After reading dashcam forum and other blog posts I'm still not convinced if I should buy an expensive camera.
From the perspective of being in North America the main goal is to avoid points from car insurance or get accused by someone who backed up into you from red light. Also police is in general is honest, most of the judges I've seen use common sense and dash cams are not widely spread.
So, do I _really_ need hi-res 1080p and every license plate around me? It would be nice to have it for free, but I'm not so sure if I have to pay the extra. If you are in an accident you mostly need to show that you've been driving steady in your lane. You'll get the plates from the guy who wrecked you anyway.
Mostly you'd want to capture the hit and run situations, which means that 9/10 you are parked and plates will not get into the FOV.
Another problem - good dash cameras (and most bad ones) are screaming attention. You get pulled over for speeding and cop sees the camera (or decides it's a radar detector) and your chances to get away with a warning are plummeting down.
You are parked in shabby neighborhood and now every thief knows that at least he will get that gadget from your screen if he breaks into you car.
Which kinda leaves me with the options of tiny spy cams or mirror mounted cameras. They do not provide good night-time video, but maybe they are good enough?
From the perspective of being in North America the main goal is to avoid points from car insurance or get accused by someone who backed up into you from red light. Also police is in general is honest, most of the judges I've seen use common sense and dash cams are not widely spread.
So, do I _really_ need hi-res 1080p and every license plate around me? It would be nice to have it for free, but I'm not so sure if I have to pay the extra. If you are in an accident you mostly need to show that you've been driving steady in your lane. You'll get the plates from the guy who wrecked you anyway.
Mostly you'd want to capture the hit and run situations, which means that 9/10 you are parked and plates will not get into the FOV.
Another problem - good dash cameras (and most bad ones) are screaming attention. You get pulled over for speeding and cop sees the camera (or decides it's a radar detector) and your chances to get away with a warning are plummeting down.
You are parked in shabby neighborhood and now every thief knows that at least he will get that gadget from your screen if he breaks into you car.
Which kinda leaves me with the options of tiny spy cams or mirror mounted cameras. They do not provide good night-time video, but maybe they are good enough?