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Dashcam

3.6K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  Hobekhnu  
#1 ·
I'm looking around for a decent dashcam and wondered what the members here chose and why.
I need one thats fairly unobtrusive but records both forward and reverse. I'm thinking how to supply power to it and a cable to the back camera, and was tempted by a mirror type but not sure.
Previously I've had the usual cheap no-brand window mounted that haven't lasted long!
Anyway all suggestions appreciated!
 
#2 ·
I (and a few other participants here) have installed the FitCamX. Mine is front-facing only, but I believe they do make a combo unit now. There are a few reviews and discussion about this unit here:


The selling point for me is how stealthy it is. Unless you really look for it, you don't realize there's a dashcam.

I still plan to put something else in the back and I see no advantage to integrating them. Again, I'd want something inconspicuous.

Funny thing about a dashcam, is you never know when you'll need it, so it's great to just have it there for you all the time. My neighbor's house was burglarized, and there was a ~2 hour window in which it could have happened. My husband's car was parked on the street in "parking mode" (it's a dead-end so we don't get much traffic). The cops were here taking the report for our neighbor, asking us if we saw anything (we didn't) but we thought, "hey! maybe there's something on the dashcam" and sure enough, his dashcam had picked up the motion when a car---the only car in the 2-hour period---drove by. The cops ran the tag # and after a whole lot of good detective work and search warrants, they busted a ring of burglary/fraud/cell phone scam that crossed 3 states!

Whenever people are reporting crimes on Nextdoor or Ring and they're trying to find out if anyone saw anything, I'm always chiming in with, "tell people to check their dashcams!"
 
#3 ·
good looks on thinking about a dashcam. people can't drive nowadays - texting / hopped up on pills / who knows what else.

i'm running a vantrue s1. an older model and perhaps not inconspicuous but i have it mounted at the top of the windshield, next to the rear view mirror so it doesn't interfere with my view.

it has a rear cam as well. i used a wire fish to fish it under the headliner (it also helped that i was repairing the pano roof and had the headliner down at the time). it obviously has enough slack such that the hatch can open and close.

4+ years later tho and it still works like a charm :cool: fortunately i haven't had to "use it".
 
#4 ·
I use Viofo A129 Plus Duo. Very good camera especially for the price. All the same features as the more expensive brands except for cloud storage and driver’s assistance (which often don’t work well anyways). I would strongly recommend Viofo brand, they are available from Amazon or blackboxmycar.com and you will find the reviews to be good. We have 3, none have any issues which could not be solved.
 
#5 ·
Be careful what you buy, many brands especially on Amazon misrepresent the capabilities of their products. Most people won’t even know which is why they do it, but a closer look into the hardware and image sensors they use reveal that many times, the video qualities they claim are not even possible on those sensors or they are artificially interpolating the footage with software, causing loss of quality and distortion. That could be the difference between catching someone’s plate or not.

Vortex Radar on YouTube has a lot of good information about dash cams and some good unbiased reviews and recommendations. I bought the Viofo after doing my research through his channel and others.
 
#6 ·
For all the good reasons mentioned above, choosing a good dashcam can be pretty challenging. Since there are so many brands with combinations of features (assuming they all work as advertised), what's good for you can vary a lot depending on how you want to use it. A minefield for anyone who tends to suffer from analysis paralysis o_O

A couple of sometimes overlooked gotchas seem to be, how easy is it to copy/retrieve the video footage when needed and excessive car battery drain.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I tried quite a few on my previous car, including Nextbase, but settled on the Mercylion mercedes dash cam. The cam sits snugly behind the rearview mirror, and it's hardly noticeable. The video quality is top-notch, and it records even when the car is parked, which is a big plus. Installation was a breeze, and there was no need to mess with the car’s wiring.