What is good enough?

Jedd

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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?
 
This is very good question. My first camera was very wide looking and i liked it very much because it covered everything with very human-like vision, it showed everything what i see without turning head. I still believe that this is good basic security footage, it shows everything in front of you and gives information who did when and what.
This is the basic information that you need for legal reasons maybe, but when you have this first camera in some point you start to think that maybe you want more, and usually you suddenly notice that you have bought a better camera, then second, then third...
It would be nice to have one wide camera hidden in car, and second HD camera just for fun.

This was my first camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pcg-xiQnLw
 
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I believe that someone should buy the best camera they can afford and feel comfortable with. At the very least they should get a camera that does 720P as i have mentioned before I can understand that people are not completely sure about everything when it comes to all the choices, knock offs, research, and prices.

I was in a bit of a situation myself first starting out hadn't done any research and ended up with a knock off.
Did a little research and grabbed a DVR-027 so that i have something of better quality and more reliable.
Now that i have something in my car I am looking to upgrade to a device that does 1080P

Had i known then what i know now i would of gone with at least something like a GS1000 to have 1080P and GPS, but back then i was not %100 sure of things and wanted a camera sooner then later in case something did happen, but now at this point I am trying to hold off and see how the GS8000 holds up and keeping an eye on what the ITB series of units has to offer.

If you know what you want i would get the best camera you can afford that has what you are looking for if you are still unsure and need to take time and do research i would at the very least grab a DVR-027 so you have something keeping an eye out for you while you research.

I guess in strict answer to your question you could say that something that at least does 720P like a DVR-027 is enough, but you will never know when you might need the GPS feature or the little bit extra quality other cameras provide.
 
I have always believed in spending my hard earned money on quality swag. I have seen some of the cheapest made dash cams on this forum fall apart when taken out of the box. I have read rants from many peopl who have only used their cam for a week and then stop working. There is an old saying tht goes like this. You get what you paid for. Just save up and get a nice cam like the Blackvue 500 or FineVu 500. I have both and have been excellent cams.
 
I agree with spending as much as you can on a cam. I was in the same situation you were in when I got my first cam and after a week or so I wanted *more* out of it. Better pic quality, GPS, etc. so instead of spending money on just one camera that was so/so i now spent money a great camera in addition to my original purchase. Honestly, the difference between features isn't really that much money. If you can squeeze a few more bucks into your budget I would go for the extra features. My feelings are, if you are questioning if you really need them, that means you really do want them. Maybe if you let us know what your budget is we can help you decide on a camera that has all or at least SOME of the features you would like to have.
 
It is hard to say what camera is good enough. I have my preferences but if I was a truck driver or taxi driver, I probably wouldn't care about the size of the camera or if it was discrete.

Also it depends what you want the camera to do. If you just want to be able to prove you were not at fault in an accident or have video proof if someone tries to pull an insurance scam, perhaps a cheap $20 SD camera is good enough.

If you want a more discrete camera that is reliable, you will have to pay more.
If you want to capture license plates in case of a hit and run (a more rare occurrence but still a possibility), you will have to pay more.
If you want to have parking mode to capture any damage to your car when parked or vandalism, you will have to pay more.

Then you have other features like GPS, G-sensor, WiFi, etc. which appeal to some people. If your teenage son or daughter drives the car, GPS might be a very important requirement!

At the end of the day, a camera is much better than no camera. Beyond that, it just depends on the person and their needs.
 
In comparison with insurance premiums I pay anything in under $300 range seems to be an ok price.
So far I have my eyes on HDVR-150 as the most discrete solution with the best image quality.
I wish it was more expensive, but auto-dimming with better lens, bigger sensor and second rear cam.. but alas such thing does not exist.
 
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