New to the site need suggestions

Kakali

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Im in the market to buy a dashcam to protect my asset. It is a 2013 hyundai sonata 2.0t limited. Less than 4 months in my possession. It is my daily driver. I go for the occasional 4 hour drive. It doesn't get too hot where I live (washington)

The dashcam needs to be:
  • Discreet
  • Easy to remove
  • Preferred high quality feeling
  • A screen to change settings if need be or video out to hook up to protable display
  • Parking monitor would be nice
  • Budget friendly as I am buying 2
It just needs to be able to clearly read license plates during the day and night. From say 4 car lengths behind if possible. It will be hardwired in. Have not thought of any kit to do it yet. Want to get the camera first.

If I think of anything else I will add it to the post.
 
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you might get some of those things, getting it all might prove difficult, either need to raise your budget or change your criteria
 
If its not too expensive I can raise the budget abit. Depending on what the compromise might be I could forgo some of them. Its not a set criteria just something to get going.
 
What about the mini 805 or even 806? They seem pretty good and not too expensive.

Or even https://dashcamtalk.com/koonlung-k1s/ it is 240$ but it seems good. Maybe one of the better dual ch. Cams
 
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Reading plates at night only happen if you drive really slow past a parked car, or get passed slowly by another car, or follow behind another car.
And even then your light and reflective plates can make it a no capture.

In general i recomend dont expect to capture any plates at night, this have nothing to do with quality of cameras, it is a technical limitation of current technology used in cameras.
Even with the best night performer you cant be assured in any better plate capture compared to a good mid range camera, and if you are driving out in the country on a unlit road you can forget all about it.

The 4 car lengths you mention is dooable in bright daylight, but it is still on the limit of what cameras can do, this is to do with the wide angle lenses used on dashcams, it make things appear further avay then they are.
on those grey days with no sun capturing plates even with the best cameras start to become a issue, but a wide range of things like speed and angle have a saying in this.

The screen is not really useable as they are all pretty small, at least on the most discreete cameras, so the only use for that is the innitial setup, once that is done you dont really need it again.
If i was to have any on site playback needs i would just pop memory card in my phone, but i dont expect to ever need that.

If i was you i would just get 1 of the mobius cameras to try out and see what you can get off a dashcam, and it is a most exelent rear camera, i have used it myself as a rear camera but now have mine in the left side of my car.
You need to setup the mobius connected to the computer with a USB cable, once that is done you just have to aim it by eye, this is allso easy if you have some aiming skills, dont mind if its a fjew degrees off, the camera have a wide angle lens so you will still capture all you should ever need.

Dont go for a Ks1, they have a range of issues.

PS. remember what a dashcam do best and do so no matter of lighting conditions is documenting you dont do anything stupid, so what ever go down must be blamed on the other guy.
 
Reading plates at night only happen if you drive really slow past a parked car, or get passed slowly by another car, or follow behind another car.
And even then your light and reflective plates can make it a no capture.

In general i recomend dont expect to capture any plates at night, this have nothing to do with quality of cameras, it is a technical limitation of current technology used in cameras.
Even with the best night performer you cant be assured in any better plate capture compared to a good mid range camera, and if you are driving out in the country on a unlit road you can forget all about it.

The 4 car lengths you mention is dooable in bright daylight, but it is still on the limit of what cameras can do, this is to do with the wide angle lenses used on dashcams, it make things appear further avay then they are.
on those grey days with no sun capturing plates even with the best cameras start to become a issue, but a wide range of things like speed and angle have a saying in this.

The screen is not really useable as they are all pretty small, at least on the most discreete cameras, so the only use for that is the innitial setup, once that is done you dont really need it again.
If i was to have any on site playback needs i would just pop memory card in my phone, but i dont expect to ever need that.

If i was you i would just get 1 of the mobius cameras to try out and see what you can get off a dashcam, and it is a most exelent rear camera, i have used it myself as a rear camera but now have mine in the left side of my car.
You need to setup the mobius connected to the computer with a USB cable, once that is done you just have to aim it by eye, this is allso easy if you have some aiming skills, dont mind if its a fjew degrees off, the camera have a wide angle lens so you will still capture all you should ever need.

Dont go for a Ks1, they have a range of issues.

PS. remember what a dashcam do best and do so no matter of lighting conditions is documenting you dont do anything stupid, so what ever go down must be blamed on the other guy.

Ok so go for a mobius over the mini 805 or mini 806?

Thanks for the heads up on the k1s. As for us8ng the phone to view files sadly my note 5 does not have an external mem card slot.
 
...phone to view files sadly my note 5 does not have an external mem card slot.
It has a USB port does it not? A relatively cheap adapter and you're able with minimal hassle.
 
Mobius is a well proven littel camera with good video, not the outright best night performance, but far from poor night performance.

I dont have enuff knowlege to tell about the 0805 and 0806 cameras, i think they both perform allright too at night, but ther if they last long and you can be sure they do what they supposed to do i am not sure.

I think they are both battery cameras so not optimal for hot climate or parking duties with constant charge, the mobius allso dont have good prebuffered parking guard, but i would just power mine off a USB power bank if i wanted to record while parked, and then i would just allways record and not use g-sensor or motion to trigger recordings.

In regard to parking guard, if you use motion, all movement wil trigger a recording, so if you are parked is a place with a lot going on ( cars and ppl passing by ) then motion will trigger all the time and you might as well just record all the time ( only good thing is motion or G-sensor triggered events will be locked so camera cant delete then )
The minus to that is if you have a lot of locked files on the card then there is less room for allways recording files.

Say you have a 32 Gb card in the camera, and you had the car parked for 3-4 houres while shopping, if the camera have been triggered a lot while parked you might only have a fjew 100 MB spave left on the card for allways recordings.
This mean on your drive home after minutes your camera will start to owerwrite the oldest allways files as it cant delete any of the old event files, so if you capture somthing intresting just after leaving the mall it will be long gone after the 1 hour drive home.

Only way to delete event files is via the camera menu ( if it have a screen ) or with the SD card in the computer, then you can delete all you wish or just format the card all together.

Lets see what some of the other guys have to say.

PS. the mobius is allso a battery camera, but you can buy a optional capasitor kit for it to replace the lipo battery, with capasitors in it the mobius become allmost indestructable.
Its just 2 small phillips head screws to take the mobius apart, and changing battery for capasitors in it have tutorials on youtube, its a no problem 1 minute job for a person that know what a phillips head screwdriver is.

PPS both the 0806 and 0805 have subforums in here, maybe take a look in there to see if there is many complaints about them.
 
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