New to Dash Cam Market

iYara

iYara

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Hello Dash Cam Experts,

I recently purchased myself a dash cam for my 2015 Mazda 3; however, I am really upset with the outcome of this specific camera. The first upsetting factor is that the cam froze on me after an hour on the road. The second thing that I find annoying with this cam is that I have to manually turn it on and off, because it can't recognize when the car is on or off. When I put the "in motion" mode on it records for 9 seconds and just stops after those 9 seconds. Another factor that I dislike is that the camera doesn't react to me pressing a button. I have to repeatedly hit a button for it to process. What did I do wrong? This camera had such good reviews and seems so widely praised. It feels cheap too. I don't know if this camera would withstand any accident at all!

Honestly, I am just on the verge of sending this camera back and looking for another one.

What is your suggestion for a beginner?
My budget is around $150 - $70. I don't want it to be too cheap nor do I want to go all out on my "first" buy.

Some conditions to consider:
- I live in Southern California, so it will get hot in the summer time. Are suction mounts really good for that? What battery is the best?
- I want the camera to recognize when the ignition is on and when it's off. I don't want to forgot to turn off the camera when I got to work and have it eat my car battery.
- Is there a camera that is good with glare? It is very bright in California and I don't want the glare to be an issue when it comes to recording an accident.
- Quality should be really good. I don't foresee buying a camera for $150 to end up with a 240p camera.

Thank you very much for your input and answer. Please let me know what your suggestions are. I want my dash cam to be helpful and not a burden on me.
 
Welcome iYara.
1080p resolution is all we are about in here, anything less simply dont cut it.
The G1W you have should not be a awful camera, but it is found in a multitude of brands, and some most likely cut corners with hardware to increase profit.
Sadly reviews on Amazon and simmilar sites can not be trusted, but the G1W should record on power on, on mine i seem to recall its allso set to that in the menus.
G1W sould allso overwrite old files when the card get full, but maybe thats allso turned off in the menu on yours. if you have been using a small SD card it will fill up in 1 hour, allso there is some times sold fake SD cards on sites like Amazon and ebay, and these will fail quick.

REC with key on and OFF with key off is default on all daschams, you will have to make do with the glare that will be there driving into a low setting sun.
BUT its not somthing that you should worry too much about, most dashcams handle it pretty good, and things close to you where the dashcams are allso best due to the wide angle lenses they use will be captured fine.
But if you drive into a low sun and there is a UFO or whatever passing by up high, you will proberly not get a good capture of that, but thats no problem as dashcams deal best with things on the road level or a little above.

Pier28 which i think now operate out of Nevada is a good dealer, if you shop with him you will not be left hanging in any way.

ATM the very best dashcams seem to be based on the Sony IMX322 CMOS, these are allso in the panorama and Street Guardian products pier28 sell.
 
Last edited:
kamkar1 said:
But if you drive into a low sun and there is a UFO or whatever passing by up high, you will proberly not get a good capture of that, but thats no problem as dashcams deal best with things on the road level or a little above.
Click to expand...
:)
 
A minus for all dashcams, sky will overexpose driving into a setting sun, small chips on windscreen and dirt will not make that better.
And the wide angle lenses make all things appear to be further avay than they really are.
Even with the optimal 2/3 below horizont and 1/3 above in view, a low sun in the 1/3 sky in the footage will make camera work hard,
FF to 2:40 in this video and you will see me turn left into a fairly low sun flanked by litttle white clouds, this make sky pretty flooded with light, but on the road things are still good.
PS. dashbord reflections in windscreen can be rendered mute with a CPL filter, but that in turn will allso block a little light at night.

Allso take note that in this footage i use a alternative frame with more sky in frame, somthing like a 60/40 split whish is not optimal with most dashcams.

Allso know this is footage raped by youtube compression, and it dont seem to handle my 8X speed footage good, will have to try other mixing software for next trip.

But this is problems all dashcams have to fight with.
 
Last edited:
iYara said:
- I live in Southern California, so it will get hot in the summer time. Are suction mounts really good for that? What battery is the best?
- I want the camera to recognize when the ignition is on and when it's off. I don't want to forgot to turn off the camera when I got to work and have it eat my car battery.
- Is there a camera that is good with glare? It is very bright in California and I don't want the glare to be an issue when it comes to recording an accident.
- Quality should be really good. I don't foresee buying a camera for $150 to end up with a 240p camera.

Thank you very much for your input and answer. Please let me know what your suggestions are. I want my dash cam to be helpful and not a burden on me.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the club

-You should for sure stick with supercapacitor based products to beat the heat.
-if your cigarette lighter adapter is energized 24/7, you'll need to re-wire it to a circuit that's switched on/off with the car, or invest in a supplemental hard wire power kit with battery discharge prevention built in.
-many products have a CPL option, but while glare is reduced, motion blur is increased trying to read license plates of fast moving cars. (trade off) Also night becomes darker
-your budget is almost right if you're ready to pay for a premium/quality product. $175-$200 is closer where the highest quality options begin.
 
Pier28 said:
...
-You should for sure stick with supercapacitor based products to beat the heat....
Click to expand...
+1 on this.

Just this past week the G1W-x (battery version) in my wife's car started to display erratic behavior. Temperatures were in the mid to high 80's and her car is parked in the sun all day facing south so the camera was in direct sunlight. It would start recording and somewhere between 1 and 10 minutes it would create a corrupt file and stop recording until the next ignition cycle. It wouldn't do it every time but enough to prod me into taking one of the SG9665GCs from my car and put it in hers.
 
kamkar1 said:
Welcome iYara.
1080p resolution is all we are about in here, anything less simply dont cut it.
The G1W you have should not be a awful camera, but it is found in a multitude of brands, and some most likely cut corners with hardware to increase profit.
Sadly reviews on Amazon and simmilar sites can not be trusted, but the G1W should record on power on, on mine i seem to recall its allso set to that in the menus.
G1W sould allso overwrite old files when the card get full, but maybe thats allso turned off in the menu on yours. if you have been using a small SD card it will fill up in 1 hour, allso there is some times sold fake SD cards on sites like Amazon and ebay, and these will fail quick.

