Which dashcam

[wood]

Hi

I am a total newbie to dashcams.

I am looking for my first dashcam after I had my first accident in 23 years of driving. I was hit side on, driver-side door after a car failed to turn into a junction.

Learned my lesson that the insurance company will now only accept Dashcam evidence, even the other driver fully admitting fault on audio I recorded on my phone was not accepted.

I have two cars a VW Golf (2019) and an Audi A4 (2016), I would like one main dashcam I could swap between cars. I would also prefer to hardwire, so it's neat and tidy and no messy power cables. I assume I would need to buy 2 x rear cameras and wire them in, but for the main front camera, I could move between cars.

I am looking for a front and rear camera, ideally, that would have covered me for a side impact. Would prefer 4k, and the option for parking capture when I am with car away from home.

I was looking at the Nextbase 622GW but was not sure how easy to switch between cars and also what the angle of view was.

Do you have recommendations? I am based in South East London / North Kent - so if there is a good shop i could go to then perfect.

Many thanks

 

[Panzer Platform]

Welcome to the club.
Shop specifications first.
Minimum Requirements 2023;
1.) STARVIS 2 Image Sensor
2.) HDR
STARVIS 2 without HDR is “almost” useless at night (Thinkware U3000).

I’ve seen posts on this forum from users requesting recommendations for side dash cams (left & right).
Because they were involved in an incident as you describe, and their front & rear dash cam failed to capture the impact from the side.
You may want to consider covering four POV’s, (front, rear, left, right).
Or at least three POV’s, (front, rear, rear interior looking forward).
The rear interior looking forward will provide coverage out left & right side windows.

Here is an example of all five POV’s in action;

Here are screenshots of the five POV’s;

 

[Nigel]

I am looking for a front and rear camera, ideally, that would have covered me for a side impact. Would prefer 4k, and the option for parking capture when I am with car away from home.

I'll suggest a Viofo A229 Pro, seems to match all your requirements, is easily dismounted, and spare Viofo mounts are easily available at Viofo.com. Might need to order the mounts from China, but that is not a problem. A 2 channel Viofo A139 is another possibility if it matches you car better.

No 2 channel dashcam will give good coverage at the sides, and you don't want the front view too wide because then you can't read license plates, but it will show that you were driving sensibly and had right of way at the time of the impact, in which case the insurance company will normally accept it no problem. The 4K cameras normally have wider fields of view than lesser resolutions, but the front view is still a front view. Installing 4 channels is generally not worth the effort, 1 front view gives pretty good evidence in most cases, having a rear is nice so that you can see what happened behind, but normally there is enough evidence of a rear impact on the front camera to show that it wasn't your fault, as long as you are recording the audio,

I don't know of any other brands where spare mounts are easily available, although you may be able to get them through customer support on some brands.

 

[kamkar]

Welcome to the forum wood.

Panzer platform AKA Cousin Itt

Cousin Itt - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I dont see any 2 channel system as easy to move around between 2 vehicles, at least then i feel you would have to leave the rear camera + its wire in one car, and get a extra set of those for the other car.
IMO it would be better to just get a 1 channel system for each car, that one camera will log everything you do, and if you are driving cool according to the law, what ever happen off camera can not be your fault.

You dont have to record a car hitting you to prove that happened, all you need to prove is its not your fault, the dents and wrecked cars will prove there was contact.

 

[Nigel]

I would also prefer to hardwire, so it's neat and tidy and no messy power cables.

Make sure you get the right hardwire kit for the dashcam, otherwise you may have problems activating parking mode.

Learned my lesson that the insurance company will now only accept Dashcam evidence, even the other driver fully admitting fault on audio I recorded on my phone was not accepted.

I'm not sure much has changed, it is simply much easier and much cheaper in time to agree 50-50 with the other insurer. With good dashcam evidence so that there is no possibility of a legal battle, then it can go 100-0, but any doubt and it goes 50-50. If it goes to court then the evidence gets looked at properly, but insurance companies want to avoid using their own time and definitely avoid legal costs; you may have paid them, but they are not working for you!

 

[Panzer Platform]

No 2 channel dashcam will give good coverage at the sides

Correct.