Cylinder type dash cam or one with no screen?

[Tazz 316]

I'm looking for a small dash cam with no screen with wifi, i would like one that records the front and back and one that can deal with the heat looking to spend around $250 or more if i can get better video,gps would be nice but is not a deal breaker, 4K would be great but i think that would cost double.

I have considered buying two 1ch dash cams since all the 2 ch ones i've seen need a wire that runs from the back to the front of the car. My car has a usb port in the back that powers on and off when the car is turned on.

BlackVue seems to have most of what i want but they are not cheap and they seem to come in a kit with a sd card that i do not need.

Thanks for the help

 

[kamkar]

USB sockets build into cars often are problematic with dashcams as they dont provide enough power, it would be better if you had a 12 V cigarette lighter socket in the back too as long as it isent on all the time.

Right now 4K are just a feature in very few dashcams, will be a year or 2 i think before we can really recommend such systems.

The B1W are a nice little barrel shape camera, its not super duper image quality as its not top end components in it, still for its price its well worth it, make a good rear or side camera.
wifi in the B1W are really just for setup and initial aiming of the camera, once that is done you dont really need the wifi again.

Blackvue are fussy about memory cards, seem like they try to do their best to make dashcams that only work with their own brand memory cards.

 

[Tazz 316]

USB sockets build into cars often are problematic with dashcams as they dont provide enough power, it would be better if you had a 12 V cigarette lighter socket in the back too as long as it isent on all the time.

Right now 4K are just a feature in very few dashcams, will be a year or 2 i think before we can really recommend such systems.

The B1W are a nice little barrel shape camera, its not super duper image quality as its not top end components in it, still for its price its well worth it, make a good rear or side camera.
wifi in the B1W are really just for setup and initial aiming of the camera, once that is done you dont really need the wifi again.

Blackvue are fussy about memory cards, seem like they try to do their best to make dashcams that only work with their own brand memory cards.

By USB port i meant it is a cigarette lighter socket with a USB plugged into it. I was looking at the B1W and just buy two of them to mess around with. I've been using my go pro in 4k as a dash cam not the most convenient.

 

[kamkar]

Kewl. with a 12 V socket you can plug a USB adapter with any number of outputs on it, just to be on the safe side 2 A outputs are preferred, some times things arnt really what they say on the box with some things.

Myself i have a slew of USB ports in my glove box.

6 X 2.4 A
1 X 2 A
2 X 1 A

As a tester and dashcam addict i do have to pack a substantial power grid

The B1W i think you can pick up on your local amazon, get one and give it a go, i have been testing it since day #1 some months ago, and it just sit there and do its stuff, though right now i use it as a cabin camera aimed at my ugly self.

 

[Tazz 316]

Kewl. with a 12 V socket you can plug a USB adapter with any number of outputs on it, just to be on the safe side 2 A outputs are preferred, some times things arnt really what they say on the box with some things.

Myself i have a slew of USB ports in my glove box.

6 X 2.4 A
1 X 2 A
2 X 1 A

As a tester and dashcam addict i do have to pack a substantial power grid

The B1W i think you can pick up on your local amazon, get one and give it a go, i have been testing it since day #1 some months ago, and it just sit there and do its stuff, though right now i use it as a cabin camera aimed at my ugly self.

I picked one up from amazon it was only $41 The SD card was just as much lol. I will buy another one for the rear if i like it.

 

[estore009]

It is a nice price for Prime day

 

[vhblanco]

I'm also looking for basically the same:

*decent image quality on the day and decent night vision as well
*small and screenless with wifi
*capacitor instead of battery because of extreme heat in my city
*dual front and rear but would prefer just one of those that has the two cameras into the same device and records the whole cabin and whatever it can see through the rear glass

any good options??

It seems like the B1W is only front camera but I like everything else

 

[kamkar]

Yes the B1W are a single channel camera.

The ones you talk about ( 2 cameras in same device ) those are fine for uber / taxi, and are also often referred to as taxi cameras, but the rear facing camera dont really capture anything outside.

for optimal performance you will want the camera right on the glass or within a few inches, this goes for both front and rear or side facing cameras.
As you can see in my video above the windows are pretty much just like little portholes and offer little compared to the camera in the right location for this.

This is footage from the rear camera of my SG9663DC, as you can see with the camera right up against the glass you have a unimpeded view of everything back there.

In my car barrel shaped cameras are more visible as almost all of it have to be in view, on the other hand the wedge shaped cameras i use only have the bottom 1/3 with the lens visible the rest are obscured by the dotted area on which they are installed.

You can see my install here ( and if you scroll up the rear camera too )
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...the-camera-post-your-pictures.502/post-400923

 

[vhblanco]

Yes the B1W are a single channel camera.

