Looking for best options that fit my needs.....

[chaidragonfire]

I'm not very tech savvy, and having researched a lot of these devices, I just have no clue which one is best for my intended uses. So maybe I could get some advice or feedback on what I'm looking for?

I've been looking at dashcam's to find out which one is the best, but all the sites I read reviews on, all claim different brands are the best.

So, how do I find out which one is really the best? Or maybe I should say, top rated as far as what I am needing?

I need a dashcam that has excellent resolution, especially for distance, night, bad weather.
Need wide angle view range (or max coverage), front and rear. (anti glare lens?)
Recording at all times, without damaging or draining battery - if it's wired.
Can record at least 24 hours or more.
Date and time stamp.
Monitor.
Can hook up to my android phone.
*Heat resistant - I live in Texas.
Side vision would be awesome, if it doesn't have wide angle view.
Easy to install.
Don't care about GPS.
Don't care about interior recording, but would be a nice perk.
Would prefer an honest place to buy this from and install for me.

Looking for something under $500......ish?

Possibly entertaining the thought of police style camera system.....yes, I know it would be more than $500. Just thinking about it though.

Reasons for dashcam --
I drive to and from work, and to the store on the weekends. Thats about it. But the local psycho's are always out in force, and the cops just sit there and do nothing.
Here's a short list of why I think I need a good dashcam..........just in case...........

Drivers who, or drivers that:

*Wait at a stop sign or red light until you start to pass and then pull out in front of you and hit their brakes
*Speeding through red lights and stop signs, regardless
*Turning left from the right lane, and vice versa
*Driving in the dark and bad weather with no headlights on
*Slamming on their brakes in the middle of the road for no reason
*Parking in the middle of the road.....literally
*NOBODY stops for stop signs on the street I live on (well, maybe less than 5 people on this street do, but thats it)
*Parking in the red fire lanes, blocking traffic
*Literally driving on my rear bumper
*Stopping up under my rear bumper
*Slam on their brakes in traffic and start driving backwards

Well, thats the short list, anyway. LOL

 

[DT MI]

First, welcome to DCT.

Second, you have a lot of requirements and not all of them will be met with a single camera. It would probably be a good idea to read through the pages here and here to get a feel for the many different cameras that are available and how they differ from one another. That may help you cull out those that won't serve you well, you can then concentrate on narrowing down the list.

For the coverage you want you probably should be looking at dual cams systems although a 'taxi cam' might suffice.

Insofar as heat tolerance is concerned you should focus on cameras that are capacitor based versus battery.

Recording time is a function of the memory card size more than anything plus the power available to keep the camera running. If you want 24/7 recording (or parking mode) the camera has to be powered which means either your car battery or a separate power pack of some sort. Getting 24 hours of continuous recording could be tricky.

Connecting to your phone will require a camera with WiFi capabilities which will narrow the list of candidates significantly.

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum.

Dashcams at least if we talk smaller details don't really work at a distance as they use wide angle lenses, so something like a small plate on a car you will only stand a chance of reading if it is within a few car lengths.
And the chance of doing this drop with bat weather ( less light ) and at night ( almost no light ) you can do it in those circumstances, but then the difference in speed between you car and the target car have to be walking speed or slower.

You can do without a CPL filter in a few cases, but for the most you need it on the front camera, but if you run a black dashmat on your dashboard you can often do without.

You can use parking guard for 22 hours of the day, but then you better be driving the last 2 hours of the day to replenish what is used while parking.
In general i recommend that if you can ( at home ) have CCTV on the car, so you only need to use parking guard while at work or shopping, i live in a 2 floor apartment and have a IP camera on my car parked in the back yard.

You can probably do parking guard for 24 hours strait, but your car battery better be good and of a decent size,,,,, i would not use a low voltage cut off under 12.2 Volts.

Date & time stamp, yes, if you use GPS you just need to set your time zone the camera will do the rest, if you don't use GPS you also have the option to set those manual.

Monitor ??? i am not sure what you mean, if you intend to connect a such to the dashcam it can be done on some as they have a AV out, but in general you should not have screens going, here in Denmark that would even be illegal as the camera feed constitute a video ( feed ) and so you cant do that, a phone screen or NAV unit displaying are no problem here, at least if you don't play a video on your phone.

You can have your phone connected to a WIFI enabled dashcam, but you should not, also some dashcams will lower the bitrate, the use of wifi also generate more heat, so you should only use wifi when actually needed.
There will also be a slight lag on the video steam from the dashcam, not much but its there alright.
Again you should not have screen running, this might even set off persons looking for a confrontation, so best if no one know you have a camera running ( this also give them a chance to lie to police / insurance, which you can then prove with your video they did ).

As a Texan you will need a dashcam with capacitors as EMG power source VS lipo batteries ones.

Some of the new dual channel systems you can use the rear camera as a cabin camera instead of putting it on your rear window, there are also 3 channel systems ( front / rear / cabin ) emerging now, but not really from the major players ( brands )

The lenses used are not as wide they will give you side view, for that you need to mount cameras on / filming out of your side windows, i have this myself but it require some DIY skills and imagination as no one really make side cameras, but it can be done with either a second dual channel system or two single cameras.

