So if Nextbase is one to avoid, what would people suggest for around £100 - £150 price range.
I want front and rear cameras, GPS, G-Sensor, Good quality video night and day. It needs to be easy to install and uninstall as we change our car every 3 yrs.
Not to bothered about Wi-Fi as I'll use the SD card to transfer video should I need to. I'm not to bothered about it being discreet or hidden away, so size isn't that much of a concern as long as it doesn't block my view out of the windows.
Cheers
Jim
Given today's cam choices, to get all you want will cost you more than your stated budget. Good low-light sensors are only now becoming commonly found in lower priced cams and similar can be said for GPS. G-sensor doesn't work well in most lower-priced cams either.
You'll need to compromise somewhere. Here's some of my thoughts on features which might help you choose better
GPS isn't needed in a dashcam; a time/distance measurement of the vids will more precisely show speeds and location is also easily found unless you're in a desert or the tundra where there are no landmarks. It might be handy to show your speed to the police on a crash scene but that is it's only real virtue in a dashcam. And if you did happen to be speeding it can and will be used against you
G-sensor can save the last vid clip in a crash where you are incapacitated and can't turn the cam off, but a crash which is that severe will likely kill the power in your car anyway giving you the same thing without it. If it is set too sensitive, rough roads and bumps can fill your SD card with locked files then the cam will stop recording
It is needed for cams doing parking mode, otherwise it's best turned off. Dual-channel cams have a limited bitrate which affects vid quality in some circumstances, and most of them use a lower-resolution rear cam (especially the budget-priced ones)
The only real advantage with them is that most have a small rear cam and the SD card is easier to access for rear vid footage.
All I want my cams to do is to be 100% reliable and to give me the best vids possible day and night. Since my budget is limited the only way I can get this is using separate cams instead of a dual-channel cam. The other features I can live without
Having said that, I'm finally at the point where I am hoping to soon purchase one of the better 2ch cams (the soon-to-be-released SG9663DC) which will give me the vid quality I want at a price which should be reasonable given the build quality and customer support it will have. There are other more expensive 2ch models I'd be happy with but I can't aff0rd them.
The perfect dashcam has not been built and never will be. If it was most of us couldn't afford it anyway. There will always be some compromise involved so decide what is most important for you first, then find the cam which gives you the most of that and live with the rest. It's about all we can do.
Phil
