stevendashcam

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I have been researching for my first dashcam and have concluded what features I value most. The problem I am having is finding the best one for the following features:
(1) Image Quality
(2) Parking sensor
(3) Looping
(3) GPS [for speed recording]
(4) Two separate cameras to place one in the back [parking sensor in back would be appreciated]

With the parking sensor and GPS feature, I would have to hardwire the dashcam(s) to my car and that will use battery while the car is off. I would like to avoid killing the battery, so battery voltage cut-off feature would be a priority as well.

I live in the city so parking sensor really is tied with image quality - Thank you!
 
How long do you need/expect the camera to run in Park Mode before the voltage cut-off shuts it off? Do you plan on buying a battery pack to attach?
 
A battery pack sounds viable. I will look into that. I was unaware that was an option. I would like to have the ability to have the camera run in park mode as long as possible (If you need an answer I suspect 2 days would suffice!)

Something to add to my questionnaire.. will I need to manually input the camera into park mode everytime or can that be automatically done when car is turned off? Thanks for your help.
 
1: The best overall performing sensors are the Sony IMX 291, they are used in a wide range of dashcams.
2: Parking guard most also can do, but some better than others, what you want to look for are cameras that have a buffer so you at least get a few seconds of footage from before the trigger event.
Motion detect are flawed, there is a lot of movement most places where you park, and they will create a lot of false event recordings ( often event recordings can not be deleted by the camera automatic so you will have to do that manual on the camera or PC )
I would only use G-sensor for trigger or like some new cameras that do time lapse recording all the time in parking mode, time lapse mean the camera generate less heat, and that combined with daytime parking can push a camera outside of the thermal MAX values
If you live in one of the hot states, parking guard out in the open during daytime cam be problematic due to heat.
3: All dashcams do looping, file size are normally one of 1-3-5-10 minutes, most people i think use 3 minutes.
4: GPS are standard or optional for most cameras.
5: You can use 2 single cameras front & rear, this was recommended before as it was a better option than the dual channel systems of the time.
But current dual systems dont have those drawbacks in bitrate and or resolution, today dual cameras will have the same bitrate and resolution front & rear as single cameras.

I used to / still have a lot of single cameras in my car, and it is annoying when you have to go to each individual camera to get footage off it, and many have lost the little spring loaded memory cards in premature ejections.
So only having to go to 1 memory card to get footage from 2 cameras are quite nice, love my dual channel front & rear camera and looking forward to get the same for the sides to replace the two single channel cameras there.

Change to parking guard is automatic as start stop also are, once installed and set up all you should do is take a look at the memory card once in a while to make sure everything is well ( memory card are weak link in most systems and no dashcam are set and forget )
On the PC with memory card in card reader it take me about 5 minutes to verify my 128 Gb memory card are operational and well.

Change to parking mode are often done in one of 2 ways.
1: 3 wire hard wire kit ( Ground negative - ACC positive and Always on positive ) soo if ACC arie is hot the camera will go into regular driving mode, if ACC wire go cold the camera will get power from the Always on wire and change to parking mode.
2: G sensor, car will sense when there have been no G sensor movement in 5 minutes or so it will change to parking mode, and back to regular drive mode with the movement you make when you get into car to drive.
This require just a 2 wire hard wire kit on a always on connection, so it in imperative to have a BDP ( Battery Discharge Preventer ) either in the loop or build in to the hard wire kit or camera itself.
Otherwise the system will keep going when parked until it can draw no more juice from your car battery,

Some cameras will also offer a timed mode in the camera or hard wire kit as well, when i get a hard wire kit i will just use 30 minutes as that will cover most of my parking out on the town for shopping ( or i can change to longer in the camera )
And at home i dont need parking guard as i have CCTV on my parked car.
For me personally it is only 1 - 2 times every year i would need parking guard for a longer period, so with my camera ( SG9663DC ) all i have to do is go into the camera menu and change shut down timer from the 30
minutes i would normally use to say 2-3 hours for a dinner + movie or what ever.

If you decide to go with 2 single channel cameras, then i would just use parking guard on the front one of them, with a dual channel system both cameras are active in parking mode.

If price are a problem SG are about to release the SGGCX2 PRO, it is in nature a dual channel system, but you just buy the front camera first for a lower price, and then later in the year you get the GF / wife to buy you the optional rear camera for a birthday or x mas present ;)

If you plan on using parking guard all the time, say 8 hours over night and 8 hours at the job, well then you also better be driving a lot as the car generator will not have time to fill up your car battery again, and also know use of parking guard dashcam will also have some effect on car battery lifetime, car batteries are not deep cycle, and you need some power to crank a motor not least in winter, so for cut off voltage on a BDP it is not recommended you go below 12 volts,,,, higher would be optimal.

And of course the state of your car battery will have a say in for how long your system can be live before the BDP cut off voltage to protect your car battery.
 
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