Hi everyone..
I'm a keen traveller here in the Australian outback. So, before going on a three month journey last July I bought a GS1000 Dashcam off ebay. The idea was to record my whole journey of around 18,000km drive. Most of the un-expected things occur during driving!!
I soon discovered that the GS1000 (blue menu) isn't the best camera available, but it did a reasonable job. My requirements were to have it switch on, every time the vehicle is switched on and then turn off when the vehicle is turned off. While on I wanted it to record continuously, but segment the files into reasonable sizes. Using overwrite mode, it only records around 525Mb, which is about 7 Minutes of HD footage. For me that wasn't good enough as one can drive for hours in the outback and having to splice lots of small files together can be quite a task. So I used the non-continuous mode, which gives about 3,8GB or 57 minutes of HD footage. I actually used the next mode down 1440x1080.. In that mode it gives about 1,3GB and 1 hour and 41 minutes.. The drawback was that I had to monitor the camera because when it stopped it had to be manually started again. Most of the time it worked fine. I've been working on the footage and uploading to youtube to a new channel so people can share the trip. (https://www.youtube.com/user/TravellingVikings)
However I've now realised some of the limitations of the footage..
I'm now looking for a replacement camera so I can take even better quality footage and some of the things I'm interested in are:
I'm looking for some advise on what kind of camera might come close to what I'm looking for. Any comments welcome..
Simmi
I'm a keen traveller here in the Australian outback. So, before going on a three month journey last July I bought a GS1000 Dashcam off ebay. The idea was to record my whole journey of around 18,000km drive. Most of the un-expected things occur during driving!!
I soon discovered that the GS1000 (blue menu) isn't the best camera available, but it did a reasonable job. My requirements were to have it switch on, every time the vehicle is switched on and then turn off when the vehicle is turned off. While on I wanted it to record continuously, but segment the files into reasonable sizes. Using overwrite mode, it only records around 525Mb, which is about 7 Minutes of HD footage. For me that wasn't good enough as one can drive for hours in the outback and having to splice lots of small files together can be quite a task. So I used the non-continuous mode, which gives about 3,8GB or 57 minutes of HD footage. I actually used the next mode down 1440x1080.. In that mode it gives about 1,3GB and 1 hour and 41 minutes.. The drawback was that I had to monitor the camera because when it stopped it had to be manually started again. Most of the time it worked fine. I've been working on the footage and uploading to youtube to a new channel so people can share the trip. (https://www.youtube.com/user/TravellingVikings)
However I've now realised some of the limitations of the footage..
- Having the camera mounted inside the windscreen means it's exposed to a lot of glare, plus all the dust and dead insects.. I did stop and clean the front windshield from time to time, but it's sometimes hard to see blemishes on the windscreen that are magnified by the dashcam.
- The recording time in continuous mode is limited, so having to rely on manually starting it when it stops can't be relied on.
- The mounting has to be quite secure as on some harsh roads it would sag! I had to tighten it quite much to reduce the risk of that occurring.
I'm now looking for a replacement camera so I can take even better quality footage and some of the things I'm interested in are:
- Using two dashcams so they can cover a wider angle to both sides of the vehicle..
- Mounting them outside to reduce windshield issues and maximise picture quality. I'm thinking of having them in a diy water resistant box with good quality perpex for the lens to see through.
- Also thinking about if I can rustle up some method of having air continuously flowing across the lens opening to keep away dust..
- I would like to have it cable into the cabin, so I can see the footage on a reasonable size monitor so I can detect if something has occurred..
- Remote control would be nice, but as long as it can record in overwrite mode for longer than just a few minutes it would be fine..
- I also would like to have the date/time plus GPS for the speed as it conveys more meaningful information in the videos.
I'm looking for some advise on what kind of camera might come close to what I'm looking for. Any comments welcome..
Simmi
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