First car, first cam! Looking for advice

[cappled]

Hi everyone, my girlfriend and I are looking into accessories to protect our first, new car and a dashcam is on the top of our list. We are thinking about the Thinkware X500D but it's currently out of stock on Amazon.

Appreciate your expertise and suggestions!

Needs:

- Front and rear recording.
- Parking short durations (we live in a safe area with a carport so no need for overnight recording).
- Decent nighttime quality.
- Very easy installation and low maintenance.
- Can handle the heat in CA
- Budget: ideally below $300

Side note: we are neither car nor mechanically handy people so the term "hardwiring" kinda scares us. Must it be done by a professional and is there an alternative (portable USB charger?)

Thanks!

 

[CheckYourLights]

I'm not too good with many dual cams personally. I have been using a
SIV-M9/SH800 I have, but I can not seem to find any links to the dual cam version. There is also the K1S which also does okay, but there might be better things out by now like the SG9663DC that is in the pipeline.

I wanted to mention on the hard wiring bit though depending on the camera you decide you may want to look into an OBD II to USB plug. The USB end of course depending on what camera you buy.

This way you can plug it right into the car. The only down side being is that if you want the camera off you will have to manually turn it off since the OBD II port is always on.

Here
is one with a Micro USB end and a switch. You'd just have to reach down to hit it as the OBD II port is near the foot well of the car.

 

[tabetha]

Personally I wouldn't bother with OBD connector, wiring is childs play, if you can wire a plug it really isn't much more difficult, maybe you have a mate who could help if really unsure.
Buy a cheap $1 12 volt test light to find wires, hardwire sounds scary but really isn't, only 3 wires, one simply goes to body of car(earth/ground), one to a permanent live(all the time whether ignition on or off), the other to "accessory" live, something that is only live with ignition ON.
NO maintenance really at all, other than occasional format, look at the Thinkware F770, amazing bit of kit does everything very well if not better

 

[SawMaster]

Buy a cheap $1 12 volt test light....

And if you have a computer-controlled power scheme in your car like many now do, you might get to spend thousands in repairing the burned-up electronics

ONLY DMMs and LED test lights are safe to use on today's cars. The cheap incandescent test lights will appear to be a dead short to much of today's car electronics which are not designed to handle that kind of a situation. Even simply checking the fuses for power with a cheap incandescent test light can kill many of today's cars.

NO cheap test lights, and KNOW what you're doing or let somebody who does know handle it

Phil

 

[dash riposki]

What make/model of car? Somebody may have been there, done that....

 

[tabetha]

A very good point made by sawmaster, it's so easy to forget/not realise others don't have the knowledge needed, even though it was pointed out, DMM, digital multi metre can also give "false" readings due to their sensitivity as stray voltages exist in lots of circuits enough to show on metre but not enough to light bulb, I do work mostly on older cars but also on brand new ones.