General dash cam buying help please

[Katerulz86]

Okay to the point, I've ended up here as we got my stepfather a new camera for his van for his birthday. He's spent all weekend wiring it in, plugged it all in and somehow its cooked itself and no longer works...Mum's quite disappointed as it did everything he wanted it to. It was the Uniden Black box igo 850...it even seems to have killed it's SD card as well, far as we know it isn't a wiring problem...(plus reading reviews now turns me off this camera even if it was my stepfathers dodgy wiring...)

Thing is my stepfather doesn't want to undo all his good wiring to the back of the van to get another camera, so mum is trying to contact the seller to get a replacement...which most likely wont be possible. Anyway long winded story short, do any of you have any good advice on a good work van camera that has similar features to the uniden one if we were to replace it completely please? I am aware that it isn't likely to find a different cam that would plug into the reversing cam that came with the uniden so the wiring will most likely will have to be undone...

I've tried looking on ebay etc and to be honest I just don't know what I'm looking for, I know he wants great image quality day and night as he got hit not long ago, an included reverse camera would be nice, large storage capacity if possible but not necessary, GPS and speed recording is a must and if it can record both forward and back cameras that would be great.

Anything available that any of you could recommend with those features or more would be an tremendous help! For what he wants it for it doesn't need to be wifi compatible and connect with tablets etc, its only for a work van. Just need something good quality, and that will last in the sun etc

Thanks

 

[jokiin]

If you don't get any joy from the seller try Uniden directly, they're in Sydney (Rockdale)

 

[Katerulz86]

Have read of others trying to contact Uniden and getting no response but if we get no reply from the seller and decide to go with the same camera again we will do that thanks. Just mainly wanted to ask others advice on good dash cams that have the following features if we were to go with another:

Front and rear cam (rear to act as reversing cam as well) High quality day & night
GPS & speed logging
shock sensor
& is heat retardant as here in summer can cook cams
has a good battery life

If anyone can recommend anything I would be greatful, I search on ebay but I am no expert and don't know whats a good camera etc Found a sony one which is great image quality and has a camera facing rearward but it doesn't display for when he's going in reverse so he doesn't run over things lol

 

[jokiin]

Yeah that's not a model I'd normally recommend but if you've paid for it you're still entitled to get a working one, they do have a service department there also

Anything you replace it with is going to mean a wiring change unfortunately

 

[Nigel]

He's spent all weekend wiring it in, plugged it all in and somehow its cooked itself and no longer works...

If you do get another then make sure you don't cook the replacement. If he has chopped off the power adaptor and wired it direct to the car 12 volt power when it is expecting 5 volt power from the power adaptor then that is what has cooked it...

 

[Jrlivin2]

If you do get another then make sure you don't cook the replacement. If he has chopped off the power adaptor and wired it direct to the car 12 volt power when it is expecting 5 volt power from the power adaptor then that is what has cooked it...

Exactly. It will cook it if he hardwired directly to 12v without a 5v converter. Make sure he knows that.

 

[Katerulz86]

No he hasn't cut off any plugs and hard wired it, plugs are all attached where they should be to cigarette port & reversing light. Mainly wanted to know what's a good replacement camera that's all. Been hunting around, like the quality of the Sony but there's no monitor or reversing camera...

 

[Jrlivin2]

I follow you. Based solely on what I've read by following this forum for a few months, I am not aware of anything that people here recommend in a similar price range with the same features as the Uniden 850 you bought. I can tell you, however, that Uniden doesn't get mentioned a lot around here. You can read into that whatever you want.

Generally speaking, when asked what the better dual cam models are people tend to mention the Panorama X2.

I don't particularly care for the form of the front camera of the X2 and much prefer the Shape of the A118c or, for a much better camera, SG9665GC. Personally, I would prefer two of these single channel units, or maybe one of these and a Mobius in the rear window over an x2. None of these will get you a reverse camera but all (except for Mobius) have GPS.


Edit: I just remembered you said the camera needed to have great image quality at night. That will rule out the A118c....you will need to stick with the X2, SG9665GC, or mobius which seems to have good, maybe not great, night picture quality. Hope that helps.

 

[Katerulz86]

Yes! That is a massive help, thank you very much!!

 

[Nigel]

Reversing cameras can be very cheap and you don't need great quality from them, there is no need for it to be built into the main camera and there is also no need for the front and rear cameras to be part of the same system, independent cameras are often easier to wire up, normally much better quality and if one fails or it's memory card fails the other will just keep working.