Purchasing my first dashcam

[Patersmith]

I've mulled over buying a dash cam for a few years now for various reasons. Just had a hit and run happen to me and the police were absolutely no help whatsoever (Illinois). Since I seem to have to do most of the investigation myself I have decided to go ahead and buy my first dash cam and hopefully never have this happen again.

My details:
South Central Illinois U.S.A. (-5F to 100F average outside temp.)
2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid
I drive 1hr 10min to work
10 hr work day
1hr 10 min back
Iphone 7s plus
My home has a wireless router that may reach the car when parked.

I've done a bit of initial research and feel ready to place a pre-order in for a BlackVue DR900s but figured I would post here before I do. This will hopefully have the resolution and frame rate to capture license plates of oncoming traffic at night on unlit roads with my speed of around 60 mph? Is there a lens filter that will help if not? The reason I ask is that several times a month I will have oncoming traffic creep over the center line into my lane on curves (~55 mph). Don't know what this is about, but it is always a different driver, looking at the road, and has started about a year ago. I'm afraid one of these times one will make contact. Two guys at work this year have had this happen and luckily only lost a mirror. Police were also of no help with them. My hit and run was in a parking lot from where a young girl with platinum blond curly hair in a grey Dodge truck crumpled my rear bumper and trunk lid. Officer said she probably drove off because she didn't know she hit my car..

I realize this camera isn't really released yet so I'm not going to ask if it should be what I should buy. I would just like to ask if those of you who have experience with dash cameras think I'm too optimistic for a camera capturing license plates at night in my situation? I would opt for the largest memory card supported and I would like to set for a time-lapse parking mode. Is an extra battery really necessary with my travel (charging) time? Will it drain my battery over the weekend unless I unplug it? Car does get hot in the summer time and I would be more consistent in using it if I could leave it in all the time so I'm hoping this handles heat. GPS would be nice for logging speed.

So what do ya think? I've tried to be as descriptive as I can and would like to hear some input from the community before I send off my deposit.

Thanks in advance.

 

[krole]

Keep in mind, the 12v battery on a hybrid is smaller than a typical car so the dashcam won't record as long as on a regular car until it reaches the voltage threshold. No idea if it will record long enough for you but something to keep in mind.

 

[jokiin]

This will hopefully have the resolution and frame rate to capture license plates of oncoming traffic at night on unlit roads with my speed of around 60 mph?

no chance, no current dashcam is going to do this, I think we're a long way from this even being a possibility

 

[kamkar]

I figure since the Blues brothers tore thru Illinois the police there have been somewhat dazzled.

Judging by the feel i get of what you would like to do the "BV" camera you have your eye on will probably be the best option.

If you are willing to forgo the "smarts" then you have a even wider selection to choose from, personally the smarts some brands / models are starting to show do little for me.
But i also have my hands on my memory cards "often", so i am totally up to date with what my cameras are doing, and smarts or not it is still recommended to inspect your memory card now and then to make sure your drive sessions correlate with what you can recall and dont start/end in weird locations.
And if you go with a 128 Gb memory card, and with the level of driving you do, then you should be able to recall all your drives on the memory card, and with your level of driving i would recommend a monthly inspection that on a PC with the card in a card reader should take 10 minutes.
If you are on a fruit company computer at home, then be aware having a memory card in contact with one of those will often need a in camera format after that.

While some claim maintenance / format free operation, i would not trust that one bit, at least not when 10 minutes of "work" now and then can set me more at ease.

Also as i understand it the BV cameras can be memory card fussy, so be sure to read up on what is good and what is not if you go memory card shopping on your own.

As jokiin say above, that level of plate detection are far out in the future for consumer grade cameras, and actually with the cameras of today it dont even take total darkness before plate capture become a real problem for any camera out there.