Lots of options; which one is the right one for me?

I'm considering getting a dashboard camera for fun (and the obvious utility/safety they provide), but I'm unsure of which to get; there are just so many options!

Things I'd like:

- Low profile.
- Good at night.
- At least 720p.
- GPS or something that can measure speed (I've heard some have this?) and preferably superimpose the speed on the video itself.

And questions:

- If it's mounted all the time, it seems like it'd be a magnet for thieves to smash the window and steal the device. What kind of prevention is there out there for this (besides a car alarm)? Are there cameras that you can detach and hide in the glove box or something, only mounting them while you drive?

- Where do these things get their power from? I imagine it varies. Would I be able to plug some into the lighter or something?

- The storage seems to generally be SD cards. That's fine. However, some seem to have a sort of proprietary storage format. Is it pretty easy to re-encode video to something more usable and less proprietary?

Recommendations and answers are appreciated! Thanks!

Depressio said:

Things I'd like:

- Low profile.
- Good at night.
- At least 720p.
- GPS or something that can measure speed (I've heard some have this?) and preferably superimpose the speed on the video itself.

Click to expand...

Good at night is very much dependant on ambient light, if your in an area with no or poor street lighting and only your headlights the camera will pretty much only see what you see, less so detail wise at 720p

The rest is no problem although do look for MP/H support if you want embedded speed as a lot show KM/H only

Depressio said:

- If it's mounted all the time, it seems like it'd be a magnet for thieves to smash the window and steal the device. What kind of prevention is there out there for this (besides a car alarm)? Are there cameras that you can detach and hide in the glove box or something, only mounting them while you drive?

- Where do these things get their power from? I imagine it varies. Would I be able to plug some into the lighter or something?

- The storage seems to generally be SD cards. That's fine. However, some seem to have a sort of proprietary storage format. Is it pretty easy to re-encode video to something more usable and less proprietary?

Recommendations and answers are appreciated! Thanks!

Click to expand...

mounted all the time is no problem if they are small and discrete, have a look at the thread here about mounting cams by MTZ it will give you a better idea

cigarette lighter socket power is standard, can be hard wired if need be and/or you want to use parking mode

look for a cam the records as H.264 compliant files and you'll find them easy to work with, cams the use AVI or M-Jpeg are lesser products and sometimes only work with the included (often very basic) software

lots of info on this site, find what you think might suit your needs then ask away, you'll get plenty of feedback I'm sure, a lot of people here in different timezones so it might take a bit to see the responses but they'll come

Vico DS2

- Low profile - usd150
- Good at night - very good
- At least 720p - 1080p @30fps
- GPS - yes
- Mount - quick and easy detached
- Speed stamp - yes, on / off

The TF2 is supposedly a better more updated version, with WDR

Ipaq said:

The TF2 is supposedly a better more updated version, with WDR

Click to expand...

WDR offers better night performance, not quite as good during the day in my experience, very hard to get a one size fits all solution or course but overall WDR solution is good

Hi monkeybb,

Just one correction on the VicoVation Vico-DS2. It does not come with GPS. Also where can you purchase it for $150? The lowest I have seen is $189.