Record Interior Cabin - Download video and audio

[drglanton]

I am looking for a camera to record my children and my family during the operation of the vehicle. I want to be able to capture moments with them on video with some nice audio. It can either be a DUAL camera or a camera that can swivel to capture the interior. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations? Budget less than $200.

 

[DashcamDPR]

is the Nextbase Duo available in the states?

 

[SawMaster]

is the Nextbase Duo available in the states?

Not sure of that but I've heard several reports of problems with Nextbase cams so I'd be very careful before buying.

Phil

 

[drglanton]

Yes it is . . Thanks!

Not sure of that but I've heard several reports of problems with Nextbase cams so I'd be very careful before buying.

Phil

Do you have any recommendations?

 

[SawMaster]

Most of the non-wedge form factor cams can be turned toward the inside of your car which doesn't narrow down your choices much. If you're in a hot climate you'd want a capacitor powered cam to avoid battery problems, and there's also a range of video quality to consider. Your budget will allow you many choices too. No cam will do well inside the car at night though some are better than others.

If you're climate isn't too hot for their batteries, you might be better served with an action cam, most of which can double as a dashcam too. Those will generally have better video quality at the shorter ranges inside the car which I think will be important to you, although they do require more work to set up optimally. An added advantage of these is that you can slip them in your pocket for use outside of the car. The batteries in dashcams tend to be much smaller making those less viable for that.

So what part of the US are you in climate-wise? How important is low-light operation to you? Do you want the best video and audio you can get for your stated budget or would you be happy with less at a lower cost? And does the versatility of an action cam appeal more than a dashcam which pretty much stays mounted in the car? With those questions answered we can better point you in the right direction

Phil

 

[DashcamDPR]

Not sure of that but I've heard several reports of problems with Nextbase cams so I'd be very careful before buying.

Phil

To be fair I hear a lot of bad reviews, however, it's britains best selling brand, so relatively speaking it could be quite low

Yes it is . . Thanks!

Do you have any recommendations?

I don't know why I didn't mention earlier but my avatar is from my 3rd dashcam I use pointing inwards from the top corner of my windscreen, the image is cropped, you do see a lot more and if you have a main cam that is hardwired, or if you use a dual cig-lighter plug you can do as suggested and put one in the "usual" place, pointed inwards.

If you like I'll get a few little pics later of cam position on the windscreen v's the shot it gives, so you can see how much interior is captured

 

[drglanton]

Most of the non-wedge form factor cams can be turned toward the inside of your car which doesn't narrow down your choices much. If you're in a hot climate you'd want a capacitor powered cam to avoid battery problems, and there's also a range of video quality to consider. Your budget will allow you many choices too. No cam will do well inside the car at night though some are better than others.

If you're climate isn't too hot for their batteries, you might be better served with an action cam, most of which can double as a dashcam too. Those will generally have better video quality at the shorter ranges inside the car which I think will be important to you, although they do require more work to set up optimally. An added advantage of these is that you can slip them in your pocket for use outside of the car. The batteries in dashcams tend to be much smaller making those less viable for that.

So what part of the US are you in climate-wise? How important is low-light operation to you? Do you want the best video and audio you can get for your stated budget or would you be happy with less at a lower cost? And does the versatility of an action cam appeal more than a dashcam which pretty much stays mounted in the car? With those questions answered we can better point you in the right direction

Phil

Thanks for the feedback. I'm in Georgia spots really hot here. I would prefer a dual camera since I am purchasing one anyway. But a single camera will work just fine. Need great audio and video and easy to down load and continuous feed. However, please share a few recommendations.

 

[kamkar]

easy to down

Sound like you expect to find something with wifi ?

And i think people that have tried that approach to getting footage of the dashcam quickly turn into what the rest of us do, and that's take out the memory card and put it in a card reader to transfer the footage at full speed ( 80 MB/s on many cards ) to the computer.

I do myself have a few action cameras that allow for connection to my phone using wifi, but i never once contemplated using that to get footage off the camera or share it at once ( not a social media junkie )
Though i have 32 Gb + 128 Gb os memory in my phone, then i would not use that for camera footage, and i have a sneaky feeling it would also be slow to get the footage off the phone when i got home, or at least way slower than what the read speed are on my memory cards.
And it do annoy me that i have to turn off mobile data to use that camera/phone connection.

Experimenting i found out that a inward facing camera ( need to be up high and in the middle of windscreen ) make for okay captures of the inside of the car in the daytime, but kids can still hide behind the front seats that do block the view out back.
And as the sun start to fade the light levels inside the car will become problematic for the camera to make good captures.

What car do you have ?
If you place dashcam in the ideal place ( top windscreen and middle ) then even if it could swivel around the rear view mirror will be in the way.

Side camera ( a - pillar ) my big head block a lot.

Up high but turrned in a selfish manner, i still think this is the best location for a cabin camera, in this drive i think the little action / dash camera are mounted on the driver side sunshade.

This is better but the camera should have been mounted on the stalk of my rear view mirror instead.

And this is why you should not have the camera down low, as you can see people in the rear seat of my mini car would be gone behind the front seats.

 

[tabetha]

Thinkware X550 within your budget using ISP to increase night vision levels by up to 1000%, not 100%.
Dual cam 1080p for rear cam uses capacitor, loads more have a look on their site a good brand imo that's why I use their F770

 

[DashcamDPR]

My interior cam is a Mio 508 and unfortunately shows no pretty girls in these pics:

This is how it is by the mirror facing in

and this is what it shows (I'm in the garage hence bad light):


This is in the top corner where I always have it (I call it "confrontation cam"):

And this is what it shows:


I did try it lower down one day but it shows too much dash and nothing in the rear of the car