Need help finding a dashcam that meets my needs

Martha McBride

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Hi, I have a small 1999 Toyota pickup with a camper shell on the back.

I want a total rearview-mirror-replacement dashcam (one that looks pretty much like a normal rearview mirror) that records 3 streams full-time whenever the car ignition is turned on.

Front-facing dashcam footage
Passenger-cabin footage + audio
Rear-view camera footage (separate hard-wired rearview camera)

I have seen some products that come close to this configuration but they only record the rear-view camera when the car is put in the Reverse gear.
I want the reverse camera to be recorded at all times, not just when I am backing up.

Can someone suggest some products or companies that make products like this?

Thank you much for your time.
 
Welcome to DCT :)
I don;'t think a cam is made which will fit all your requirements. Most 'mirror cams' are not very good anyway- they usually have poor video quality or issues with mounting straps, or are too heavy to stay positioned properly. If you can manage without an interior cam and can use a regular dashcam there are several 2-channel cams which would give you front and rear video plus interior audio, but you'll need to route the rear cam cable somehow. The Viofo A 129 Duo is an excellent cam and value which could do that. The Mini 0906 is OK with a different form-factor and cheaper. The Street Guardian 9663 DC costs more but is top quality with great support.

Phil
 
Sound like you are looking for a "uber / taxi " camera + 1,,,,, which do not exist.

you can get dashcams with 2 cameras, one filming out the windscreen, and the other camera in the same unit but filming the other direction into the cabin. ( uber / taxi camera )
Yet other dashcams with 2 cameras have the one on the windscreen filming out front, and the other camera wired of that and normally put in the rear window ( dual channel camera )
So you can get a uber / taxi camera, and a third single camera to put in the rear window, but if that rear camera are mainly there to guide you when reversing you should get a proper reversing camera.
 
Welcome to DCT :)
I don;'t think a cam is made which will fit all your requirements. Most 'mirror cams' are not very good anyway- they usually have poor video quality or issues with mounting straps, or are too heavy to stay positioned properly. If you can manage without an interior cam and can use a regular dashcam there are several 2-channel cams which would give you front and rear video plus interior audio, but you'll need to route the rear cam cable somehow. The Viofo A 129 Duo is an excellent cam and value which could do that. The Mini 0906 is OK with a different form-factor and cheaper. The Street Guardian 9663 DC costs more but is top quality with great support.
Phil

Thanks SawMaster and also kamkar1 for your replies. I take your point about "mirror cams," it makes sense that it might be hard to cram good-quality electronics into the thin form-factor of a traditional rear view mirror, and I hadn't thought of the potential weight problem. I did look at some of the rear-view-mirror offerings from "Master Tailgaters" (for example, https://www.amazon.com/gp/B07CPKHG8R ), these look like well-built quality units but none of them (so far) have a 3-stream full-time recording ability.

I will keep reading & learning here until I figure out a compromise solution that works for my vehicle. Thanks again.
 
No problem Martha, remember to ask a lot of questions along the way, there are no stupid questions in here as we recognise the dashcam market are a minefield to navigate.

If you look past the mirror style cameras ( which seen to get little attention and have little users in here ) then most dashcams have a very little screen, so not really anything that lend itself to navigating / reversing by.
And most dashcams also don't have the guide & distance markings you would like in a reversing camera, plus a reversing camera are normally installed down low on the car, or up high and facing down, a dashcam are best put on top of windows and are aimed pretty much horizontal.
So say you have a sedan and a camera in your window, then the boot of your car could well hide something small.
If you have a vehicle with a pretty flat rear end like a SUV or something like that, then you can sort of do okay with a camera back there as they are after all pretty wide angle.
On my own little 5 door hatchback with a flat rear end i just loose the first 2 feet or so directly behind my car, but there are no lines in the footage and the screen on my dashcam are small and not easy to read with my tired old eyes.

I would like a reversing camera myself as i am getting more and more stiff in the wrong places, so turning to look are slowly becoming a issue for me, but i don't like more screens in my car so i need to get a new head unit ( 7" screen ) cuz then i would be able to do reversing on that screen, and most head units actually support a reversing camera.
It is just the touch screen in my head unit have died, and i have lost the part of the wire harness i would need for attaching a reversing camera.

Your car stereo might even support a reversing camera, that's just not fitted to your car as it is a extra thing.
 
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No problem Martha, remember to ask a lot of questions along the way, there are no stupid questions in here as we recognise the dashcam market are a minefield to navigate.

If you look past the mirror style cameras ( which seen to get little attention and have little users in here ) then most dashcams have a very little screen, so not really anything that lend itself to navigating / reversing by.
...Your car stereo might even support a reversing camera, that's just not fitted to your car as it is a extra thing.

