Dash cam for mainly parking purposes

[Hawko]

Hi all,

I am in the market for a front and rear dash cam. The purpose of the dash cams is to capture someone who I suspect is vandalising my car in my apartment parking lot. The person who parks behind me has a large vehicle and is always perilously close to my car. In one instance, the person's car was in contact with mine, but due to no damage I didn't pursue the matter further. On Friday morning, I noticed that my number plate had been kicked in, and the plastic coating surrounding the number plate had been cracked. Unfortunately, the apartment property manager cannot do anything because I don't have concrete evidence.

I'm looking for something that has a good parking mode, so that when he turns to park, it will capture footage if he nudges my car or decides to kick it. I've been looking at the mini 0805 as an option, but I'm not entirely convinced of its parking mode/motion sensor capabilities. My budget is around $200, thanks in advance for your help, much appreciated!

 

[jokiin]

0805 motion detect is not suitable, something that supports large cards and leave it recording might be a better option

 

[niko]

You need something which is Capacitor based dashcamera that has a formula of 24/7 RAM recording and after event ( g-sensor or motion detection triggered ) it saves 5-10 before event and up to 50-60sec after event.

Do you need mainly for rear rec., right ?

 

[Sunny]

Buy something decent and record it full time using battery pack.
If you want discrete, then something like mobius or innov c3 etc...

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Only premium models will have prebuffer motion detection and Sony Exmor sensor for excellent Night performance.

 

[paul johnstone]

Only premium models will have prebuffer motion detection and Sony Exmor sensor for excellent Night performance.

Hi Pier28
I notice that you are listed as a Retailer.
Could you please advise a number of models that have a pre-buffer and would suit Hawkos needs.

I am sure that a number of us would be interested in checking these out.

Cheers and thanks

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Hi Pier28
I notice that you are listed as a Retailer.
Could you please advise a number of models that have a pre-buffer and would suit Hawkos needs.

I am sure that a number of us would be interested in checking these out.

Cheers and thanks

Panorama models we carry have a 5-second pre-buffer motion detection, Sony Exmor sensor for high performance night recordings, super capacitors for high heat, and touch screens for intuitive easy access and control. (See my signature)

 

[Hawko]

Thanks everyone for responding.

I was looking at the Panorama/Street Guardian models. As my car is parked Monday-Friday in the apartment parking lot, I would like to have the dash cam capture any incidents during that time frame. Just a couple of further questions:

1. Will I need an external battery pack in order to power the camera on at all times?

2. When parked in the apartment car park, I would like to have the camera mounted on the rear windscreen. When I drive, I would like to move it back to the front windscreen. Which model provides an easy detachable mount so I can move the camera to wherever I want (front/back)?

 

[jokiin]

cameras need to be powered to run, from the car is how it is normally done

 

[niko]

Thanks everyone for responding.

I was looking at the Panorama/Street Guardian models. As my car is parked Monday-Friday in the apartment parking lot, I would like to have the dash cam capture any incidents during that time frame. Just a couple of further questions:

1. Will I need an external battery pack in order to power the camera on at all times?

2. When parked in the apartment car park, I would like to have the camera mounted on the rear windscreen. When I drive, I would like to move it back to the front windscreen. Which model provides an easy detachable mount so I can move the camera to wherever I want (front/back)?

You can buy 2ch dashcam system with parking mode option, then no need to swap dashcams every time, however decent ones cost more than your budget.

Panorama X1 / Street Guardian SGZC12RC would be best solution almost within your budget. It comes with two video cables ( longer and shorter one ), this way you can run both cables, one for rear, other for front and using 3M dual lock tape on camera mount, you can easily swap ( attach - detach ) camera unit from front to back every day.
Also, X1 is one of the most discrete camera units with 24/7 parking mode option ( 5 sec pre-buffer recording ). The only thing you need to buy, is BDP ( battery discharge prevention device ).

 

[Hawko]

THanks Niko for your response, much appreciated

 

[kamkar]

Wont it be better to reverse into your assigned parking spot instead of moving camera around ?

If you choose to move camera around you might need a extra mount for the camera unit, i dont think the nice SGZC12RC / X1 come with 2 mounts for the camera unit.
At least not 2 permenent mounts to glue onto window with doublesided tape, if it do come with a suction cup mount too, that will work but ruin the stealthyness of the little camera unit.

 

[niko]

Wont it be better to reverse into your assigned parking spot instead of moving camera around ?

If you choose to move camera around you might need a extra mount for the camera unit, i dont think the nice SGZC12RC / X1 come with 2 mounts for the camera unit.
At least not 2 permenent mounts to glue onto window with doublesided tape, if it do come with a suction cup mount too, that will work but ruin the stealthyness of the little camera unit.

Yeah. To park car a "correct way" is also an option. With X1 can run and install permanently video cables for front and rear position, use 3M dual lock tape as a base mount in front and rear. When needed, just move camera from front to rear which will take 10-15 sec. For me personally all this moving, re-plugging is unconfortable, but if OP is happy with such solution, then X1 is most practical at this stage.

 

[petepete]

I would be wary and check any camera with parking mode for its actual function...

Here s why ...

My gt680 has a 5 fps parking mode which is great until you get to the end of one file and the beginning of the next..

At the cross over point between new file made and previous file closed a 12 second section is NOT recorded for some reason ..

Not sure why , any thoughts on the subject ?

And is it peculiar to the gt680 or is this something no one has noticed on other cameras.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

I'm not a fan of the low frame rate parking mode. Missing footage doesn't sound good. It's better to get a Full HD 30 FPS pre-buffered motion detection system that supports a larger 128GB/256GB memory card.

 

[petepete]

I'm not a fan of the low frame rate parking mode. Missing footage doesn't sound good. It's better to get a Full HD 30 FPS pre-buffered motion detection system that supports a larger 128GB/256GB memory card.

I now have to agree with this..

you get one chance to capture an image and there is nothing more annoying and costly than having fitted cameras and having failed to capture an event you may need to depend on.