What are the things to look for in a DashCam? Plus a few questions of my own

[MANswers]

Hi all,

A very good day to all. I've just joined the forum, and have been reading around. The more i read the more i get confused. Well i consider myself an informed buyer and hence i research before i buy. And in this process without guidance i get trippy and loose balance with understanding basic things.
Guys i am based in Chicago, and the driving conditions like the other big cities are hectic here too.

What are the things to look for when buying a dashcam? This is something that i learnt while reading the forum, and if i have missed out something please point me out to them.

1. Good Video quality, this i understand most of the people ask for.
2. Minimal size, i read a lot of members talking about it, so that it camouflages into your car, and is least visible. Nobody wants a break in to their cars.
3. GPS. But i dont care of that, i have a good inbuilt gps in my car.
4. WIFI, this is something for sure i am looking for, i think one of my top 3 requirements, i have a question relating to it. Are there dashcams that have wifi feature that will upload the recorded video to a dropbox account or to a local PC when it connects to the home wifi network? The idea behind this, is that at the end of the day, at a specific schedule or when connected to home wifi the files automatically uploads the home computer?
5. Minimal wiring requirements?
6. Stabilization for video on bumpy roads or shaky ride.

What are the things i am missing, and it be great if someone can point me out to some great cams, budget is 250 dollars i can do plus / minus.

 

[Deleted member 46308]

Welcome MANswers

 

[MANswers]

Welcome MANswers

thank you sir, i like your signature quote

 

[GJHS]

What are the things to look for when buying a dashcam? This is something that i learnt while reading the forum, and if i have missed out something please point me out to them.

1. Good Video quality, this i understand most of the people ask for.
2. Minimal size, i read a lot of members talking about it, so that it camouflages into your car, and is least visible. Nobody wants a break in to their cars.
3. GPS. But i dont care of that, i have a good inbuilt gps in my car.
4. WIFI, this is something for sure i am looking for, i think one of my top 3 requirements, i have a question relating to it. Are there dashcams that have wifi feature that will upload the recorded video to a dropbox account or to a local PC when it connects to the home wifi network? The idea behind this, is that at the end of the day, at a specific schedule or when connected to home wifi the files automatically uploads the home computer?
5. Minimal wiring requirements?
6. Stabilization for video on bumpy roads or shaky ride.

What are the things i am missing, and it be great if someone can point me out to some great cams, budget is 250 dollars i can do plus / minus.

Minimal size in a big city, in my opinion, is important. I don't like dash cams that look like point and shoot cameras attached to your window. So once you settle on size, ask yourself how important a screen is. I don't think they are very important, after having both a camera with and without, except to aim the camera I hardly look at it. I never change my settings, so it's set and forget, it just does its job.

Second I would say is ask yourself how often you will remove the camera. Right now it's around 7 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill bringing it down to - 11, so way to cold too leave a battery cam in the car. So if you plan to leave the camera in the car in both very hot and cold environments buy a camera with capacitors rather than a camera with a battery. If you plan to use the camera outside the car, so prefer a battery like me, make sure it has a mount that allows for easy install and removal without getting loose from repeated use.

WiFi in a dash cam is not too common and basically used to allow live view, copying and viewing files on your phone or tablet. Being able to transfer to Dropbox or upload is definitely on a lot of people's wishlist just hasn't been implemented yet.

Money won't guarantee a good camera so don't let people convince that you need to spend a lot of money to get quality. Everyone's best camera is based on their needs. Mine, right now, is the $70 Mobius. After a year of service, it has done everything I asked of it and more without any issues. Places to start: A good small camera would be the Mobius for its reliabilty, quality, a huge support group and active development team. Another would be the A118/B40 which has a glass hugging design and good quality. Also check out @jokiin Street Guardian SG9665GM, which is an A118 that has been improved, has better hardware and a better warranty. If you want to go for high end with all the bells and whistles and the best parking mode, check out the Panorama series.

 

[MANswers]

Minimal size in a big city, in my opinion, is important. I don't like dash cams that look like point and shoot cameras attached to your window. So once you settle on size, ask yourself how important a screen is. I don't think they are very important, after having both a camera with and without, except to aim the camera I hardly look at it. I never change my settings, so it's set and forget, it just does its job.

