I am seeing more of these things in stores, and their videos online. Do any of you have/use them in your cars? It doesn't look like they are much trouble to install or use, but do they provide a benefit. It looks like prices are all over from about $40.00 to $300.00.
I'm thinking they record on a loop, maybe have capacity to record onto a card or chip to transfer data to a computer.
Any and all comments, suggestions welcome.
Steve W

From what I have read, they record continuously and have an impact sensor. When an impact is detected the previous few minutes of recording are saved for download to another device.

To me, they are like buying insurance. Some people think they need it to cover them and others think they can get by without it. It just depends upon which camp your are in - If you think you need it then get it. If you don't need it, then skip it.

For my own situation, we don't drive that much so I'm gambling on not getting on.

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Bill

Without them we'd never know how bad Russian drivers are.

I've been considering a dash cam also because it seems everyone is fixated on their phones instead of paying attention to the road. Costco carries one now.

I bought a "Coredy 1080P Full HD 170 Degree Wide Angle Super Night Vision Dashcam" from Amazon about a year ago from Amazon for $42.00. It has loop recording on a mini disk that I can put into my computer to download the recordings. Has very good HD video, sound...which I have turned off..motion detection, night vision, etc.

I was looking for one that worked off a battery so I wouldn't need to route any wires from the dash. Found out they all needed to be plugged in. It does have a small internal battery for use when the car is turned off.

I just searched Amazon and they don't show it being available, but this site shows one for $34.99.

Coredy 1080P Full HD 170 Degree Wide Angle Super Night Vision Dashcam - IntelliShopper

I researched dash-cams for weeks and decided to buy a Viofo A119. It'll record for 4 hours or more, in 5 minute clips. Saving a clip, or taking a snapshot, is as simple as pressing a button. Haven't had to save any recorded idiocy yet but it's there if I ever need it.

One saved my little sister some money with her insurance company. She was driving her BMW, behind a truck carrying a kitchen stove. The truck hit a bump, and lost a burner cover, that then struck the side of her new car. Without the video her insurance company wouldn't pay to fix her car. At least that's what she tells me. I really should get one myself, because my patrol vehicle "Animal Control truck" isn't equipped with one, I only have a body worn camera.

I have noticed that in the past few years most cabs in Tokyo have adopted them.

IMO they would be very beneficial if you're in a collision at a traffic light. Over the years I worked many traffic collisions and was usually able to determine fault through impact damage, debris, skid marks and yaw marks. The one exception was collisions at traffic lights. Almost invariably both drivers claim that they had a green light. Without an independent, unbiased witness it became a he said, he said with no fault assessed. I hated to leave a victim in a collision hanging.

Certainly, if you think you’ll be in an accident in which you are NOT at fault, a dash cam might be helpful.

Of course, filming an accident in which you ARE at fault wouldn’t work out so well.

If you preserve the recording, you may have to produce it to the other side in a civil action or for the prosecution in the traffic ticket/criminal proceeding.

If you don’t preserve the recording, there may be a legal presumption that the recording would have been adverse to you. That could be very, very bad for you.

How would they know about the recording you ask? The dash-cam isn’t invisable: the accident investigator, opposing party or independent witnesses would see it. Questions about the recording would naturally follow.

Recordings are dangerous things: they very often capture things that aren’t helpful to the person doing the recording.

I wouldn’t have a dashcam nor would I advise anyone else to get one unless their situation was quite unusual.

Funny thing, but the insurance industry has not exactly welcomed dash cameras. I suspect it is because it removes their ability to fix things to the benefit of their cartel. C&D did an article on the subject.

Why Have Insurance Companies Failed to Embrace Dash Cams?

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Release the Kraken

I'm holding out for the affordable body-cam.

I use an SJ4000 Action Cam as a windshield camera. With a 32 gig memory card it records about 3 hours of video.

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Keep on Chooglin'

My sense is a lot of police were at first opposed to bodycams - but it seems the bodycams are helping the police far more often than they're hurting them. I would think the same would be true for dashcams - except for the hopelessly stupid among us, people tend to behave better when they know they're being recorded.

And you would be right. There were some in LE that didn't want the always seeing eye. IMO those who didn't want video, needed it most of all. Personally I loved them from the very start. I always tried to conduct myself in a professional manner and was always prepared to explain what I did. As a supervisor investigating complaints against officers, my experience was that video vindicated the officer 9 out of 10 times if not more.

There is somewhere on the Web where there are quite a lot of police bodycam videos. Many were posted after bogus brutality accusations were made. It's a good way of publicly shaming the liars. I reckon FAR more officers are absolved by cameras than are ever damned by them. Of course, you don't see that on the news because it doesn't fit the narrative.

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Release the Kraken

I picked up a couple of Yi Smart Dash Cams off Amazon a couple of weeks ago for $31 each shipped using prime. One in my car, one in my truck, connects to my phone, amazing.

Both of my cars have them, front and rear. They came as a pair.

Haven't needed them yet, but have recorded some really dumb actions by others that would be handy if needed.

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Eccentric old coot

We both have one here. We had thought about getting ones for a while like others to have as video proof in case something does happen. I picked up a couple after Wendy saw Snubbyfan's video elsewhere so I got the same model, set it up following his instructions and mounted to the rear view mirror.

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KM
S&WCA 3110 S&WHF 625

I've been doing a bunch of research on dashcams this weekend. My head is swimming.

One thing I noted in reviews of the cheaper items ~$100 or less was the number of times the vital file corrupted the one time the user really needed it. Many cameras exhibited issues with maintaining the time stamp which often resulted in the "overwrite old files when full" feature failing. As a result folk thought their camera was recording when it was not.

