Please provide pros and cons before I choose: Blacksys CH-200 Street Guardian SG9663DC BlackVue DR750S Thinkware F800

[Resapex]

I'll be a first time dash cam owner, and it's looking like it will come down to these four. Having dual cams wasn't a requirement of mine, but it seemed like the ones I was interested had them.

1. How easy or difficult are installs? In general, I am not good with assembling so I am sure I will not be good at installing, so I am nearly 100% thinking that I'll have to pay for professional installation unless someone thinks perhaps a Youtube tutorial video would suffice.
2. Piggybacking off of #1, how expensive are the quality install kits, or is that included? Would I need to buy any accessories?
3. CarCamCentral said one of these drains your car battery fast when using parking mode. I wouldn't have ever thought this could conceivably be an issue. That kind of thing is something that I'd definitely want to know BEFORE I make the purchase.
4. I hear so much about build quality. What does that means in terms of dash cams?
5. Cloud isn't something that I will be using. I understand that some of these offer it. It's a feature that I understand I'll have, but won't use.

 

[jokiin]

if you're not confident with the install it's worth paying someone to do it for you, particularly if you own a late model vehicle with pillar and side curtain airbags, it's important not to interfere with the operation of any of the safety systems of the vehicle

 

[alexsoll]

Street Guardian SG9663DC vs BlackVue DR750S

https://car-dvr.info/forum/index.php?topic=1172.0

 

[Resapex]

Still looking for feedback on these.

 

[Betamax_man]

Still looking for feedback on these.

I have had two BlackVue DR750S-2CH dash cams, one in my wife's car and one in mine, and found them to be very expensive for what they are. Both of them have failed, one after 5 months and the other after 10 months. Because of that, I cannot recommend them.

 

[catchthecarp]

I bought a Thinkware F800 Pro dual channel + hard wire kit in April and installed it myself in a 2017 Mustang.

I've never owned or installed a dash cam before nor any other type of electronics in a car. I found the installation easy, the camera wires were easy to hide in the headliner, front and rear. Hard wiring the electrical connections was easy, too. For my model of car there was tons of info to be found online on installation and which fuses to tap. How difficult the install will be for you probably depends on the make and model of your car.

I had to buy a hard wire kit and some fuse taps for the install, both were relatively inexpensive. My camera came with a plastic trim tool which I used. Nothing else was needed for the installation.
A fuse puller would have came in handy. The first batch of micro 2 fuse taps I bought from Amazon did not work, they would not seat in the fuse slots in my car. The fuse taps I picked up from a local auto parts store worked perfectly.

I use motion detection for parking mode. I discovered running the camera off the car battery in parking mode would last 3 - 4 hours before the built in battery protection kicked in, set at 12.2 V. I park in high traffic lot so the cameras are recording frequently. I had to spring for Cellink Neo and another Thinkware hard wire kit for it. Now I can get 24 - 30 hours of parking mode. If I had to do it over I would have gotten the Neo at the same time I installed the camera, I would not have needed the first hard wire kit I bought for the camera or the extra time to install it. The built in battery protection is a nice feature. I love the Neo, it recharges fast.

My first dash camera so I can't comment on the build quality or how it compares to other makes and models of cameras. Nothing has fallen off of it nor has it malfunctioned, the camera has performed flawlessly. But it would take at least a year of use to form an opinion on build quality.

I have a few gripes about this camera. First it should have come with a PLC lens to eliminate glare and reflections, another add on I had to buy. Staying connected to the camera using wi-fi or hotspot from a phone is wiggy, it usually drops before I've finished.

I just bought the Street Guardian for my wife's car, haven't installed it yet but I'm looking forward to comparing it with the F800.

 

[thehank]

I went with the F800 Pro for a few reasons.
F800P has best parking recording options. If you're recording while parked, who knows how long that could be. F800P takes a 128GB card BUT can actually take 256GB. Parking mode has time-lapse, motion detection, and event-incident. And can alert you based on what happened.

Another HUGE thing to consider is to not drain your battery. The power magic pro is so pricey but there’s a setting on the F8P app that does the same thing to prevent battery drain. Save you $200-300 right there. I don’t know why this isn’t a HUGE factor in everyone’s DC purchase – this is a game changer!

I had an issue hardwiring mostly because what was actually tested successfully, didn’t work. Come to find out I needed to use the exact side of add-a-fuse taps. Highly recommend, and check the size of your fuses you’re going to use. I thought of wiring directly to the fuse, but they ended up wiggling off and coming loose. Not ideal. Get the add-a-fuses on Amazon. Get a small bag of them for under $10.

The hardwire “kit” was pretty much made for a semi (way too long) and you have to hide it behind something. I just doubled up. Seems there should be more options out there, but I get why they made it so long.

Overall, I have my sounds turned off, no lights on, and so far recorded two close calls, the middle finger, and an almost huge accident. Glad I didn’t get a cam with a screen and YES I installed it on the dots on the windshield so it’s up higher and no problems with it.

Use something like Rain-X or it’s big brother – CarPro Hydro2 spray and rinse to get the clearest view from the glass. Also, google coupon codes for BlackBoxMyCar website, there are a few out there.

 

[jokiin]

Another HUGE thing to consider is to not drain your battery. The power magic pro is so pricey but there’s a setting on the F8P app that does the same thing to prevent battery drain. Save you $200-300 right there. I don’t know why this isn’t a HUGE factor in everyone’s DC purchase – this is a game changer!

power magic pro is a $40 part, Thinkware has the function built in once you buy their $30 cable, $10 saving might not be that game changing, it does have better parking mode than the Blackvue though