Thanks for your thoughts. In my case I don't care much about a live reversing camera or automatic guide-lines on the screen. I am much more interested in capturing & documenting possible accidents, police-traffic-stops, or incidents of vandalism while the vehicle is parked.
 
I have CCTV on my car at home, with a PTZ camera on my 2 floor balcony door aimed at my car where it is parked in the back yard, have gotten my car vandalized 3 times after i moved here.
I am also about to try parking guard in dashcams with the next batch of test cameras from street guardian, but as i have CCTV at home and all my shopping are done in minutes i will just use 30 - 60 min timed parking mode in general, and i can always increase that time frame if its a rare occasion where i will be parking for longer in a place.

Many cameras today use time lapse recording while parked, this mean you can set it to record 1 - 10 FPS ( frames Per Second ) time lapse when it is parked, this so to minimize heat generation that can be a issue using parking guard on a summer day parked outside in the sun.
Other still use some form of buffered parking guard with full 30 FPS footage, in which case you will get a few seconds of footage save from before the triggering event too.
And some cameras just have a trigger but no buffer so you will just have from the trigger event and onwards, maybe even a second delay after the trigger to allow the camera to wake up and start to save recordings ( this are not optimal )

I am testing and have 8 cameras in my car now, so nothing get buy me.
4 cameras on windscreen filming forward one of them "zoom" letting me see things further away with its 12 mm lens, 1 camera on mirror stalk filming cabin, 1 camera on either side, and finally one camera on the rear window.
But i am testing / addicted so that's why i have the large number of cameras.
For the "evil" cop camera you would ideally have a camera in the windscreen that can be turned to the side, my cabin camera only have the very back of the front door windows in the footage, but before a cop get that far he will be on tape several other places.

Cabin camera B1W

Side cameras

Evil cop camera ( on passenger sunshade )

Busted by Danish cops marked and unmarked.

CCTV on my car at home.
 
I've got side and rear cams in my workvan and one consideration which is important is mounting- you don't want to be banging into the rear cam loading and unloading cargo or snagging the rear cam cable :rolleyes: And a camper shell cover doesn't have a lot of mounting surface but it should be enough for most cams. Most 2-channel cams use a small rear unit but cable length to it could be an issue- think about and measure the rear cam cable routing path before buying. I'm thinking that a single B1W would be ideal there and it's easier to run a 12V wire for powering it than to run a cam cable. Then you could use whatever you prefer in front.

Phil
 
I've got side and rear cams in my workvan and one consideration which is important is mounting- you don't want to be banging into the rear cam loading and unloading cargo or snagging the rear cam cable :rolleyes: And a camper shell cover doesn't have a lot of mounting surface but it should be enough for most cams. Most 2-channel cams use a small rear unit but cable length to it could be an issue- think about and measure the rear cam cable routing path before buying. I'm thinking that a single B1W would be ideal there and it's easier to run a 12V wire for powering it than to run a cam cable. Then you could use whatever you prefer in front.

Phil

I am very concerned with smash/grab theft of the camera equipment itself. Where I live it is not uncommon for junkies to smash car windows to take anything of value. Are there good-quality (minimum 1080P / 30FPS) cameras which have strong magnetic mounts? I see the slide-on / slide-off mounts & those could work fine but I'd prefer a pull-on / pull-off magnetic mount for even easier handling. (I don't mean directly attaching to the car's metal body --- I mean a 2-part magnetic mount, where you screw or glue a magnetic base post onto the vehicle, and then the camera has a magnet which attaches to the base post.)
 
I am very concerned with smash/grab theft of the camera equipment itself. Where I live it is not uncommon for junkies to smash car windows to take anything of value. Are there good-quality (minimum 1080P / 30FPS) cameras which have strong magnetic mounts? I see the slide-on / slide-off mounts & those could work fine but I'd prefer a pull-on / pull-off magnetic mount for even easier handling. (I don't mean directly attaching to the car's metal body --- I mean a 2-part magnetic mount, where you screw or glue a magnetic base post onto the vehicle, and then the camera has a magnet which attaches to the base post.)

I think there's one but what most folks do is make their own by sticking magnets on the cam mount. Glue or otherwise stick corresponding magnets or metal where you want to mount the cam. Probably best for your situation as cam mounts aren't meant to have the cam detached/reattached all the time. They wear and loosen when you do that.

Phil
 
You can sync up to 4 Garmin dashcams. So front, cabin, rear. Unfortunately, they are battery, not capacitor. But if heat is not a problem would work for you. Garmin Dashcams are small (don't get mini) so not obvious.
 
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