What are great dual (front and rear facing), or quad (all four sides), camera set ups?

[Arie1]

Hi everyone, this is a cross post from Reddit, here is the link. https://www.reddit.com/r/Dashcam/comments/3nwrca/what_is_a_great_front_and_rear_facing_dash_cam/

Thought that maybe here I could get much better answers to finding a great dual or qua camera setup for my vehicle. So far Im eyeing the K1S, but I hear reviews about how it cuts off at 3 hours and over heats. Which I want to deal with neither of those.

"I'm in the market for a dashcam that faces both front and rear. Id like to go over what im looking for in a dashcam.

-Needs to be discreet, no exposed wires, not be easily identified, it needs to be hidden from police, others, and thieves at any time. I dont want anyone to know they are being recorded. I just don't want to risk being taken advantage of and have the recorder taken. I could go on with this but I hope most of you understand.

-Needs to be able to record constantly or have a mode where if it feels movement it begins to record.

-The batteries and recorder are not to be put in direct sunlight. More like, under the car seat, in the trunk, in the glove box. Dont need it to be damaged from heat or have the battery explode.

-Can be hooked up through cigarette lighter, extra fuse in panel, or directly to the battery or alternate battery.

-Can have on the spot replay with an LCD

-Can use GPS to track speed, but also be able to be removed. Say I was speeding and get into an accident, it cant be flipped over to being my fault for speeding.

-be user friendly. I don't want to be setting this thing up aside from what needs to be done. Especially with tricky buttons. Extra settings may be nice, but I want something that gets right to business out of the box.

-Relatively cost effective. I know that a 150$ cam may be better then a 20$ one. And that 20$ cam is better then nothing. But nothing can never beat the cost of repairs to a damaged vehicle. One setup I had been looking at awhile ago, was 400$ it came with 4 cams, one for each side of the vehicle and came with a 250 or 500gb hard drive that mounted under the seat or in the glove box. Man I wish I would have bought that before 2 accidents I've paid out of pocket for.

-Work well at night, in the daytime or direct sunlight, rain, snow, all the seasons and weather.

Ill add things and update the post as thoughts come and my own searching comes up with options to purchase. Thank you all in advance for your help. Here is the Techmoan link-

Edit 1- Here are some dual and quad cam systems I have come across so far

-quad cam http://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...603344.html?spm=a2700.7724857.29.1.pKhG3w&s=p

I was finding several quad cams on there. I presume they are called "Bus cam systems". To allow 4 or more cameras. Ill look more into the +4 camera option if thats possible.

-dual cam Planet Halo PH4 http://www.planethalo.com/products/dash-cam/ph4/ Nice quality but not as discreet as I want. Seems that thieves could still see it and take it.

-dual cam Blackvue I came across multiple versions of this camera system. One is the main camera on the windshield, bulky. And the second rear camera being slim but still not discreet.

I also came across this older posthttps://www.reddit.com/r/Dashcam/comments/2z6ske/is_there_a_multiple_camera_dashcam_system/ and the only helpful info was to use a dual 2 channel camera system at the same time. But I find that to be over kill when I just want everything tied into one system."

In one of my comments to this post I reply to the bad reviews of the K1S on Amazon, this was my comment.

"Went to look at those reviews, one that stuck out was saying the unit over heats and they tried to use a heat sink on it to dissipate the heat but it didnt work. And that the recorder cuts out after 3 hours of recording and right at the 3 hour mark had their vehicle broke into and didnt get anything recorded. I dont think 200$ is necessary for a dash cam. I just need something simple and easy and utmost of all, reliable. I cant have something overheat or stop recording for some reason. I may be better off with 4 separate units just to make sure everything isnt overheating.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/B00UVR7VV8 the link I was looking at."

So now Im not sure if the K1S is the best option for me. I may be better off with getting 2 great single cameras and using them simultaneously. Or even 4 if I need to. I just want to make sure that if anything happens, all 4 corners of my car can see whats going on.