Second I would say is ask yourself how often you will remove the camera. Right now it's around 7 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill bringing it down to - 11, so way to cold too leave a battery cam in the car. So if you plan to leave the camera in the car in both very hot and cold environments buy a camera with capacitors rather than a camera with a battery. If you plan to use the camera outside the car, so preference a battery like me, make sure it has a mount that allows for easy install and removal without getting loose from repeated use.

WiFi in a dash cam is not too common and basically used to allow live view, copying and viewing files on your phone or tablet. Being able to transfer to Dropbox or upload is definitely on a lot of people's wishlist just hasn't been implemented yet.

Money won't guarantee a good camera so don't let people convince that you need to spend a lot of money to get quality. Everyone's best camera is based on their needs. Mine, right now, is the $70 Mobius. After a year of service, it has done everything I asked of it and more without any issues. A good small camera would be the Mobius for its reliabilty, quality, a huge support group and active development team. Another would be the A118/B40 which has a glass hugging design and good quality. Also check out @jokiin Street Guardian SG9665GM, which is a A118 that has been improved, has better hardware and a better warranty. If you want to go for high end with all the bells and whistles and the best parking mode, check out the Panorama series.

Good sensible post.
thanks for replying. No i dont care for a LCD or any type of a screen on the cam, infact i prefer NOT to have it. I'd rather be having it behind the rear view mirror, out of sight or camouflaged.

Yes, set it and forget it is exactly what i am looking for. There are far more distracting things in life and specially while driving in Chicago (gets crazy here), and pulling it out and re-setting various settings on the camera is not the thing i want.

Its a love and hate relationship with chicago, yes but when it drops below -30 degree its jusst pure evil. Yea i read about capacitors, and yes thats what i really want, doesnt make sense the cam to be regulated solely through battery power. it liked powering out devices in your car without regulation.

Sir, i've been reading about, BlackVue 1080p Dual-Lens Wifi Dashcam - DR650GW-2CH
definately it has all the bells and whistels and is a definately on the enthusists segment, i do like the design, and has wifi, has two cams, can be powered off your car electronics from your fuse box using the POWER MAGIC PRO.
I've had something similar on my Viper Remote starter that i can also remote start off a cellphone (range no bar).
But here is the question, is there something similar for much cheaper, but if this the definative cam, i dont mind shelving 330 bucks. I'd rather prefer buy without no regrets.
Whats your take on this? Please guide, i think i am just like a monkey in the eden garden left alone with Eve who might drive me to commit the ultimate sin.

 

[jokiin]

3 the GPS in your car is to find out where you're going, the GPS in a Dashcam is to know where you've been

4 no wifi model has the features you're looking for, at best you can manually copy files to a phone or tablet and most often very slowly

6 stabilisation is not needed, solid mounting removes the need altogether, any electronic image stabilisation actually makes the result worse

 

[MANswers]

3 the GPS in your car is to find out where you're going, the GPS in a Dashcam is to know where you've been

4 no wifi model has the features you're looking for, at best you can manually copy files to a phone or tablet and most often very slowly

6 stabilisation is not needed, solid mounting removes the need altogether, any electronic image stabilisation actually makes the result worse

Thanks for your reply. That makes sense now.

Money won't guarantee a good camera so don't let people convince that you need to spend a lot of money to get quality. Everyone's best camera is based on their needs. Mine, right now, is the $70 Mobius. After a year of service, it has done everything I asked of it and more without any issues. Places to start: A good small camera would be the Mobius for its reliabilty, quality, a huge support group and active development team. Another would be the A118/B40 which has a glass hugging design and good quality. Also check out @jokiin Street Guardian SG9665GM, which is an A118 that has been improved, has better hardware and a better warranty. If you want to go for high end with all the bells and whistles and the best parking mode, check out the Panorama series.

thanks, i just read that last piece of some recommndations you made just now. I am gonna research about both the models, if you have to compare it to the blackvue, removing the price factor, whats your take on this model i earlier talked about, i was looking at a youtube review about this aswell.