Most of the major brands have US sellers, and you should buy local for sure. most have a amazon store front, or you can save the amazon fee and shop in their own store.
Install if you cant do that yourself ( plenty of youtube videos on this ) can be done by your local car audio store ASO, it should not take much more than 1 hour to do a install for people like that.

It is fairly easy to install a dashcam, but hard wire one ( which you need to do if you want to use parking guard ) can be more tricky, not least on very new cars and their "smart" electrical systems.
But since you are in Texas you cant really use parking guard, at least not if you park outside in the daytime, dashcams only can do so much with heat, but sitting in a closed car in the run and then record at the same time are often not a option if you live a hot place.

Myself i have had multi side cameras for years, first done with single cameras as back then dual systems was not as good as single cameras, but now i have 2 dual systems for full coverage, i have the SG0663DC for front and rear, and i have put the K2S test sample i was sent on my side windows.
BUT in all those years of dashcam use 99% of what i capture are always on the front camera.

The up and coming dual remote systems will be the most ideal ones for side cameras as their camera units are smaller and so more easy to install on the side ( i have fixed glass in my rear doors so i have put cameras there )
But otherwise you might have to mount off headliner / B pillar or maybe the top of the door trim, this is where you have to get creative as cars are so different in this areas no one can really do a universal dedicated side system.

You don't have to record if people do something stupid, unless of course you like me want to share those idiots on youtube, but other than that a single front camera will record all you are doing with your car, and if you do nothing wrong then whatever happen off camera cant be your fault.
But a front and a rear camera are nice.

 

[SawMaster]

Lots of requirements with some being tough to do. DFW gets very hot as you know, and inside a closed car during the summer no dashcam will be utterly reliable if you're parked in full sunlight. In fact most can't handle this level of heat while recording, though a fair number can survive it with either a low-level type of parking mode or possibly with low-bitrate recording. You're pushing the technological limits on this point and it reduces your possibilities drastically. Best for high heats is the hoary old Mobius and close behind are Street Guardian single-channel cams. The budget-friendly B1W seems to do OK in very hot climates too. Mobius is high quality but old tech, the AR0330 sensor not so good in low light and with limited parking functionality. SG cams aren't cheap and they advise against recording in a hot car while parked, although those who do this generally don't have problems. As an Australian company they design for high-heat usage as much as they can. The B1W is not high-end vid quality but OK for most folks seeking basic driving protection. Again some owners have ran them in high heats without major failure though mine did have a slight focus shift till it cooled. Some other cams have overheat protection for the cam, but that shuts down the recording which isn't what you say you want. IMHO these are the only cams I can recommend as being likely to work in the kind of heat you have there. Of them, only the SG and Mobius work with really large cards, and for 24 hours of recording you're going to need a 512GB card; the B1W hasn't been found to work with these AFAIK, so now you're down to two cams. Of those Mobius has been easiest to make work with cards this large but I think it's been done with SG cams; I do know they used to work fine with one 400GB card and probably still do. No wifi connectivity with Mobius and TBH though some SG cams do it, it's not a useful feature in most cams as it's slow to DL speeds, and using it usually stops the cam from recording. Some Blackvue cams can do this but they won't work in your climate. B1W does wifi but again no recording and that is limited to seeing just one screenshot or blind downloading of a file or two same as most cams with wifi behave.

Powering any dashcam for 24 hour recording will require you use an external power source; even a low-bitrate single channel cam will run a very large car battery down with 24 hours of recording. If your vehicle is easy to start you might get away with it but probably not for long, and your car battery will need replacing within a year from new as this kind of usage is extremely hard on them. An AGM type car battery might endure longer but you're still low on power after recording that long and these batteries aren't cheap. Your best bet is using a powerbank to run your cam, yet even these may not be good in your climate and would need to be located in the coolest part of your car. You'll need to charge them regularly too.

I don't know too much about commercial and police type cams, but they're more-or-less similar to dashcams in using digital CMOS sensors run through signal processors which sends the product to a recording scheme. Costly. And all those I've seen have image problems; either a narrow FOV or relatively low resolution imaging- sometimes both. They might handle high heats better, but I doubt it, and they will definitely need lots more electricity to be used because of their design and their separate recording unit. If you can find a system which records in true 1080P/30FPS or better that is rated to work in your summer heats please let us know, as you're not the first or last wanting this.

As I tell the customers in my business, "Nothing is impossible given enough of your money and enough of my time!" but those practical limitations usually preclude them from reaching their goals and they choose something lesser as a much better alternative. I think you're going to find it holds true with camera in cars too.

Phil

 

[chaidragonfire]

I know no camera is perfect and you can't have it all in any one device. I'm just trying to find the best one that has as many of the options as I can get on it for my needs.

 

[SawMaster]

List your priorities in order of their importance along with the maximum budget you can spend. List only the things you want, any features you don't want to use can be turned off in the menu should they be included with the otherwise best cam for your needs.

There's a good cam out there for you and this method is the best and fastest way for us to help you find it

Phil