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Glen Burgess

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I everyone. I have a large motor coach with a large front windshield. I can either place the cam up high (about 9'-0") or at the dash (6'-0"). I seldom drive at night. I almost always drive from 9 AM until 3 PM. I may use it in my Jeep at some point. I would like a wide coverage area. I think to begin with something less than $100 would be appropriate. I would appreciate any suggestions that might fit the bill. After looking at the comparison tool and the various articles it appears a number of cams meet the criteria. So which ones do you folks think might work for me?
Glen Burgess
 
A little more information is necessary before anyone can make a recommendation. Do you need/want:

1. GPS
2. Screen
3. Small form factor
4. Battery vs capacitor (caps are more heat tolerant)
5. Parking mode with pre-buffering

Oh, Welcome to the forum...
 
As to mounting height, you can mount high and aim downward to capture the front of your "bus" which might restrict distance somewhat. I prefer to see both the front of my vehicle and overhead traffic signals I have stopped at. Seeing the signals ends the "he said/she sad" crap intersection crashes almost always bring. Be careful with low or on-dash mounts in direct sun and hot weather- that can overheat the cam and may tend to 'washout' from glare. Be ready to 'give' a little in your price range if you see a feature you really want, $100 cams are kind of basic and won't have pre-buffering or GPS until you spend a little more. Alternately a few really good cams can be had for a little less without those features if you can live without them.

Phil
 
SawMaster said:
As to mounting height, you can mount high and aim downward to capture the front of your "bus" which might restrict distance somewhat. I prefer to see both the front of my vehicle and overhead traffic signals I have stopped at. Seeing the signals ends the "he said/she sad" crap intersection crashes almost always bring. Be careful with low or on-dash mounts in direct sun and hot weather- that can overheat the cam and may tend to 'washout' from glare. Be ready to 'give' a little in your price range if you see a feature you really want, $100 cams are kind of basic and won't have pre-buffering or GPS until you spend a little more. Alternately a few really good cams can be had for a little less without those features if you can live without them.

After looking at your comments I think the following are important. If I am missing something important let me know. 99% of the ravel is during the day. Most often on interstate highways.
1. GPS - I have an onboard GPS for travel and directions - Do I need this?
2. Screen - I would like to have something since I do not really expect to take it out of the motorcoach very often. I would like to have a method to hook into my laptop however.
3. Small form factor - It will be hung above my head on the windshield - size may not be very important.
4. Battery vs capacitor (caps are more heat tolerant) - If the motorcoach gets hot so will I and that will not last long.
5. Parking mode with pre-buffering - not needed since I have motorcoach security systems.

Thanks Glen Burgess
Click to expand...
 
GPS in dashcams are not for directions, it is for loggin your speed and if wanted later to track your path on a map in some dedicated playback software like registrator viewer. http://www.registratorviewer.com/index_en.html

A screen is good for initial lining up of the dashcam, and doing the settings, but its not really needed if you are good at eyeballing stuff.
You will want to have a 50/50 split of sky above horizon and road below, or maybe 60% road and 40 % sky, and then offcourse you will need it to point strait forward.
Some dashcams like the SG9665GC and others using a similar design you can only angle lens up and down, and then take care gluing the mount onto the windscreen so its level with the horizon.
Even if you are pretty drunk while installing i bet you will still get it right overall, and so you just might need a little tweaking on the followring trips after you have viewed your footage.
In my footage i have just about the lower 4 inches of my A-pillar in the footage so i use that to line up if needed.
Moving footage from camera to computer is best done by just taking out the SD card and put it in a card reader, or the adapter ( micro SD to USB ) that most likely come with the dashcam.

The optimal location for dashcams are up high and in the middle of the windscreen, but some new cars have a lot of stuff there so it might be out of the question.

If you plan on leaving the cam on the windscreen better go for a capasitor based camera, its not a price factor but it do narrow down the choices a little.

And Welcome to the Forum Glen, you have found the right place to be for dashcam information.
 
