I need help choosing the right one

[ssagaji]

I work as a taxi driver at night, and I wanted a dash cam that records the front and inside of the car.
I did my research and I'm trying to avoid having to install two cams. And the key point here is that the cam/lenses recording the inside of the car, should have some type of night vision/IR... These are the cams that would work for me, but I haven't found any review or video about their performance at night.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B008GAMNBK
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B007PNZBRM
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00DPUA99Y
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00GN46L8W
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00DC3KRZA
I hope you get an idea of what I need. The inside recording doesn't have to be HD, I just need one that has a working night vision. Thank you in advance for any tip and help !!

 

[Sunny]

All of them look like generic Chinese cams.

Dashcams don't have night vision.

Maybe dual channel cam is an option since the 2nd camera is tiny that you can mount anywhere.

 

[ssagaji]

Hi Sunny,

Thank you for your reply. But will the 2nd camera provide night vision?
Find below the only video I could find of a split screen recording that shows the inside of the car at night.

This is the closest I could find to what I need. Starts at around 10:12.
Note in his description how he doesn't recommend this cam.. lol But the rear cam at night time looks good to me.

 

[Sunny]

Why don't you like two cameras?
You can get a G1W kind for front and a mobius for the in cab which is very easy to hide anywhere.

Or something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00LBQGKX8

 

[ssagaji]

Thank you Sunny.. I will look at the mobius capability of recording at night. I need a very good night vision or IR. It's pitch dark where I work.

 

[Sunny]

Thank you Sunny.. I will look at the mobius capability of recording at night. I need a very good night vision or IR. It's pitch dark where I work.

If it's pitch black, you need something with those flashy IR LEDs and they are cheap but the IR LED's range is very limited, hardly couple of feet.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah if yu have pitch dark you will need a camera that have a mecanical IR filter and to light up the footage you will need at least 7W IR light, and more if you plan to see things at a distance.
And you cant have the IR light anywhere close to the lens as that would ruin the footage with reflections on IR light in the windscreen.
Allso though dashcam CMOS chips and the ones in CCTV cameras seem similar, cctv cameras is so much better in low light situations.

The new Flir FX camera ( action - dash- cctv ) seem to have a automatic IR filter, and it have a fjew build in IR ermitters, but those cant be used if you plan to film thru glass, and the range of them is allso pretty sad ( somthing like 16 feet at best )
but you might be able to pair a flir camera with a external IR ermitter.
See what the flir FX can do on its own here.

Here is a video of my experiment with a toshiba video camera with the IR cut filter removed, and a G1W dashcamera with a IR pass lens, and a 7W IR ermitter in my living room.

And finally footage from the 1080p ip camera i have on my car in the yard, this is in same pitch black conditions as seen in the video above with the modded videorecorder and G1W where you can only see the reflection of the licencplate on my car.
Actually this is proberly even less IR light as the lightsource in this is the IR light from my PTZ camera and not the 10W ermitter lying in my kitchen window in the above video.
As you can see a dedicated cctv camera can handle pitch black much better.

A regular camera with the IR cut filter remover is what they call a full spectrum camera is some TV ghost hunting programs, that be video cameras . gopros with IR pass lens or like i demo in my video above dashcams with IR pass lens, the give avay is the blue/purple tint to the footage.
And as you can see my IP kamera go to B&W in darkness, which i think is one reason they handle darkness better.

Current dashcams no matter of prize dont handle total darkness well, the reason is the CMOS chips used and the IR cut lenses, and offcourse the way they are set up to operate, and here dashcams and IP cameras do share kinda the same chipsets, but the littel difference is enuff to make dedicated IP cameras much better in darkness.