Dash Camera - does anybody use one?

[Disappointed]

I recently bought one out of curiosity. For those that do a lot of driving, do you own one and what do you use it for?

Interestingly, the plane crash in Taiwan yesterday was captured by a dash cam.

We are contemplating on a cross country road trip and hope to use it to document part of our trip.

Mp

 

[2017ish]

I don't have one, but am surprised that it would work to document part of trip. My (close-to-absolutely-uninformed) understanding was that they have a fairly small looping storage capacity? Or has Moore's law changed this?

 

[photoguy]

They seem to be popular in korea to prevent scams:

Scam artists caught on camera staging accidents!

 

[mpeirce]

More than you may ever want to know about picking a Dash Cam

The Best Dash Cam | The Wirecutter

 

[Disappointed]

2017:
A 32gb microSD card gives you between to 4-5 hours of HD recording. You can copy the video to your laptop daily or buy 10 cards at $15 each.

Mp



Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[RonBoyd]

This was discussed in another thread. Here is one of my responses:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f29/photographers-corner-equipment-69337-13.html

And this is what I said a bit earlier:

Okay, let me try again. The DashCam is on and recording whenever to ignition switch is on. The Gopro has to be manually started. The DashCam rums off the vehicle's generator (battery) while the GoPro has a rechargeable battery. The DashCam can record up to 24 hours of video while the GoPro is limited by battery capacity and SD Card capacity -- at most one hour.

A good source for information is at Dashboard Camera Reviews.

 

[Ronstar]

I use my go pro as a dash cam on trips, but only when driving through scenic areas. I can probably get 4-6 hours of use per day out of the 2 batteries I have. I generally turn it on and off so that I get hundreds of small clips. The smaller clips seem easier for me when post processing. I clip the clips further in editing, stitch together, sometimes throw in some music, and export a movie. I use the free go pro studio software. Files are huge- a 5 minute video can be more than 500 mb.

I have a chicago-Phoenix trip coming up. I'm going to do some video in some spots.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[OBXretire]

I have both a GoPro and a dash cam. After using the GoPro for a while I ended up purchasing the dash cam, both easier to deal with and cheaper in the long run.

The dash cam can be set to record in 5 minute segments with the oldest being erased when the card is full. This one also can be used as a security cam with motion sensing and has low light capability for less than $70.

 

[RonBoyd]

I have our DashCam (Review) at all times. (I have the "hookups" installed in both vehicles, RV and car, so as to move the unit between them.)

Several weeks ago, we had an unusual experience. We were on a street stopped at a red light in the right-hand turn lane. The cross street was a four-lane with a turn lane on the far side -- speed limit 40MPH. I waited until cross-traffic had cleared out and there was only one car -- it was going (what I guess was) the speed limit in the 2nd lane over. I determined that I could turn right (on the red light) and stay in the near lane without interfering with that driver by making the turn before he got to the intersection. There was traffic going the other direction, including a car that I caught out of the corner of my eye, moving into the turn lane. As soon as I made the turn and straightened the wheels, there was this loud (very loud) noise that was unmistakably that unique sound of two cars colliding. I thought I had misjudged the situation and the car had hit us. I quickly asked my wife if she felt anything. She said no. I looked in the mirror and there was a car cross-wise in the street.

We had to go about six blocks before I could turn around and go back... ready to admit my culpability. In the meantime, I began thinking that someone must have ran the red light. When we arrived at the scene, there were two people laid out on the ground (one from each vehicle) and several others obviously hurt. I could see, however, that none of this was my fault and drove on.

Later when I got home, I played the DashCam footage. The car in the turn lane had not stopped. He/she had ran head-on into the vehicle coming the other direction.

Anyway, here is this (unrelated) news article:

Popular 'dashcams' catch everything from scammers to plane crashes

 

[travelover]

I'm thinking of getting a body cam, like some police departments are using. Hopefully this will end those he said / she said disagreements with my DW, 'cause I know I'm right.

 

[2017ish]

2017:
A 32gb microSD card gives you between to 4-5 hours of HD recording. You can copy the video to your laptop daily or buy 10 cards at $15 each.

Mp

Nice. The link by mpeirce made my head spin 360 degrees, but got into this as well.

This discussion has put a dashcam into the "seriously think about it" category, particularly at the present price point.

 

[MRG]

This guy is testing his out.

https://gma.yahoo.com/watch-missour...hcam-works-200234241--abc-news-lifestyle.html

 

[Walt34]

I'm thinking of getting a body cam, like some police departments are using. Hopefully this will end those he said / she said disagreements with my DW, 'cause I know I'm right.

