Looking for something simple

dash123

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I'm interested in getting a dash cam but am somewhat confused by the number of choices and the inevitable negative reviews. I just want something simple that I can attach to the windshield when I want, I press a button to start recording and press again to stop. Overwriting would be a good feature. Night recording is not necessary for me. I don't mind a hanging wire as it would not be a permanent installation. Even with that there is confusion as to what "suction" means since often people talk about residue from gels ??

I really don't want to use a smartphone app due to privacy and simplicity concerns - I prefer to remove a card and watch on another device.

The thing is that I am kind of a stickler for image quality. 1080p at 30 fps doesn't seem like enough e.g. for recording license plates. And finally I came across a lot of discussion about heat - that is not a factor for me.

Thanks.
 
What is your budget?
 
I press a button to start recording and press again to stop.

While some dash cams may be a bit more complex than others, ALL of them will begin recording automatically when you start your car and stop recording when you shut your engine off. (unless you enable parking mode, which is an optional functionality)

My suggestion would be the Viofo A119 V3. It is a basic but high performance entry level camera that features excellent 2K resolution, has been proven to be highly reliable and is one of the best dash cam bargains on the market.
 
What is your budget?
I haven't gotten that far in my thinking yet but I guess <$150. Am willing to pay that or maybe even more for quality and reliability.
 
My suggestion would be the Viofo A119 V3. It is a basic but high performance entry level camera that features excellent 2K resolution, has been proven to be highly reliable and is one of the best dash cam bargains on the market.
Thanks. That meets a lot of my requirements except it appears to be a permanent adhesive mount. I would like to be able to move it from one car to the other. I know it's impossible to find the "perfect" dash cam and will eventually have to settle.
 
There are universal suction cup mounts, to with you can stick the cameras that have a sticky pad mount solution.
So something like this with a flat piece to which you can install the daashcam should be fine.

iu

iu
 
Thanks. That meets a lot of my requirements except it appears to be a permanent adhesive mount. I would like to be able to move it from one car to the other. I know it's impossible to find the "perfect" dash cam and will eventually have to settle.
You can also simply purchase an extra mount for your other car and swap easily between the two.
 
You can also simply purchase an extra mount for your other car and swap easily between the two.
Or use the original mount in your main car and a new suction mount in the hire cars.

If you want to use GPS with a suction mount then you need to buy an extra GPS mount and stick it to the Universal Mount Kamkar mentioned above.
 
Thats the "problem" the Viofo cameras have the GPS in the mount, others have it as a tethered mouse antenna, which is just as much of a "problem"

Mind you no court will go by the cheap GPS in your dashcam, but they will find 2 points ( fixed ) in your video, measure the distance between them, and get the time it took you to travel that distance from the video itself.
And so get your exact speed, determined with irrefutable math.

So really no one really need a GPS if thats how you look at it, i just prefer to have it anyway, and it is also nice for setting time/date as you just have to set your time zone +/- what ever DLS you have, Denmark are +1 here in winter but i have to change that to +2 hours in the summer due to summer time.
 
Hi Dash123.
I run an AZDOME GS63H dashcam & it's rather good.
Lots of features & the GPS unit is built-in, so, no external unit is used..
Good quality images etc.
Take a look on eBay for more info.

May suit your needs.

Compatible suction mounts are available....if required.
It's a simple camera "slide-in" mount.
 
Hi Dash123.
I run an AZDOME GS63H dashcam & it's rather good.
I don't doubt your satisfaction with this item, but, as happens with a lot of recommended cameras, Amazon ratings are not good with 19% 1 star. The above recommended Viofo A119 V3 fares better with only 5% 1 stars, but a common thread among them is that it stopped working after a small number of months and customer service is bad. Of course, such ratings are always subject to suspicion - the company could be responsible for many of the good ones and their competitors for the bad ones. That's the main reason I came here to get people's actual experience.
 
I don't recommend doing this but the electro static sticker provided by Viofo is an awesome useful one. We can change the position of the camera by just peeling it as it has no glue and sticks to the winshield. So, in case of permanent mounts electro static stickers might be useful to move the permanent mounts from one car to another. But, don't know how many times we can peel and stick these stickers even they don't come with a glue. I peeled my sticker came with Viofo A129 Plus Duo 5 to 6 times and reattached on windshield without any issue. It is still stong and holding my cam.
 
I just want something simple that I can attach to the windshield when I want
I have a very good experience few years back with literally the cheapest DashCam they had at a local store for US$47.

My recommendation is to buy it from a local store if possible as they could have it displayed for a demo so you can get your hands on it and experience it, see the suction cup holder. Usually the store should let you return or replace it if you are dissatisfied. Avoid buying unknown/unbranded products online or overseas as it’s a gamble, or at the very least time consuming to test them and return if even possible.


Based on your requirements and concerns, I can tell you this:
-The lower end/cheaper dashcams, usually come with the easiest and most basic mounting with a suction cup that wouldn’t leave any residue on your windshield. You can remove it instantly and it will look as if it was never there, and install it in another car instantly as well.
-It will plug in your car socket (cigarette lighter), so it can’t get any easier to hook up.
-It will always operate automatically as any higher end dashcam, without the need for you to touch any buttons i.e. once you turn on the car it will start recording, once you turn the car off, it will stop. This is assuming that the power in the car socket starts flowing only when the car is running, as it should be with most cars.
-Overwriting of old videos is a default (and only) option for any dashcam to operate. It will keep recording in a loop, replacing the oldest video with the newest one as you run out of storage, unless you disconnect it (or go into the settings to lock a specific video file). The length of the loop will depend on the memory card size you put in and the video quality settings you select.
-Night recording isn’t an additional option to have, once it starts recording, it will always continue regardless of. This becomes important based on your night video quality expectations. TBH, the cheap one I bought had bad video quality at night; however, as I was concerned about recording in the city/urban area, everything was well lit and you always have your headlights pointed ahead where the camera is recording, so it will capture anything in front of you. Simply said, the bad night video quality was satisfactory for my purposes.
-The cable is really easy to tuck in the gaps around the roof trim, pillar trim, dashboard and some creases to reach the socket. you can always leave it loose or hanging around, but I recommend looking up youtube videos of your car model for installing a dashcam, you’ll be surprised how many panels you can easily remove and put back just by pulling/pushing without any tools, and see all that space for cables behind.



For selecting and buying the dashcam, ideally find a mid-sized or large local store that sells and installs car accessories like stereo systems, etc. They will usually have a decent range of dashcams, and they will be more than happy to give you a demo of the actual device, or even go for a drive with you to try it out. Alternatively, go to the local Best Buy or equivalent at your location.
I got mine through a local store (equivalent to Best Buy in the US), first online I filtered the cheapest model they had in stock, I found reviews that weren’t rating it too high; however, on youtube I watched videos recorded with the exact DashCam model during day and night that showed me the exact video quality I can expect from it (you can try to zoom in licence plates, etc to confirm). It seemed decent for what I needed, so I picked it up from the local store and installed it. As a backup option, the store allowed free returns and full refunds if I would be dissatisfied.
 
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