@kamkar1 pretty much answered what I was going to say so I'll just elaborate a bit about the capacitor. Motor coach also gets hot when you're not in it but the camera may be - this is when the battery could possibly fail.
 
kamkar1 said:
Even if you are pretty drunk while installing i bet you will still get it right overall, and so you just might need a little tweaking on the followring trips after you have viewed your footage.
Click to expand...
In addition to great service and support, another positive aspect of a SG9665GC :)
 
Yeah since you drive a "MC" the location in the middle of the windscreen might be taken up as the windscreen is split.
But fear not in such a large vehicle you can more or less place it where you want, same goes for a car too offcourse ( unless the law stipulate somthing else for where you can put stuff on your windscreen )

If you put a dashcam all the way to the left of your window you might loose a little out right in the footage, or you can have the cam turned a little towards the right.
But you will most likely not miss anything significant as most / all dashcams have a pretty large field of view.
Allso if you twist the cam a little towards the right in that situation, if you plan to review your trips later in the year, the footage will sort of come towards the cam slightly off angle, and that might take the joy out of reviewing your drive thru that nice landscape.

Since you are going to use the dashcam in a motorcoach i would go for somthing that can get the lens right up to the horisontal windscreen, this to minimise dashbord reflections in the recordings

If you want discreete the best i can think off is the SGZC12RC, it have a camera unit on a wire the size of a AA battery, and the small headunit with screen you can put just about anywhere you like as the camera is on a USB wire so it can be extended if need be.

SGZC12RC do not have a GPS, but thats no big miss, if need be in a courtcase speed can be determined by time traveled between 2 objekts you know the distance between.
 
Glen Burgess said:
...I have a large motor coach with a large front windshield. I can either place the cam up high (about 9'-0") or at the dash (6'-0")....
Click to expand...
Just make sure you mount whatever camera you get within the area swept by the wipers or it will be useless in the rain.
 
Yes, thats good advise right there :)
 
Thanks for the information.
I assume all of the units have the option to be attached by a vacuum cup on the windshield.
Yes, using the SD card does make more sense.
I think it will be up high and used with the 12 volt plug routed down the center of the windshield on the support.
 
Glen Burgess said:
...
I assume all of the units have the option to be attached by a vacuum cup on the windshield...
Click to expand...
A great number of them do. Others (A118, SG9665xx, etc.) mount flush to the glass. Yet others utilize some form of 'mounting arm' that attaches with adhesive.
 
The "Street Guardian" cams are very good units but well over $100. Lacking some features but within the OP's range of budget is the "A118C"/"B40C" capacitor model (essentially the same cams w/different names). They review well here but I haven't tried them. I also like the "G1Wc" capacitor unit which I have, however there seems to be a trend toward quality problems with these; if you get a good one you'll like it. The "Mini 0805" is well-regarded and can take GPS input. The "G1Wh", "A118"/"B40" are also battery versions and similar. The Mobius is a good screen-less cam, very discreet and modifiable for those so inclined.

With any cam, buy from a US retailer for much better service should you need it- you don't want to pay $40 for shipping to China with a 5 week wait if you need to use the warranty. Check out the forums here for these models, read the reviews and threads regarding any problems so you'll know what to expect. You'll need a microSD card for most of these cams; just any cars will not do so get only the recommended ones and note that for cards 64GB and larger you may have some tweaking to do before they will work.

Enjoy the highway my friend, there's more interesting things to see in the USA than you can take in but you can at least catch the highlights. And don't fear the road less traveled; the real USA and it's people are rarely found along the interstate highways.

Phil
 
SawMaster said:
Enjoy the highway my friend, there's more interesting things to see in the USA than you can take in but you can at least catch the highlights. And don't fear the road less traveled; the real USA and it's people are rarely found along the interstate highways.

Phil
Click to expand...
For sure :)
 
SawMaster said:
...Lacking some features but within the OP's range of budget is the "A118C"/"B40C" capacitor model (essentially the same cams w/different names). They review well here but I haven't tried them....
Click to expand...
I have 2 in my wife's car (front and rear) and they've been solid since the day I installed them. Night video is not as good as the SG9665GC. Got them from SpyTec.

SawMaster said:
...And don't fear the road less traveled; the real USA and it's people are rarely found along the interstate highways.
Click to expand...
My favorite strategy when traveling and not on a schedule is to use the SatNav but select 'shortest route' vs 'fastest route'. See interesting stuff and meet interesting people.
 
If you want the ability to easy move it to the jeep, maybe a mobius?

Don't worry about being in the exact center of the windhield, a few inches either side doesn't matter much.

The A118C is another good choice, I think they would sell a second mounting plate you could put in your Jeep. It also has a wider angle lens than the standard mobius.

Here's some video from each, the Mobius standard lens is the first segment, A118-c the second.


The Mobius I've had in a tractor trailer for about a year and a half, the a118-C a few months.
 
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