The Newbie Needs a Good Dashcam Thread

[FG21]

Good morning. I am shopping for a dash cam, I have been doing a lot of reading on these things and would like some "real customer and user" input into what works well. Last year I had a hit and run hat that cost me $300 deductible and now last Friday some asshat backed into/hit my car while I was at the grocer. That will be a $500 deductible and potential insurance increase.

Key points-

-I do not need it parked at home at night, I have a home security system with all views of my car already.
-I do not need it at work, my parking is secure.
-My budget is $400 preferably more around $300.
-Clear, good video for day and night driving, prefer front and rear facing.
-I want it to run while I am in parked in parking lots running errands, etc. My car plug ins work while the car is off (2013 Ford Escape) and the thing has pretty much every kind of plug in available.
-immediate playback would be great, as well as "incident" alerts?
-no wifi in car. This could change.

I appreciate any good recs. Blackvue seems to be a popular one.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Welcome to DCT @FG21

 

[FG21]

Thanks!

 

[Harsh]

-I do not need it parked at home at night, I have a home security system with all views of my car already.
-I do not need it at work, my parking is secure.
-My budget is $400 preferably more around $300.
-Clear, good video for day and night driving, prefer front and rear facing.
-I want it to run while I am in parked in parking lots running errands, etc. My car plug ins work while the car is off (2013 Ford Escape) and the thing has pretty much every kind of plug in available.
-immediate playback would be great, as well as "incident" alerts?
-no wifi in car. This could change.

I appreciate any good recs. Blackvue seems to be a popular one.

If you're particularly interested in a unit that covers both the front and rear (dual channel), check out the Thinkware F770 too. Both do pre-buffered parking mode. The drawback with the current dual channel models is that the video bitrate is on the lower side.

If video quality is paramount, I'd suggest that you go for two separate units for the front and back.

 

[FG21]

This is one that I had really liked the look of. Oddly, it is about a $100 price diff from Amazon to other sellers. Do you use the F770?

 

[Harsh]

This is one that I had really liked the look of. Oddly, it is about a $100 price diff from Amazon to other sellers. Do you use the F770?

I don't have a F770. Comment was based solely on what I've gathered from posts of F770 users here.

Stealth being top on the priority list along with good video quality, I have a SG9665GC V2 in the front and a Mobius in the rear.

 

[Dashmellow]

-I want it to run while I am in parked in parking lots running errands, etc.

I can appreciate your concern here and run multiple cameras in my vehicle for the essentially same reasons. Consider however that in a parking lot it is quite common for incidents to occur on the sides of your vehicle. Personally, I run cameras facing outwards from the sides of my vehicle as well as the front and rear and am often astonished at what I capture laterally nearby even if the incident doesn't necessarily impact me directly. If parking in public lots is a primary concern then you may wish to consider adding lateral facing cameras at some point after you settle in with your new front and rear camera(s) and become more experienced with the technology.

See THIS link for some examples and discussion of side facing cameras.

 

[FG21]

Thanks! I will look into it!