Looking for very cheap dash cam

[nutsey]

$22.22 dual cam.

 

[winchester11]

UPDATE:

I have been following this thread while also doing my own research. Thanks to all for your comments and advice, especially to Rick Needham for posting his testing and impressions of the Elecwave unit that was under discussion. It was helpful to me in making a decision. After further research, I've decided to purchase the B1W. It seems to be highly recommended as a good value, and I figured I might as well buy myself some more reliability and performance for not too much more money.

I'd like to ask a few questions before I go ahead and order the unit. If I'm going to buy a decent camera, I might be wanting to use it to upload some files to the internet/various forums pretty frequently (multiple times per week). How easy is it, with this camera, to go through the footage from a long drive, find the particular 60 seconds you're interested in, clip it down, and export it to an mp4 or similar file? How long would that take? Is there a phone app or computer program that can be used? Would it be significantly easier with an A119, or does the B1W have good usability in this respect? Does the camera have to be pulled out of the car anytime I want to transfer video files, or is there a remote process for doing this? How much footage will it save before I have to delete the memory or it starts writing over previous files, assuming I'm using a 32GB SD card? How configurable are the settings on this unit (i.e. parking mode on/off, etc.)? How easy is it to get the camera on and off the mount, if I want to take it out of the car (worried about summer heat or thieves)? Does it drain the battery if the car sits with the camera plugged in for long periods of time?

Sorry for all the stupid questions, but I don't know much about dash cams and want to make sure I'm not buying something that's going to be a pain to use for my intended purposes. Thanks again everyone for your advice.

 

[Nigel]

Lots of questions there!

I recommend a 64GB card for that camera, then most people will always fit a full day's driving on the card (about 8 hours).
Most people only copy video when there is something interesting, not multiple times per week. If there is not much to copy then you can connect via the phone app and copy the file onto the phone, easy to find if you know the time or you locked the file. Alternatively you can plug the card or camera into a computer and access the files directly. I think most B1Ws go on and off the mount easily, although there are a few reports of very stiff ones - lubricate the mount if you have difficulty.

The files are H264 .mp4 files, same as nearly all dashcams, so should be easy to deal with using any dashcam viewer software or any general video editing software. The B1W is designed for evidence gathering, it records detail rather than movie quality and can get a bit pixelated under trees when there is a lot of detail to record, if you want to make nice movies then the A119 is more suitable since it has a much higher bitrate, of course more bitrate means less storage and bigger files to process.

As far as I know it doesn't mind the heat, and thieves are unlikely to notice it. If you are going to leave it running parking mode for days at a time then you should connect it to a hardwire kit that has low voltage protection, preferably with an adjustable voltage to match your car battery and use.

 

[jokiin]

edited out the misquote to avoid confusion

 

[winchester11]

The B1W is designed for evidence gathering, it records detail rather than movie quality and can get a bit pixelated under trees when there is a lot of detail to record, if you want to make nice movies then the A119 is more suitable since it has a much higher bitrate, of course more bitrate means less storage and bigger files to process.

Thanks for the response. So in this part of your answer you're saying the B1W will hold more hours of video than the A119? The storage capacity is less important to me than the video quality. I watched a few videos of the B1W and the quality seems not great but sufficient for my purposes. I also hear the B1W has WiFi but the A119 does not, so that would mean I could go through the videos from the B1W remotely from the phone app, but for the A119 I'd have to physically plug in the camera? If so, that's a big plus for the B1W in my opinion.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks for the response. So in this part of your answer you're saying the B1W will hold more hours of video than the A119? The storage capacity is less important to me than the video quality. I watched a few videos of the B1W and the quality seems not great but sufficient for my purposes. I also hear the B1W has WiFi but the A119 does not, so that would mean I could go through the videos from the B1W remotely from the phone app, but for the A119 I'd have to physically plug in the camera? If so, that's a big plus for the B1W in my opinion.

The loop recording on the B1W holds about the same number of hours as the A119, but only because it reserves 30% of the card for locked files, something the A119 doesn't do, the A119 locked files can take over the card if there are too many, if there are none then the whole card gets used for loop recording.

The B1W quality is normally good for evidence purposes, it records a lot of detail at the expense of poorer backgrounds.

The WiFi means that it is easy to view and save/upload video while in the car. With the A119 you are probably going to put it in a computer when you get home, unless you carry a device capable of reading memory cards about with you. I guess that most people only look at the B1W when they get home too, so it actually makes no difference to most people.

 

[winchester11]

The WiFi means that it is easy to view and save/upload video while in the car. With the A119 you are probably going to put it in a computer when you get home, unless you carry a device capable of reading memory cards about with you. I guess that most people only look at the B1W when they get home too, so it actually makes no difference to most people.

But what I was interested in was not having to go take the card out of the camera when I want to view the files at home, which it sounds like is something that I would have to do with the A119.

 

[jokiin]

But what I was interested in was not having to go take the card out of the camera when I want to view the files at home, which it sounds like is something that I would have to do with the A119.

if you want to view one file, (and you know which file that is), then wifi could be useful, anything beyond that and it can get frustrating quickly and you'll end up connecting to a computer

 

[winchester11]

if you want to view one file, (and you know which file that is), then wifi could be useful, anything beyond that and it can get frustrating quickly and you'll end up connecting to a computer

I guess I'm a little confused about what the wifi actually does. I was under the impression that wifi allows you to look at a list of video clips on your phone and click on them to view the footage, without having to take the card out of your camera. It seems it wouldn't be so difficult to decide which files you're looking for if you locked them while driving.

 

[jokiin]

I guess I'm a little confused about what the wifi actually does. I was under the impression that wifi allows you to look at a list of video clips on your phone and click on them to view the footage, without having to take the card out of your camera.

it does that, but it's not fast, for a file it's ok, for a bunch of files you'll get tired of waiting pretty quickly

 

[Nigel]

it does that, but it's not fast, for a file it's ok, for a bunch of files you'll get tired of waiting pretty quickly

The B1W is not too bad when used with a decent phone, its low bitrate helps a lot compared to some cameras, A129 Pro will be a struggle with any phone!

 

[winchester11]

I have a few more basic questions, but I don't want to clutter the forum by creating separate threads for these, so I'm just going to keep asking them in this thread even though they may be venturing away from the thread's initial purpose.

What is the effect of dash cam placement on the resulting video? I know that the optimal place to mount the camera is up at the top of the window, but if it's more convenient for me to mount it at the base of the windshield just above the wipers, will that severely compromise the quality of the image in some way? Will I still get a good view of the road/surroundings? I'm in an SUV if that makes a difference.

 

[jokiin]

What is the effect of dash cam placement on the resulting video? I know that the optimal place to mount the camera is up at the top of the window, but if it's more convenient for me to mount it at the base of the windshield just above the wipers, will that severely compromise the quality of the image in some way? Will I still get a good view of the road/surroundings? I'm in an SUV if that makes a difference.

auto exposure performance will be compromised, view of what's in front will be compromised, put it at the top of the window where it belongs