Front and rear dash cam with parking mode. How does it work?

[kamkar]

I think for the most you can make do with just the front camera doing the parking duty, but you might have to reverse into parking spots so the camera face the direction where a offender will come or exit.
And reversing into a parking spot should not be a problem for a good driver.

Normally with dual systems the rear camera is powered via the front unit, but i am not sure if both cameras are tied to 1 common setting for parking or you can set them individually for each camera. ( i have no personal experience with dual camera setups, i run 3 single cameras in my car, and none of them are on when the car is parked )
I think letting the user deside what kind of action set the camera off for both front and rear will just complicate things, if i was to design a camera i would have the choosen setting apply for both cameras.

 

[abarth]

Hi abarth,

Sorry if we're going round in circles, but what's your definition of effective parking mode? Both front and rear cameras connected to a BDP, and both have motion detection and a buffering period?

I gave the street guardian and mobius as an example because if I do go for two separate cameras, it is likely that the front will be a street guardian and the rear, a cheaper model which does not have the buffering feature.

my cameras are very different when it comes to parking mode (really just motion detect). the panorama X1 in the rear is pre-buffered and very sensitive so it misses absolutely nothing. the mini 0805 up front is not pre-buffered so it may not always start recording the fraction of a second that a vehicle passes through the frame, but it will always record it by the middle of the frame until it exits. this varies depending on how much ambient light is available as well as the speed of the moving object. they are both plugged in to my BDP for always on recording.

kamkar makes a good point about how you orient your car while parking. while i prefer to back in to a space, i am forced to do "head-in" only parking in many places that have those angled parking spaces.

as we're speaking of different cameras installed for the front and rear (which i like because this introduces redundancy), you'll have to check out the strengths and weaknesses of each model. i do like both the models you're considering. the street guardian
SG9665GC has some of the best picture quality of the currently available cameras and the mobius is very reliable. but i can't speak on how effective their motion detect is. from what i read, neither is pre-buffered so that's something you'll want to think about.

 

[Jez]

abarth, I really appreciate your help but I still don't understand.

"my cameras are very different when it comes to parking mode (really just motion detect)"

Sounds like parking mode! Especially on your X1 which has pre-buffering..!

If this isn't parking mode, then what is!?

 

[abarth]

it's ultra-sensitive motion detect (on the X1). basically, it'll record your entire drive (because you're always in motion and things are always changing in the frame) and will record any events while parked (because it will record anything that trips it's motion detect sensor and the previous 5 seconds of that event). all of these recording will be in one folder.

I hesitate to call it true parking mode because there are cameras (lukas, blacksys, etc.) that have a parking mode that is triggered by the absence of accessory power, such as when you turn off your engine. these cameras will create a separate folder and will use g-sensor and motion detection to trigger recordings. when your motor is on, these cameras are ALWAYS recording and won't miss any moments even if you're parked in front of a white wall for a few minutes.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

it's ultra-sensitive motion detect (on the X1). basically, it'll record your entire drive (because you're always in motion and things are always changing in the frame) and will record any events while parked (because it will record anything that trips it's motion detect sensor and the previous 5 seconds of that event). all of these recording will be in one folder.

I just wanted to clarify for new shoppers, the "X1" is the old pre-production name of the Street Guardian SGZC12RC.
Before Street Guardian took over, it was called the Panorama X1. The X1 is the name of several other products out there now so can get confusing

 

[Jez]

Ok, thanks abarth I understand now. But it does seem that they produce the same result of capturing "parked footage", they just go about it in a different way. I can't see any pros/cons of having one type over the other, except ease of locating parked footage in a separate folder on a memory card.

Thanks Pier

I've seen on Niko's site that a newer SGZC12RC is due in september, is that still the ETA? Do you know what the changes will be?

 

[abarth]

yeah, either process will end up with the same result, generally. I certainly don't mind all my recordings in one folder. I can just deduce that the bigger files are when I'm actually driving because it's not being broken up in smaller segments like when I'm parked and MD is triggered momentarily.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Thanks Pier

I've seen on Niko's site that a newer SGZC12RC is due in september, is that still the ETA? Do you know what the changes will be?

The lens will be improved on 2nd production

 

[Jez]

Thanks Pier, I saw that on Niko's site but was hoping for more!

 

[jokiin]

Thanks Pier, I saw that on Niko's site but was hoping for more!

lens comes first, once that's sorted we'll move onto some firmware related stuff, no point at the moment as the lens change may require some core firmware adjustments and we really need to have that right first

 

[Jez]

Ok thanks Jokiin