Need a camera for my apartment garage

[peteru]

Hi, I'm new to the dash cam market and am looking for some advice.

My new Audi A4 recently was keyed by someone while parked in the garage of my apartment building. It is a large, shared underground garage under the apartment building. I park up against a wall and back in due to the location of the support posts. I am looking for a camera that has motion detection so I can be sure this doesn't keep happening. My assumption is that I would get one that faces forward and wouldn't really need one to monitor the back.

Does anyone have advice as to what cameras I should look at buying AND what I should do about a power source since I'm primarily using it for when the car is parked and turned off? Thanks!

 

[kamkar]

Hi peteru welcome to the forum.

You will want to get a camera that have prebuffered motion detect, that way you get some seconds saced before the triggering event.
I would just hit up Jon at @Pier28 he is active in here, and he is active in regard to service and customer care.
And the bulk of his products support prebuffered motion detect.
For hardwirering you will need a BDP you can tap into your fuse box on a allways on fuse, the BDP will then make sure your car battery dont get below a set voltage so you can allways start your car again.

Jon will be able to help you with all you need, or direct you to where you can get the stuff you need that he might not have.
Jon is now dealing out of the state of Nevada if my memory serve me right.

Made a test with my old lukas lk7500 a long time ago, and there is no sneaking up on the car with that stuff on ( i dont use it myself as i have CCTV camera at my car parked in the yard behind my apartment.

 

[jokiin]

motion detect isn't as reliable at night, better off with a larger memory card and just have something that keeps running, better to run off an external power source like a power bank if running for extended periods though, even with a BDP device you'll still shorten the life of your car battery

 

[peteru]

Wow, you guys respond quickly. Thanks for that!

The garage has lights in it, so the darkness isn't a big deal. I'll check out the Pier 28 website and reach out to Jon. Thanks for the help!

 

[kamkar]

What jokiin say will allso work, it would make it a bit painfull to go over a whole night of recording if your car been keyed again, but on the other hand it must be nice to sit there and go thry the footage knowing soon i got that SOB

Most cameras can be powered off a USB power bank, either for motion detect or allways recording.

I think mootion detect will be okay in a indoor lit garage, but when you have the camera set up you can allways experiment in this regard by sneaking around your car and see if you can get near to it without beeing recorded.
Any way its just a matter of choosing in the camera settings what you want, motion detect or allways recording.