Searching for a night vision wide angle (or even 360 degree) security camera to place it in the car?

germany

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Hi guys,

I have a Viofo A129 duo in my car, which I'm very happy with, but I don't want to use it's parking mode. For which I have many reasons, also don't want to use another dashcam.

So I'm looking for a cheap (in case someone breaks the windows and steals it) camera with a very wide angle, maybe even 360. I want to use it only at night time and I want to power it with a USB power bank. And I want to place on the dashboard, at the headrest or the trunk cover of my car. It should have a TF card. I don't need bluetooth or Wifi.

I think something discrete kind of similar to this would be great.

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Here is a quick summary:
- very wide angle or even 360 degree
- Powered by USB power bank
- TF card (so no wifi security camera)
- small or discrete shape
- night vision


Any idea of what could work for me?

Thank you
 
Well night vision in a CCTV camera most often entail IR light as no camera can see in darkness, at least aside for a thermal camera.
There are extraordinary sensitive sensors like the Sony starvis line, but i cant say i have seen these used often in the cheap segment of CCTV / nannycam / spy cam segments, but even with a camera like that you at the very least need a street light right where you car is, or some other source of ambient light.

I am myself sort of looking for a camera option that will come on with the cabin alight and just record while that is on, just to identify who get in behind the wheel of my car ( i had a break in in January )
But i have not been able to find something i think i can use.
 
I am myself sort of looking for a camera option that will come on with the cabin alight and just record while that is on, just to identify who get in behind the wheel of my car ( i had a break in in January )
But i have not been able to find something i think i can use.
You want to connect the ACC input on the hardwire kit to both ACC and interior lights?

I guess that can easily be done on most cars by connecting the ACC fuse to the ACC HWK input via a diode, and doing the same with the interior lights ... although that wouldn't work on my car since the interior light is always powered, it is grounded when the car wants to light the lamp!
 
No hard wire as such, just something that record with power input, like a mobius camera or any dashcam for that matter, and then stop when the power is removed.
It is ´not parking guard as such i am after, just ability to see who get into my car behind the steering wheel, i could even make do with pictures if need be.
Problem is can it boot fast enough to get a few seconds of power before my cabin light fade out, and also i want pinhole lens.
 
@germany There are some small 'action cams' like the Polaroid Cube which might work for this, but the sensors are probably not good with low light conditions. Most of the cube cams are cheap and crappy like the SQ11 available for under $10. Or maybe repurpose a cheap dashcam for the job.

For my own interior coverage I have the A139 3-channel cam, and the 'cabin cam' is fairly small and works excellently with IR illumination built in. Were it not part of a whole system and requiring permanent mounting I think it would be suitable for your purposes.

Phil
 
It depends on were I can find a parking spot, some parts of the streets arround my home are dark others have a street lighting.

@kamkar
The idea with a little action camera is great. I just watched a part were they compare the different SQ models, also at night vision and it looks pretty good (scene is at 4:20 in the video)


It's far away from a good wide angle but I think that would be ok.

The one big problem which I haven't even thought of is, those infrared light can be very clearly seen at night by others. Of course that's not very helpful.
 
Indeed even if it is 940nm wavelength IR light that the human eye do not see, then a camera will see it, but i think it is a few people that will scan a area with their phone first.
Criminals,,,,,, which i have intricate experience with as i use to be one, are usually very hit and run - spur of the moment types, so most often their work are very amateur like.

This video of my parked car from my CCTV camera, at 0:18 you can see the parking guard turn off after 1 hour and the IR light if the cabin camera go out.
The cabin camera of the viofo A139 system are mounted on the mirror stalk in my car.
 
In that video the car are also bathed in the IR light of my CCTV camera, and its IR filter are of course off for night B&W mode.
It would be less visible for a phone with IR filter on i assume but at least if you aim the phone directly at the IR LED's on the camera they will be visible for sure, so yes not a good idea to have the camera and its IR ermitters visible,,,, actually often they use 850 nm LED's on cheap cameras which are visible more.

Shorter wavelength IR light like 850 nm, is also visible to the human eye, you will see this as a faint glow on the camera.
 
THis video demo hoe visible 850 nm light is VS 940, that granted can be seen by naked eye as a faint purple light, then the red light of the 850nm are much more visible.

 
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