 

[abarth]

many of us will advocate for the use of 2X single channel cams. at the moment, that's just the most reliable setup. dual channel systems are compromised when it comes to reliability and/or performance right now.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Welcome Arie1

 

[kamkar]

I think consensus is to stay avay from the K1S.
Allso think there is still bugs ( large or small ) with the dual systems on the marked right now.
In case you submit your footage as proof in a dispute, then know that your speed can be dertermined from the footage without there beeing GPS in your camera. ( you just have to mesure how much time it took you to travel between 2 points in the footage )
My advise will be dont speed.

Dont fall for dual or quad channel systems that might be 1080P on each channel, but then have a low bitrate to make it work.
Not that a high bitrate = good footage in any case, some chipsets can make good footage at fairly low bitrates, and yet other chipsets will have to use allmost 2 x the bitrate to make the same IQ.

Myself i use 3 single cameras in my car, the SG9665GC in the front, the little mobius in the rear, and then i have a innovv C3 in the left side.
I dont use any form of parking mode as i dont feel like i need it, and besides the 3 cameras i have is not really suited for it as none of them prebuffer footage, so in case of a event they only provide footage from when the trigger whent off ( motion or G-sensor )

Optimal cameras right now for optimal parking guard is the Panorama brand and a fjew of the Street Guardian cameras, and there is proberly a fjew other too.

FIrst of all you want a camera you can count on actually recording when you need it, second you need that camera to provide good footage, or at least as good footage as current tech allow for. ( and current tech start to struggle as soon as the light drop from bright sunshine, so dont expect to find a camera that will capture licenceplates of cars in any situation and any time of day )

Allso be advised that in most cases of a traffic dispute, what you actually need to proof can be provided by 1 front camera, and all that camera need to capture is that you dident do anything wrong, so what even whent down must be the fault of the other part.

I have tried a 4 channel analog cctv setup, and 4 cameras was cool, but the usefullness of that setup was lower than my one front camera.

O and welcome to the forum Arie1

 

[Arie1]

Thank you all for the warm welcomes. I did more searching for multiple camera systems and really didn't come up with anything. I guess just having 2 or more single cameras will be a better way to go. Kamkar1, I'll look into the cameras you've mentioned you have. Now I'm slightly confused, is park mode and the g sensor trigger the same? Or is park mode running continuously and g sensor only turns on when it feels movement? One issue I've had is people tapping my car and taking off, my last 2 recent ones were passenger fender and passenger quarter. 1 front facing may not have seen those as I'm sure it was done in a parking lot. They left large scuff marks and slight denting, definitely enough to be brought to a mobile dent guy or body shop.

 

[kamkar]

I dont really know how these cams i have work with the G-sensor, i only used G-sensor for 2 days on my first lukas dashcam, after that i have allways disabled it.

The Innovv C3 have some issues so its not somthing i can recomend, it fire off a frame once in a while that have a magenta hue to it.
I still use it as it was free cuz innovv was so kind to send me one to beat on, and i have / am doing that, but sadly i have not been able to figure out the magenta flash problem.

The mobius is aging a little, but for its prize / and the footage it record its still a worthwhile camera, its ultimates forces is its small size and its stability.
You can even extend the wire the camera module is on ( to around 5-6 inches i think it is ) this leave the visible part even smaller, but you still cant hide the main body too good if you plan on looking at the SD card once in a while.

And it is a good idea to inspect your recording media once in a while, and do a full format of the card, about once every 1 - 2 weeks will be fine i think.
Just see if time stamps on footage seem to be in line with your driving lately, and maybe try to play a file or 2 to make sure you dont have corrupted files.
I normally play the first and last file of each recording session, and i dont play the whole 3 minute file, just make sure the file can launch on the windows player i mostly use to playback footage.

A pretty common thing to do to get coverage when parked at the mall or some other place for a moderate time period is to use a USB powerbank to power the camera / cameras while parked, and then just let the camera record all the time to miss 0.0 milliseconds of "action"
I would do the same if i feel like i needed it one day, and then just put the USB power bank over the sun visor of my car.
This route offcourse need you to see what have been going on when returning to your car, or you can review X houres of footage when you get home.


