. It's a full rear view mirror that clips over your existing rear view mirror and has a section that extends below with the camera facing forwards and buttons facing the cabin. Good video and audio. I have it wired directly into my sunroof power wiring. It's always on, but I keep the display off and there's hardly any power draw. It's certainly more than your $15 solution, but it's always there, always on, and completely unobtrusive.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

I ordered a couple more from a different seller for closer to $11ea shipped. These are different from the first that I bought; not 1080p as advertised and the angle on field of view is much narrower. Nearly identical retail packaging, and exterior appearance but no hdmi port. Going to be hard to weed through fakes and find the real camera. From the rear view mirror position the cheaper cam can only view one headlight at a time... the first cam view extends beyond each.

There is no "real" camera and no "fakes"

They are whitebox.

One of my clients is in the whitebox business.

He goes to China, finds products he thinks he can sell, gets his own packaging designed and sent off to the factory and in 45 days you are staring at it on the supermarket check out line.

[Lapkritis]

Real camera=true 1080p as advertised. The second two I have are clearly "clones" with inferior optics. The first one is "real" in so much as matching what is advertised and on the retail packaging.

[Oracle]

Lapkritis:
According to the instructions is suports 4G-32g (Class 6 or above) and based on this:

The host device Speed Class requirements are minimum requirements for optimum performance. If your host device requires a Speed Class 4 SD memory card, you can use Speed Class 4, 6 or 10 SD memory cards. If your host device requires a Speed Class 6 SD memory card, you can use Speed Class 6 or 10 SD memory cards

https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/speed_class/

...should work fine with a Class 10.

I need to buy a SD Card (more like 4-5 SDCards) for the camera so I'm wondering if the card is broken or something.. because the 4 is very old... and shouldn't work with High Def..

If possible could you check if a different Class 10 works fine?

[Lapkritis]

Tried a brand name class 10 from a cell phone and no love. Class 4 is working well. I'll see if I can get my hands a class 6.

[Oracle]

I have tried a Class 10 and seems to be working fine.. BUT the quality sucks (and supposedly this is HD) and is kind of choppy the video when I play it..

I don't think I can read a license plate from a video.

I guess 10 bucks won't get me a quality camera... :-(