 

[jokiin]

Blackvue is ok if you use the unofficial Russian firmware, without that the results aren't that great

 

[GJHS]

If your looking for a camera without a screen, you would be hard pressed to find better than the Mobius. Do your research and you will see why.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

4) if you get a DashCam that uses full size SD cards rather than microSD you can use an eyefi or other wifi enabled SD card for automatic Dropbox transfers once you are within range of your wifi. The Panorama S and G both use full size SD slots.

 

[GJHS]

4) if you get a DashCam that uses full size SD cards rather than microSD you can use an eyefi or other wifi enabled SD card for automatic Dropbox transfers once you are within range of your wifi. The Panorama S and G both use full size SD slots.

Has anyone used the EyeFi cards with success? It's something interesting, I'm just not sure I would want every recording of every day, that would be a lot of unnecessary data and would take a big hard drive. I'm guessin you would have to have your camera powered when the car is off to keep the files transferring?

I thought about trying it with Mobius and a card adapter
http://www.dx.com/p/sd-to-microsd-transflash-card-converter-module-27001#.VOIz8oY8KrU

 

[Street Guardian USA]

You would need to add the MotoPark PANOBDP hardwire kit and then turn on motion detection.

 

[MANswers]

4) if you get a DashCam that uses full size SD cards rather than microSD you can use an eyefi or other wifi enabled SD card for automatic Dropbox transfers once you are within range of your wifi. The Panorama S and G both use full size SD slots.

Thats a great idea, i was looking at panorama and the intial research suggests that people have been pointing at the form factor of the panorama dash cams looks like a point and shoot camera, its like attaching a gopro camera.

I am kinda surprised @GJHS that mobius does better quality in terms of PQ against Blackvue that charges an arm and leg?

 

[GJHS]

You would need to add the MotoPark PANOBDP hardwire kit and then turn on motion detection.

So Parking Mode or file transfer, not both? That doesn't seem as advantageous as it sounds then. I'm waiting for a dashcam that can transfer files on the go or when I lock it, not every file.

 

[MANswers]

Blackvue is ok if you use the unofficial Russian firmware, without that the results aren't that great

Thank you sir, although i am still debating and i am keeping my options open, can you please please point me to the russian unoffical version of the firmware thread? I'd love to read the responses the comparisions vs official and unoffical firmware PQ.

 

[jokiin]

Look for posts by @alexsoll he maintains the firmware and posts in the relevant threads

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Thats a great idea, i was looking at panorama and the intial research suggests that people have been pointing at the form factor of the panorama dash cams looks like a point and shoot camera, its like attaching a gopro camera.

It's the shape and profile of your rearview mirror.
Holds up to 512GB too

 

[GJHS]

Thats a great idea, i was looking at panorama and the intial research suggests that people have been pointing at the form factor of the panorama dash cams looks like a point and shoot camera, its like attaching a gopro camera.

I am kinda surprised @GJHS that mobius does better quality in terms of PQ against Blackvue that charges an arm and leg?

As I said money guarantees nothing. The developer of the Mobius started with quality and the development team has improved this camera way beyond any camera that I know of. Check out how many firmware upgrades and feature upgrades the Mobius has had in the last year and it hasn't stoppped yet. A few recent hardware upgrades were added as well, including a new lens option. With all the options from capacitors and remote lens options, you can truly maximize your $70 investment.

Have you seen the Mobius RC Group Thread? That one is huge! http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1904559

 

[MANswers]

@GJHS, thanks for pointing at the thread. do you think that the Mobius would look butt ugly in an expensive luxury car. Mine is with great interiors, the mobius gives me a feeling of an IKEA hack that bachelors get for their homes. Its like a make shift arrangement, that works but doesnt go with the setup/environment. Please correct me if i am wrong. It more looks like a DIY arrangement, no FCC rating or proper grade of wiring for fuse box and etc.

 

[Street Guardian USA]

The new SGZC12RC (AKA X1 remote camera) will be extra stealthy. Ships in 1 week. You'll need to run the wires down behind the A-pillar.