The ones you talk about ( 2 cameras in same device ) those are fine for uber / taxi, and are also often referred to as taxi cameras, but the rear facing camera dont really capture anything outside.

for optimal performance you will want the camera right on the glass or within a few inches, this goes for both front and rear or side facing cameras.
As you can see in my video above the windows are pretty much just like little portholes and offer little compared to the camera in the right location for this.

This is footage from the rear camera of my SG9663DC, as you can see with the camera right up against the glass you have a unimpeded view of everything back there.

In my car barrel shaped cameras are more visible as almost all of it have to be in view, on the other hand the wedge shaped cameras i use only have the bottom 1/3 with the lens visible the rest are obscured by the dotted area on which they are installed.

You can see my install here ( and if you scroll up the rear camera too )
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threa...the-camera-post-your-pictures.502/post-400923

that video you posted looks actually really nice. So you recommend the SG9663DC in general? I also like that shape. I find the screen pointless and would rather have wifi and see the videos in the much bigger and better screen of my smartphone but I guess I can live with that. I will only actually review the videos in case of an accident. I was recently involved in an accident where the person who hit me actually stopped and apologized then blocked my number and also didn't pick up her insurance calls (pronto insurance, one of the worst companies to deal with) so they denied the claim. I didn't have collision insurance at the moment so let's see how the lawsuit goes but I'm most likely out of luck and with a $4000 repair bill.

Just quick questions about the SG9663DC , don't you damage that obscured dotted area when uninstalling the camera mount? I was also worried about damaging the window tint on the rear glass.

 

[kamkar]

I am testing for Street Guardian and as such provided with free cameras, but it dont take much digging around in their subforum to find out that while it is a fairly new camera there have not been many issues, and if there are issues the guys and even the boss of the company are tripping over each other to help you and get you up and running ASAP.
Also worth mentioning youtube ruin all footage you upload so the raw footage off the camera look better than that, and as the camera are new it haven't really undergone image improvements yet, SG will probably tweak on that for the next couple of years.

The DC also have wifi, but its not talked much about as they have not gotten their Apps ready yet, some apps from other brands work fairly good with it, but as with all wifi cameras its slow so dont expect to bulk transfer files off the camera that way.
you will be better off with a OTG card reader for your phone, that downloading or steaming off the camera. ( slow wifi are a common issue even on the new cameras with 5GHZ wifi which you wouldn't really expect )
The screen just forget it, you can set it to go dark 10 seconds after start, for sure you do not want any distraction stuff going on while driving, and besides the little screen are useless at least for my old eyes, but doing settings are nice that way.
No the dotted area at least on my windscreen are part of the glass, if it is anything put on the glass it is put on damn good for sure ( on my windscreen its actually not dots but a grit area so i can even get a suction cup to stick to that area.

SG products are not in the cheap bracket, but you can online register your product and get 2 year full warranty, you have local dealers, and as said their customer care and support are sencond to none, have a problem and ask in here and you will have a reply from a retailer or the boss within minutes, pretty much all of the day.

I have been beating on SG cameras since day #1 years ago, only issues i have had are the first of the GC model slipped out of focus, i fix myself but company will exchange for regular customers, one of the latest models had a bad RTC battery in the GPS mouse, again something SG replace.
And just today i found out that the focus on the rear DC camera have slipped ever so little, this is the first mention of that happening in the months they have sold, not big problem i readjust focus on Thursday, for regular customers SG will replace.

Tint on windows can be a little problematic, there have been some talking about that in here, i have my rear camera mounted off a NEO magnet on the frame of the hatch on my little 5 door hatchback.
Some have mounted off headliner to circumvent the tint issue.

 

[kamkar]

O in regard to getting the camera off the dots again, the cameras come with a little pice of string you can use to saw thru the sticky pad, this leave some of the pad still on the windscreen and some on the mounting pice, most times you can rub it off with your thumb, but i have also used some solvent some times in my car ( Kent speedy 500 )

Ofcourse with any solvents it is always a good idea to test on a little area not so visible, but in my car no problems at all.

 

[vhblanco]

thanks a lot for the detailed reply! I was also looking at the DR750S-2CH but it is too expensive, the SG9663DC is at $234 on Amazon right now which is a little bit over my budget but not too much if its one of the best video quality it might be worth it. If I could get a used DR650S-2CH for about $190, how would it compare to the SG9663DC?

 

[kamkar]

I dont have any personal experience with the blackvue cameras, some do call them blackspew, not quite sure if that are a earned nickname.
As far as i can see they are a bit fussy with what memory cards to use in them, and looking on their footage i feel there is a little artificial sharpening to them.
Their new 4K model seem to have flopped, not completely but there are some grief for sure, and it seem not a camera if you live in a hot place.

