Hello from Chicago

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mvp

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Hey guys, I've been lurking for a few months and trying to figure out which cam is best for me.

No matter what I buy, I always look for two things: reliability/stability and value(best bang for the buck).

I don't mind playing with a cam, updating firmware, doing some troubleshooting, but at the end of the day... it needs to be stable and perform. My starting budget was $100-$150 dollars, but getting a good deal might make me spend a little more.

What I'd like:
Chicago heat and road trips mean I need a capacitor, not a battery.
Day vision needs to be good. 720p is fine, option for 1080p or 60fps would be a bonus.
Night vision needs to be ok-->good. Reading license plates is my concern.
Parking mode would be a bonus but not necessary.
Audio not too important.
Screen on camera not too important.
Full size SD would be great, microSD would be fine.
Ability to wire into fuse box to free up cigarette lighter.


That's why I *think* SG9665GC is what I'm leaning towards. With the CPUSB01 kit, comes to $230 on amazon and WAY over budget but... maybe it's worth it? Deciding between a $100 good camera and $230 great camera is why I haven't bought one for my Xterra.

I'll keep reading, researching and thank you for any suggestions you can share.
 
mvp said:
Hey guys, I've been lurking for a few months and trying to figure out which cam is best for me.

No matter what I buy, I always look for two things: reliability/stability and value(best bang for the buck).

I don't mind playing with a cam, updating firmware, doing some troubleshooting, but at the end of the day... it needs to be stable and perform. My starting budget was $100-$150 dollars, but getting a good deal might make me spend a little more.

What I'd like:
Chicago heat and road trips mean I need a capacitor, not a battery.
Day vision needs to be good. 720p is fine, option for 1080p or 60fps would be a bonus.
Night vision needs to be ok-->good. Reading license plates is my concern.
Parking mode would be a bonus but not necessary.
Audio not too important.
Screen on camera not too important.
Full size SD would be great, microSD would be fine.
Ability to wire into fuse box to free up cigarette lighter.


That's why I *think* SG9665GC is what I'm leaning towards. With the CPUSB01 kit, comes to $230 on amazon and WAY over budget but... maybe it's worth it? Deciding between a $100 good camera and $230 great camera is why I haven't bought one for my Xterra.

I'll keep reading, researching and thank you for any suggestions you can share.
Click to expand...
Welcome to the forum šŸ™‚ I have a SG9665GC in front and a Mobius C2 in the rear and could not be happier. I travel on business a lot and take my SG9665GC with me everywhere. Temps mostly high 90's to low 100's no problems at all.
 
Welcome mvp.

Reading licence plates at night on any consumer grade dashcam is still touch and go, a fjew things need to be present for that to happen.

But thats just the way it is with current hardware in dashcams.

Personally i dont bother much with beeing able to read licenceplates, i see it as a mean to tell if a camera is any good ( daytime footage ) if its good in the daytime and on the days with cloud cover thats really all i ask for.

And beleve me as soon as the ammount of light start to drop from bright sunshine to cloudcover and later in the day, then it get harder and harder for any dashcam to read licenceplates.
 
kamkar1 said:
Welcome mvp.

Reading licence plates at night on any consumer grade dashcam is still touch and go, a fjew things need to be present for that to happen.

But thats just the way it is with current hardware in dashcams.

Personally i dont bother much with beeing able to read licenceplates, i see it as a mean to tell if a camera is any good ( daytime footage ) if its good in the daytime and on the days with cloud cover thats really all i ask for.

And beleve me as soon as the ammount of light start to drop from bright sunshine to cloudcover and later in the day, then it get harder and harder for any dashcam to read licenceplates.
Click to expand...
That certainly has been my experience as well
 
kamkar1 said:
...
And beleve me as soon as the ammount of light start to drop from bright sunshine to cloudcover and later in the day, then it get harder and harder for any dashcam to read licenceplates.
Click to expand...
This is especially true with US plates that tend to be smaller with smaller lettering than the rest of the world. Some color combinations used in the different states make it even worse.
 
Yeah the yellow/orange reflective with black lettering here allso seem to be harder to read day or night, but those are for company vans usioally so not that many of them here.

to me it seem like all/ most dashcams start to make exposure times longer as the light dim, and then after that go up in ISO value to make them more light sensetive.
To me it should be the other way around, first up ISO when light start to dim and if thats not enuff then increase the exposure timing all the way to the end 1/30 second which is the main culprit to why night time footage is blurred not least at the wery edges of the footage.


PS. it might allso be our cameras compensate for lower light as i think they should do, for me it seem the #1 thing must be to keep exposure timings as fast as possible to get crish non blurred footage for as long a period of the day as we can.

Nighttime is what it is now due to hardware limitations, but there is offcourse a difference between a good optimised camera and a not so good optimised camera.
But no matter what none of them is really good at night, that only come with new hardware that will have same nighttime IQ as good dashcams today have in daytime.
 
Thanks for the welcomes.

That's a lot of good info, kamkar1. I'll have to adjust my expectations.

Pier28... wow, thanks. Every bit helps, absolutely.
 
Yeah some expect too much even from the best dashcams, but we cant expect the makers to do more than operate within what current hardware can do, and offcourse at a decent price range.
And a camera with good night performance should capture all you need.

What is best at night is to see the licenceplate yourself and then call it out for the microfone in the camera to pick up, i think quite a fjew do that both day and night, just to be on the safe side.

Remember what a dashcam do best is to record what you do, and if you do nothing wrong then the blame for what have happned must lie on the other guy,
Or at least the burden of evidence should fall upon him as you can proof you dident do anything wrong.
 
kamkar1 said:
What is best at night is to see the licenceplate yourself and then call it out for the microfone in the camera to pick up, i think quite a fjew do that both day and night, just to be on the safe side.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a good habit that I'll have to pick up.

Also, just pulled the trigger on the SG. I've been itching for over a year and enough's enough... can't wait!
 
It will serve you good i think, and if not i think ther after sale support and Pier28 is the best around.
 
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