Complaints dropped significantly for cameras costing over $150. Think the old adage of "good isn't always cheap, and cheap isn't always good" applies here.

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Release the Kraken

I would like these as options on new cars - I'd much rather have them than "lane warning assist" or the other stuff that's becoming more common for folks who don't want to pay attention as they drive.

I'm not worried about it catching me making a mistake. I'm human, I make them, but hopefully I'm honorable enough to take responsibility for them, with or without a camera.

I drive mostly on two lane roads, and I'm thinking of putting bull bars on my GTI for all the folks coming at me on my side of the double yellow lines with phones grafted to their hands.

In a pinch you can use your cellphone app. I’m doing that until I can make up my mind on which one to buy.

KDLinks Model X1
$149 from Amazon

I installed it yesterday 8-19-18 , in less than 10 minutes, concealing the wiring.

Still getting familiar w usage , bells & whistles , but so far I'm all in.
I spend a tremendous amount of time on the road , mostly interstate travel.The number of people driving 55 MPH+ while looking at their phones is frightening. I put this irresponsible act on the same level as driving while intoxicated.

If I am involved an unfortunate event while driving , I indeed want to have video proof of what happened.

Won't leave home without one. Have them in our car, truck and Motorhome.

Been thinking about getting one for a few weeks. I found a small scratch and some paint transfer on my car. I wonder if some type of dash cam would have recorded it. It's on me to spend a couple hundred $$ to fix the scratch.

Sent from my Moto G (5S) Plus using Tapatalk

Mine has a motion detector and will turn on and record using the internal battery. Mine is aimed out the windshield, so if something hits the sides or rear end I'm out of luck. Some units record front and rear, just make sure it has a motion detector and internal battery.

Actually, the advice for those who live in hot climates is NOT to have the internal battery. They simply cannot take the heat. The solution is get a unit that uses large capacitors and wire it into the fuse box with some kind of voltage sensing device to prevent total car battery drain.

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Release the Kraken

Actually that is probably what it has because it will only run a few minutes without power then shuts down. There is no way to access it...like no battery cover or anything like that. Can't complain since it was less than 50 bucks and takes super video, night and day.

I have the over $100 dash cam, and very happy with it, front and rear Rexing V1LG Dual Channel Car Dash Cam $169 from Amazon but goes on sale for less, front night vision rear not. It has GPS so I can go over routes traveled overlaid over map. It shows speed GPS works well, tracks and displays on Google map very accurate, most other units don't have or charge extra for the GPS feature, and speed is as accurate as a GPS can determine. We've had ours since December 2017 and no problems.

PROS
• good video from front camera
• rear is acceptable just not as good as the front
• comes with included 16GB Memory Card expandable to 128GB do use correct type
• 170 Degree Wide Angle Front Lens
• front unit blends in well with the vehicle (mine came with a red adhesive mounting plate, I contacted Rexing and they sent me two free black ones which are not noticeable in my 2017 Explorer) good customer service.
• rear camera isn't very noticeable
• Records sound, can be turned off


CONS
• straight connectors on cables making cable stick out farther than it needs to be, 90deg adapters are available.
• no extra mount for rear camera
• rear camera not great at night
• most replacement parts, cables-rear camera mount, not available on REXING site
• no parking mode in the true sense, could just leave turned on but why record when you don't have to
• having to remove the SD card to download files is a pain but you only need to remove if you want to review route and speed unless you have a accident.

The price of dash cams have come down but the higher end ones have better video if you need to see a tag number mine will show it clear, that's why I went with the more expensive one.

Like stated before like insurance or a spare tire until you need it it's just there but good to have if a accident dispute or road rage occurs.

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Psalm 23:4

One of the problems with dashcams is the memory card. You really need to buy an "extreme conditions" memory card to deal with temperature and vibrations that they are subjected to. I think a lot of the bad reviews on cheaper dashcams come from using the cheapest possible memory card as well, and this is a big no-no.

I use a cheap Pruveeo and have not had a problem for a couple of years now.

I drive 40-50k a year on average, that's a lot of time behind the wheel. I've recorded a lot of stupid mistakes by others and a few by me. As far as capturing liability, I've thought a lot about that, but as I am seeing more and more poor driving on the road I have decided it is worth it.

I also use a helmet cam on my motorcycle, which is something all bikers should do, I think.

This isn't a dashcam story, but it was kind of weird.

Earlier this summer I went on a road trip to my old gun club in Cincinnati. On the way, all of a sudden there is a couple guys in a pickup truck tailgating me, and I could see the driver had his cell phone out, I am assuming videoing me. He followed me quite a while, even after I got off the highway.

Not sure what he was up to, but the guys at the club told me that is apparently the 'in' thing to do these days.

I wasn't really worried that they were going to do anything, as I was going to a gun club, where there are lots of armed guys around...

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Common sense isn't so common.

About less than a month after we had them installed in our trucks I was involved in an accident in west LA. Some guy in a $400k Lambroghini (sp?) came around me from a through lane wb Santa Monica Blvd wanting to get on the 405s. There is 2 left turn lanes and I was in the right lane of one. I didn't see him being the Lambo is a low profile vehicle but the dash cam saw everything. The side of his car was all smashed in. When I talked to our agent she sounded as if everybody there danced the jitterbug when they saw the video.

Of course this jackbutt tried to claim it was my fault. Thing that bothered me was not only did he risk injury to his teenage son, but made me wonder what his son was learning from his pop, like if your rich and powerful you can drive crazy and then lie your way out of any consequences.

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9tenz