On the new SG cameras this are actually the first time they have implemented parking guard, this as they haven't felt it was possible to do right before now.
The dedicated hard wire kit for the SG9663DC have just released a week ago, so not much user feedback on it yet, but i know the boss have tested on it for a long time and scrapped the first couple of prototypes, so it should function well, and probably also see some expansions to its capabilities as user feedback and requests trickle in.

Personally i would not spend money on a blackvue dual channel camera, in that case i would probably go with another brand and a single channel camera.

It is my firm belief that really a single camera on the windscreen are really all you need, as it at least document everything you do with your car, and if you do nothing wrong then surely you can not be blamed for what happen on or off camera.
But i must also say that a rear camera are also sweet as a lot of WTF go on back there so if a person have the option to go for that too i would recomend it as long as it dont mean buying a garbage camera or two, also happy about my side cameras, but then we enter the realm of me liking to shame poor drivers on youtube, and in that case you cant really have too many cameras.

 

[jokiin]

there's some comparison videos on here comparing to newer Blackvue models, don't know if there are any comparing to the old models

 

[vhblanco]

I agree a single front camera should be all you need but after dealing with pronto insurance they wouldn't even admit fault without their insured statement even if my car was rear ended and parked. I didn't need the dash cam until I did lol. I'm leaning towards the SG9663DC I was reading about the hard wire kit they released for the continuous recording while parked and sounds interesting as the motion detectors I also read don't work really well

but I am also not sure if just getting two B1W one for the front and one for the back would be enough

 

[kamkar]

Motion detect are also silly, most often it is too sensitive and get triggered by a bug flying by, and so often record all the time anyway.
As i understand it the parking mode on the new SG cameras also record all the time, but time lapse footage with 1 - 5 FPS, but then upon a event the G sensor can feel it switch into regular recording with sound.
G sensor is what i would rely on, and though i have little experience with it then experimenting with the B1W on a USB power bank i found that in parking mode just kicking the rear wheel of my car would trigger a recording.
So surprising sensitive.

If you go with the B1W just get one to start with, this will give you something to work with and get a feel for, and then if you decide for something else you can move it to a side window or put it in wife / kids car, or donate it to a person you care about and get a little 1 up on the karma account.

As we say " any dashcam are better than no dashcam" at least if it function when you need it.
I was rear ended some years ago, and a rear camera on a long and bad USB wire meant i dident get a direct recording of the event.

 

[vhblanco]

Motion detect are also silly, most often it is too sensitive and get triggered by a bug flying by, and so often record all the time anyway.
As i understand it the parking mode on the new SG cameras also record all the time, but time lapse footage with 1 - 5 FPS, but then upon a event the G sensor can feel it switch into regular recording with sound.
G sensor is what i would rely on, and though i have little experience with it then experimenting with the B1W on a USB power bank i found that in parking mode just kicking the rear wheel of my car would trigger a recording.
So surprising sensitive.

If you go with the B1W just get one to start with, this will give you something to work with and get a feel for, and then if you decide for something else you can move it to a side window or put it in wife / kids car, or donate it to a person you care about and get a little 1 up on the karma account.

As we say " any dashcam are better than no dashcam" at least if it function when you need it.
I was rear ended some years ago, and a rear camera on a long and bad USB wire meant i dident get a direct recording of the event.

Lol that was exactly my reaction when this woman hit my car a month ago.

I just pulled the trigger on one B1W from Amazon now that they were going for $41 because of prime day (and someone on eBay has them for $19 but most likely fake) because of exactly the reasons that you said: to have something to start with, another accident could happen as soon as today and any dash cam is better than none and because can donate to someone I care about in the future.

However a lot different types of accidents can happen, I still really like the idea of the SG9663DC high image quality front and back and even 1 fps while parked could make a big difference if someone hit my car while parked in public parking lot (if it's at work I'll probably figure it out with just the make and model without getting the plates). Also, about the back camera, wouldn't like something like this happening and being without the rear-facing dash camera:

 

[Tazz 316]

I got the B1W and i had a hard time getting a sd card to work.

The first one i put in was a 32GB sand disk and it would keep telling me to insert a sd card.
The second one i put in was a 16GB sand disk and it worked.
The third i put in was a 200GB sand disk and it would just beeb every few sec.

all 3 where format to FAT32 and work fine in my other devices.

 

[estore009]

The first one i put in was a 32GB sand disk and it would keep telling me to insert a sd card.

It indicates this camera cannot read your 32Gb card. Might you use a failed card for this camera!

The third i put in was a 200GB sand disk and it would just beeb every few sec.

Not test it with 200Gb card, but someone user told me it works with 128G Samsung card.

 

[Tazz 316]

It indicates this camera cannot read your 32Gb card. Might you use a failed card for this camera!

Not test it with 200Gb card, but someone user told me it works with 128G Samsung card.

As i said all 3 work in my phone, go pro, raspberry pi and PC of course. All 3 bought retail no fakes. Class 10