Dash cams

[good-cause-girl]

Hello all. I will be traveling a fair amount this year by car and want to get a dash cam to record whatever is along my way.

I have 3 questions.
1- If I happen to be talking/ singing/ thinking out loud,,,, is there always volume on recording sound?
2- Is it always on from car start or only when I turn the unit on?
3- Is it a tape that you keep or a chip or a card or???? How do you keep what you have seen and get rid of the really mundane stuff that you don't want?

Okay, maybe 4 questions.-. What should I be paying and can I install it myself without to much cursing and blood shed?

I would go ask at a store but it is much less intimidating here and zero obligation to buy at that moment.

[Bsuds]

On mine I choose not to record sound, it's turned off.
It plugs into my cigarette lighter socket which is off when car is off so only runs when car is on.(depends on what your car does)
It uses an SD card like a camera and I just let it keep filling up as it deletes old stuff to make room for the new on it's own.
You can delete/view/save on your computer by inserting the card in it.

[good-cause-girl]

Thank you for that, just what I needed.
Now lets hope I never film anything to put on here.....

[Hmmm]

Mine is the same as buds. Love it. I also turned off g-sensor because of all the beeps. it just loop records. If we need to save anything, there is a protect button and it will save. You can also just take the SD card out if you need to save whats recorded, as in you were in an accident.

[Always Sunny]

Hello all. I will be traveling a fair amount this year by car and want to get a dash cam to record whatever is along my way.

I have 3 questions.
1- If I happen to be talking/ singing/ thinking out loud,,,, is there always volume on recording sound?
Mine has both options. I choose not to have the sound on mine.
2- Is it always on from car start or only when I turn the unit on?
I have it set up to turn on as soon as my car starts. It shuts off a few seconds afterwards.
3- Is it a tape that you keep or a chip or a card or???? How do you keep what you have seen and get rid of the really mundane stuff that you don't want?
I have a 64gb chip which currently records approximately 12 hours of 1080p video. It's also set to record in 3 minute increments and provides a little thumbnail photo at the end of each (along with a time stamp) to easily select the video you want. If I want to save a specific video at the time, I can hit the stop button, which will keep that specific clip. Otherwise it will simply begin to record over itself after the 12 hours is done. When I definitely want to keep something I pop the chip into my laptop and save it there.

Okay, maybe 4 questions.-. What should I be paying and can I install it myself without to much cursing and blood shed?
I paid $149, but this was when they were a bit less common. Prices have come down some. I just ran the cord along the trim of my car and plugged in. Literally about 5 minutes to make the right adjustments and secure the excess cord. There are more permanent methods you can use, but this is a company leased vehicle.

I would go ask at a store but it is much less intimidating here and zero obligation to buy at that moment.
For what it's worth, I got mine at Staples.

[Verminator]

You can get a pretty decent dash cam these days for around $100. Mine lets me adjust video resolution, the length of the recorded video clips, whether or not to record sound and even reminds me to turn on my headlights. Even the cheapest dash cams will 'save' a clip to prevent it being recorded over if they sense an impact or you can do it manually by pushing a button. Most dash cams use MicroSD cards which are tiny and VERY easy to lose, so beware of that.

Installation was easy-peasy and only took me about 15 minutes, including tucking the wiring into the headliner and behind the A-pillar trim to keep it out of the line of sight.

[Even Steven]

Installation was easy-peasy and only took me about 15 minutes, including tucking the wiring into the headliner and behind the A-pillar trim to keep it out of the line of sight.

Is yours powered by cigarette lighter connection or did you get it hard-wired?

[Verminator]

Is yours powered by cigarette lighter connection or did you get it hard-wired?

Cigarette lighter. I thought about hard-wiring it, but that requires additional hardware that I didn't really want to bother with.

[Bsuds]

If you don't want to spend lots then look here

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?cat ... t=Dash+Cam

I love this place and have purchased many items and generally have not been disappointed. I buy lots of quilting supplies for my wife and save a bundle.

[Hmmm]

What I don't get is, why don't cars have these built into the rearview mirrors as a standard thing? Let's face it, there are warning lights that flash when a car is on the side or behind you. There are rearview cameras and many, many other safety features. Why not a dashcam to record an accident? Hmmm

[Verminator]

What I don't get is, why don't cars have these built into the rearview mirrors as a standard thing? Let's face it, there are warning lights that flash when a car is on the side or behind you. There are rearview cameras and many, many other safety features. Why not a dashcam to record an accident? Hmmm

Dash cams have been around for years and they would be cheap as dirt to build in as standard equipment. I can't think of a single reason why that's not happening that makes any sense at all, unless the car companies have some kind of agreement in place with aftermarket suppliers. Wouldn't surprise me.

[dogspoiler]

Our vehicle has a backup camera, why could it not be rigged right from the factory to turn itself on and record when something comes close ?

[Dizzy1]

Our vehicle has a backup camera, why could it not be rigged right from the factory to turn itself on and record when something comes close ?

Costs. You'd have to add sensors into the rear of the vehicle to detect when something comes close (which could be integrated into a park assist system if you have one, but again, costs) as well as having to add some sort of storage media to record the incidents as well as a user interface to setup what you wanted to have recorded and a system to retrieve the data.

[dogspoiler]

It would be an option, the sunroof was $1500.

[DriveSmartBC]

I bought mine for about $100, but it's pretty lousy in the dark. I'd shop a bit more carefully now that I've had it for a while.

I did choose one that had GPS and a second camera that I could hook up and place in the back window, covering both ends at once.

I wondered if the GPS would be a defence for a speeding ticket....