REC with key on and OFF with key off is default on all daschams, you will have to make do with the glare that will be there driving into a low setting sun.
BUT its not somthing that you should worry too much about, most dashcams handle it pretty good, and things close to you where the dashcams are allso best due to the wide angle lenses they use will be captured fine.
But if you drive into a low sun and there is a UFO or whatever passing by up high, you will proberly not get a good capture of that, but thats no problem as dashcams deal best with things on the road level or a little above.

Pier28 which i think now operate out of Nevada is a good dealer, if you shop with him you will not be left hanging in any way.

ATM the very best dashcams seem to be based on the Sony IMX322 CMOS, these are allso in the panorama and Street Guardian products pier28 sell.
Click to expand...

Hi kamkar1. Thank you for your input. I tried all options on the G1W and it still does not recognize when the car turns off and on. I think Pier28 found the problem.... My cigarette lighter adapter is energized 24/7. So the camera can't tell when it turns on or off. When I go through the USB port it thinks it is a computer (which it sort of is), so I can't record with the USB port. It only lets me select "mass storage". I will see what Pier28 has for me. I really want to set this straight once and not have to worry about it turning on/off all the time.

And the glare is just so annoying because in the middle of my front window is the vent, so throughout the whole video I have that vent in the middle of my screen. :(

Pier28 said:
Welcome to the club

-You should for sure stick with supercapacitor based products to beat the heat.
-if your cigarette lighter adapter is energized 24/7, you'll need to re-wire it to a circuit that's switched on/off with the car, or invest in a supplemental hard wire power kit with battery discharge prevention built in.
-many products have a CPL option, but while glare is reduced, motion blur is increased trying to read license plates of fast moving cars. (trade off) Also night becomes darker
-your budget is almost right if you're ready to pay for a premium/quality product. $175-$200 is closer where the highest quality options begin.
Click to expand...

Hi Pier28. Thank you very much for figuring out what my problem is with the cigarette lighter adapter. What would be your suggestion for me? I think I can live with the glare to have less motion blur. I can afford the range you named; however, I just don't know if it will be worth it for a first time user. Will I be using it to the full potential? Probably not. You guys are the experts. Is it worth it? I also just found out that I need a longer cord for the power. I want to hide all the cabling.

Edit: I know my USB port switches on/off, but the G1W thinks it is a computer and wants to store the videos. I can't record through the USB port with the G1W
 
iYara said:
Hi Pier28. Thank you very much for figuring out what my problem is with the cigarette lighter adapter. What would be your suggestion for me? I think I can live with the glare to have less motion blur. I can afford the range you named; however, I just don't know if it will be worth it for a first time user. Will I be using it to the full potential? Probably not. You guys are the experts. Is it worth it? I also just found out that I need a longer cord for the power. I want to hide all the cabling.

Edit: I know my USB port switches on/off, but the G1W thinks it is a computer and wants to store the videos. I can't record through the USB port with the G1W
Click to expand...

For the SG9665GC we offer the CELL POWER - CPUSB01 hard wire kit that has a mini-USB power cord:
https://shop.pier28.com/index.php/accessories/cpusb01-miniusb-bdp-hard-wire-kit.html

For any dashcam product in general we suggest the PANOBDP:
https://shop.pier28.com/index.php/accessories/panobdp-hard-wire-kit.html
 
Yeah at times the reflections can be bad, it have even begun to bother me.
I think my first thing will be trying one of those dashmats on top of my dashbord, the CPL filter is allso good but it should be taken off for night drives, and at night is where all dashcams struggle the most so adding a CPL filter there will just make the job harder for the dashcam.
 
Check out everyone's profile Dash Cam description below their avatar. You'll see everyone that replied above is currently using the SG9665GC (that should be a strong hint) ;-)
I sent you a PM ith more details
 
SG9665GC is rightfully a popular camera at the moment, it have good footage, and the maker and sellers of it seem to be hell-bent on offering optimal service and support.

I cant wait to see what they come up with next, and i have allready made room in my windscreen is anticipation of that :)
 
kamkar1 said:
Yeah at times the reflections can be bad, it have even begun to bother me.
I think my first thing will be trying one of those dashmats on top of my dashbord, the CPL filter is allso good but it should be taken off for night drives, and at night is where all dashcams struggle the most so adding a CPL filter there will just make the job harder for the dashcam.
Click to expand...

I would've thought there is something to block that! I will be looking into the SG9665GC right now. How do you think it is?
 
iYara said:
Edit: I know my USB port switches on/off, but the G1W thinks it is a computer and wants to store the videos. I can't record through the USB port with the G1W
Click to expand...
You can get a Portapow fast charger adapter. It works by disabling the data lines in the USB port. The intent is to make your computer deliver more than the default 0.5 amps, but it will also make your camera see the USB as Power Only.
 
I am quite happy with my 9665GC, it have just replaced my Lukas camera, which now reside in my little sisters car.
 
ddnut said:
You can get a Portapow fast charger adapter. It works by disabling the data lines in the USB port. The intent is to make your computer deliver more than the default 0.5 amps, but it will also make your camera see the USB as Power Only.
Click to expand...

But will that be enough power to power the camera like the 9665GC?
 
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