Offcourse if you need parking guard on a daily basis, the best is to go for a permanent install with a discharge protector so you dont drain the car battery.

I dont like motion detect cuz i think they create too many false recordings, there just have to be a lttle movement in front of camera and it start to record for a set period or keep on going if movement is still there.

So when i get around to actually use parking guard ( on a new hopefulle dual camera down the line ) i will just use G-sensor ( they are allmighty sensetive )

I think some today just enable G-sensor and it then get triggered all the time while driving, so camera record all the time, and when parked it start up if your car is nudged a little )

The street guardian i have in the front dont prebuffer, but if you intend to record all the time when parked, then its a okay camera to use, footage is as good as it get and factory and seller support is 2 to none
Just be advised if you record daily and all the time, say while you are working, you will put a strain on your battery, so if you only have a short drive to and from work it will be hard to keep your car battery topped up.
Offcourse beefing up your generator in the car will do wonders for that, but thats not a cheap route to go, might be cheaper to put a charger on the car at home in the garage to top up battery overnight.

If you feel like chatting, hit up pier28 ( Jon ) in Nevada, he run a tight ship and is a mighty nice and helpfull guy, and he will not try to cram any of the quality stuff he carry down your troat.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

The street guardian i have in the front dont prebuffer, but if you intend to record all the time when parked, then its a okay camera to use, footage is as good as it get and factory and seller support is 2 to none
Just be advised if you record daily and all the time, say while you are working, you will put a strain on your battery, so if you only have a short drive to and from work it will be hard to keep your car battery topped up.
Offcourse beefing up your generator in the car will do wonders for that, but thats not a cheap route to go, might be cheaper to put a charger on the car at home in the garage to top up battery overnight.

If you feel like chatting, hit up pier28 ( Jon ) in Nevada, he run a tight ship and is a mighty nice and helpfull guy, and he will not try to cram any of the quality stuff he carry down your troat.

^^^^^+1

 

[Dan Robinson]

I too have been interested in this type of setup, primarily to keep the DVR out of view and out of the sun. Four individual single-camera systems work just fine (which is what I'm currently running), but I'd like to use something that separates the cams from the DVRs. Right now all I can find in this class is the Lukas LK-7300G, which at $280 is a little pricey for a single camera - plus there is no monitor. The actual cameras in dashcams are tiny, so I'm surprised we don't see more of these available.

Ideally, I'd want something with a separate monitor or at least an RCA out where I can place a small monitor on the dash. I always like the assurance that the cameras are recording and that their orientation/framing of the picture is correct.

 

[Arie1]

I've still been looking and haven't found anything quite affordable yet. All the nice stuff is too expensive. Surely there are some better single lenses cameras that I can dual use. Would like to keep total price below 200$ for both.

 

[jokiin]

We have just launched

suggest posting the actual details in the new camera announcement section instead of dragging up old posts everywhere and posting the same stuff over and over, that will just get deleted for spamming

if you want to post a link to your eBay store you can start a thread in the UK vendors section, you are allowed to promote your product in that section, that's within the rules

 

[kamkar]

he sure spammed / promoted that one in here.

 

[MaxM]

Hi

Thank you for the suggestion which I will of course follow.

Please let me explain myself, I am not blindly sending the same entry in response to lots of entries on your website. I sent a hand full to people who had an obvious frustration of not being able to find a DashCam of their dreams because no one makes it until now.

Many DashCams are just the same specs reshaped with a go faster strip. We have tried to reinvent a DashCam from a professional drivers perspective and I honestly believe that the techies developing other products just think about techie bells and whistles and don’t talk to domestic and professional drivers.

I have worked in Logistics and have supplied logistic department, fleet operators, drivers for 20+ years and thought it about time that a professional drivers solution was launched.

Regards

Max