Hoo boy, are you in for a heap of trouble!

 

[ERD50]

I'm thinking of getting a body cam, like some police departments are using. Hopefully this will end those he said / she said disagreements with my DW, 'cause I know I'm right.

Hoo boy, are you in for a heap of trouble!

Please report back. I can hear Dr Phil now "And how's that workin' for ya?"


There are lots of audio devices that fit in a pocket and can record many hours of audio (probably most smart phones, and I know an old digital camera I have has this feature). I thought about using it, but figured the results would be very predictable. You can't win. Evidence just makes 'em mad.


-ERD50

 

[travelover]

Hoo boy, are you in for a heap of trouble!

Yea, that couch is lumpy.

 

[meierlde]

GoPro has an auto charger accessory that charges the battery and record simultaneously.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I've had one in my car for about a year. It's mostly for documentation in the event of an accident. I have an additional one I'm going to install in the back window, but I've been lazy and just haven't installed it yet.

Sent from my mobile device so please excuse grammatical errors.

 

[Sunset]

I bought one for $20 to try it out, so the quality is ok in the case of an accident as you will clearly be able to see its the other guys fault.
Quality wise, you can read signs that are close, but licence plates don't show unless I'm directly behind a person at a stoplight.
It would not be useful to record a trip.

After having it for many months, I'm going to buy a better one for the front of the vehicle and put the cheap one facing the back.
I do love that once you have them set up, you can ignore them as they turn on/off automatically and do their job.

About 1.5 yrs ago, a fella pulled out right in front of me and although I braked hard, I hit him. Later his insurance company phoned me without identifying themselves as his insurance company, I though it was my insurance and offered to send photos of the accident (since I had already talked to them and they seemed to not understand it was not my fault).
Right away the fella said " you have photos?" and I said of course. He said it would not be necessary and hung up.
Later I realized it was the other sides insurance, and they paid for all the repairs without issue.

 

[Sunset]

I have our DashCam (Review) at all times. (I have the "hookups" installed in both vehicles, RV and car, so as to move the unit between them.)....

I looked at the review and played one of the movies, suddenly realizing I know where this was taken. How funny to recognize a street on a random video review page.

 

[Disappointed]

Sunset, this is also my first dashcam, it is a G1W-C, I paid $56 on Ebay. This is supposedly the best bang for the buck. I think Ron has a better dash cam with integrated GPS. The G1W-C takes really good video especially in good lighting. However, I am waiting for a more discreet (smaller unit) to come to the market before I will buy another one. Not sure if I want a GPS with the camera or not. I am worried about people breaking into my car just to steal the camera, a smaller unit may be easier to hide behind the rear view mirror and not as noticeable from outside the car.
Another website that has a lot of info on dash cam is dashcamtalk.com.

mp

 

[RonBoyd]

However, I am waiting for a more discreet (smaller unit) to come to the market before I will buy another one. Not sure if I want a GPS with the camera or not. I am worried about people breaking into my car just to steal the camera, a smaller unit may be easier to hide behind the rear view mirror and not as noticeable from outside the car.

Actually, they are not that noticeable from the out side of the vehicle. You could, of course, put it down when parked. A lot of people do that. I, however, don't worry about it. I leave the DashCam and the Garmin GPS unit up on the dash all the time -- five years and no problem (knock on wood).

Anyway, the GPS is only important if you want to watch the video and have the scene tracked on a Google map. Not an unimportant feature for vacation/touristy recordings. Here is, again, the screenshot that I put in the other thread.



I have dual monitors but you can shrink the map down to fit on a single screen. This, BTW, is the Player that comes with the DashCam; using Windows Media Player, of course, would not show all those extra details... only the video itself and the label in yellow at the bottom.

 

[CoolChange]

Body Cam

I'm thinking of getting a body cam, like some police departments are using. Hopefully this will end those he said / she said disagreements with my DW, 'cause I know I'm right.

I have mused occasionally about doing this for catching those moments in the wilderness that would make great clips: Deer foraging, owls feeding their young, etc. Basically, this would be documenting my walks rather than my drives. Anyone do anything similar? I am wondering about costs, quality, obtrusiveness, etc.

As others have mentioned, having evidence that you were right in other situations at home seem much more detrimental than beneficial.

 

[travelover]

...........
As others have mentioned, having evidence that you were right in other situations at home seem much more detrimental than beneficial.

Yea, good point. A fellow could end up sleeping with the owls.