New to buy DashCam

[Iyumon]

I’m very new to purchasing a dashcam for my 2017 Nissan Versa Note SV. I’ve moved to a not-quitely-safe area, and so I want to protect my car from damage and insurance loss. I most definitely want to have cameras for ALL views; front, rear, and sides. I understand the prices can be high and I want to get affordable ones if possible!

I was recommended to check Dash Cam Talk and after reading some of the forums, I feel that you will be very helpful to recommend some cameras. I would also like to know if it’s possible (and easy) for me to install on my own instead of needing to use professional help. I won’t mind having professional help, but if it’s better and safer for me to do it myself, I’d love advice from you!

While video quality and storage space are important, parking mode is most important to me because I’m most concerned when my car is parked during the night and can be vulnerable to anyone. I’m also curious about the battery issues. Which out of these – batteries, capacitors, battery banks, or power packs - would be best for me in saving power or easy to manage or not taking so much battery?

I’ve attached pictures of the windows in hopes that will help you narrow the picks. Hope they will help!

As I said, I’m new to this and I welcome all advice!

 

[niko]

How many hours per day you usually drive?

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum Iyuman.

As niko touch upon then if you want to run parking guard in your car, then you also have to drive some so the car can charge up what is lost while while it is not moving.
So if you just drive 1 hour a day and expect to be running parking guard the remaining 23 hours you are in for a surprise.

I drive a similar little 5 door hatchback, so in regard to camera placement i have good news.
1. The rear fixed glass behind your rear doors, that will be a good place to put side cameras, and dashcams with 2 little camera units on a wire will soon be for sale from a few brands, these are called Dual remote cameras by us hardcore guys.
2. Rear camera can probably be placed on that extra rear brake light ( dunno if it is on the door or what ) either way you would want your rear camera as close as possible to the glass so you don't have any of those heater elements in the footage.

For front and rear camera you can probably make do with a regular dual channel system, which mean the system are on the windscreen with the one camera, and then you have a remote camera on a wire from that.
It is a bit hard to see how that sensor array are on your windscreen, some have mounted a front camera off that array housing, others have offset the camera usually to the driver side but on the glass.
If you can have most of the camera on that shaded area it will be better for stealth, i have this in my little Suzuki so only the bottom part of the front camera peek out below the dotted area.

Personally i have not yet gotten around to try parking guard, but i will soon, but i will only use a short timed period of 1 hour or so as this will cover all my shopping and at home i have a CCTV camera on my 2 floor balcony door aimed at the car where it is parked.
And as a Dane on early retirement / pension, then i don't have the job part of life anymore.
This short use of parking guard will easy be handled by my cars little 45 Ah battery.

If possible i would recommend you also use a CCTV camera on the car at home, but if you don't park in the same spot or maybe in a garage that will of course not be possible.
Myself i park in the yard behind the apartment block here, and my IP camera with 7 X optical zoom mean my car down there 25 M away are framed nicely and give a chance of identifying a vandal near my car.

But permanent, and long time parking guard with dashcams can be problematic if you also don't drive all that much, though a car charge a car battery pretty fast, then this parasitic load on a lead acid battery are also hard on a regular car battery that don't do well with deep discharge, so stay above 12 Volts at least with cut off values.

You can install dedicated dashcam batteries or secondary isolated car batteries that can deal with deep discharge better, but no matter that you do you always have to recharge those batteries by driving ( not talking about putting a charger on your battery at home, cuz really thats just stupid and a nuisance )

Best not least low light performance you still get from 1080p cameras / sensors, like the Sony IMX 291 sensor.

Also be warned dashcams, pretty much all of them can play havoc with DAB radio reception ASO, so if you know where the wire and antenna are for that in your car, keeping clear of those with dashcam wires and cameras are a good idea.
Me personally i dont listen to radio, dont even have the little stick antenna on my roof anymore as i cant bother with taking it off when i wash my car.

 

[Iyumon]

How many hours per day you usually drive?

It depends on the day. I believe I usually drive two to three hours a day.

 

[niko]

It depends on the day. I believe I usually drive two to three hours a day.

This is enough to recharge good healthy (new?) car battery in order to last remaining 21-22h for 2 channel dashcam parking mode recording in mild weather like UK/Ireland. For countries with cold (freezing) weather in winter this figure may vary.

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