Dashcams!

Soldato
Joined
18 Feb 2003
Posts
8,612
Location
Brighton/West Wicklow
Hi chaps - What's the current best bang for buck dashcam? I have a G1W - good enough for the most part but quite a big footprint.

Something a bit smaller would be great as it's for my wife's car. I'd like it to be fit and forget, with a hardwire kit.

Looking ideally below 60 quid - I don't want it tempting thieves too much.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Sep 2005
Posts
6,493
Location
Grundisburgh
Are there any significant advantages to the Thinkware F800 over the F770. Would an F550 not do as good a job for dashcam recording?

Looking for front and rear but not interested in all the lane/speed/camera warnings.
Andi.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2006
Posts
2,575
Location
Loughborough
Anyone got a reccomendation for a usb camera to plug into a headunit with dashcam features? Seems to be plug and play so was hoping someone knew a good one for £10-20 off rainforest site or something
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,700
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
Right folks, after a recommendation for a front & rear setup (combined or two separates), 1080 (or better), auto start/stop, parking record (so hardwired), also GPS if possible (or a socket so i can add one later). Not overly fussed about the lane change, speed camera warnings, etc

I've got a budget of around £200, or am i being overly optimistic with my spec?
 
Permabanned
Joined
9 Jun 2009
Posts
11,904
Location
London, McLaren or Radical
I've just done something similar... Nextbase 512GW arrived today because that's the one that I think has the best video quality looking at samples. It's not huge but it's bigger than I would prefer... but I am happy to sacrifice that for the good image.

For the rear I am just going to stick with a more basic cam... I'm not bothered about high res for rear.

I thought it was better to go separate front/rear because the combo cams don't quite live up to the image quality standards I was looking for... even if some are acceptable... compared to the nextbase they look a bit crummy.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,700
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
Was just thinking the same thing about dual camera stuff, i can get two Thinkware F50 for £150, or a Thinkware F100 dual setup for £169, and the pair of F50 will give me a better rear image for £20 less. :confused:
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,700
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
Ended up getting an F100 front & rear setup. Wondering if anybody knows if the rear camera is digital or analogue?

It's a 4 pin jack which could either be usb over a fancy plug OR 12v and signal for video image. If it's analogue i could steal the feed to rear and run it as a reversing camera input. (new wagon is huge, rear visibility isn't brilliant.)
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,700
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
Fitted the F100 today, need to find something to take away the shine on the top of the dash now, half the screen is a fuzzy blur when the sun comes out.

Also, the parking record isn't enabled by default, the camera writes an app to the sd card, which you need to run from your pc in order to change the settings. One of the downsides of getting a non-wifi unit.
 
Permabanned
Joined
9 Jun 2009
Posts
11,904
Location
London, McLaren or Radical
512GW image quality isn't quite as good as I was expecting.

Settings appear correct... not sure if I have a duff camera maybe. Getting lots of glow around lights and in sample videos I was able to read oncoming traffic numberplates at town speed... which is the reason I got it as I noticed with many others you can't do that. But with this one, it's not really much better than the Transcend unit I have :/
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
7,700
Location
"Sunny" Plymouth
512GW image quality isn't quite as good as I was expecting.

Settings appear correct... not sure if I have a duff camera maybe. Getting lots of glow around lights and in sample videos I was able to read oncoming traffic numberplates at town speed... which is the reason I got it as I noticed with many others you can't do that. But with this one, it's not really much better than the Transcend unit I have :/

I had a similar problem playing back my first recordings, turns out my laptop has a crap screen, played it on my tv and it was fine.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Feb 2003
Posts
7,171
Location
Shropshire
I was following a Peugeot home yesterday around roads close to my house and noticed on the back he had a sticker telling me he had a camera in his car. Fair enough I thought if that's his thing but he was going slower and slower getting down to around 30mph on a road with a 60 limit. So we come around a right hand bend onto a long straight bit and I indicate, pull out and go around. I was not going quickly, maybe 50mph as I got alongside and he decides to cross the white line and shut the door on me. I get past and his lights flash, he waves the international sign of the ****** out the window and I am bemused.

I was drinking a costa, I was not close to him before overtaking, I was not going quickly at all yet this mercenary obviously has an agenda. He was the sort of person you might imagined on a quick glance. Think greasy fat bloke living with his mum, needs a wash, good eyes to see through he thickness of glasses he is waring but these are the sort of people who also use cameras. If he posted up his video it would be fascinating as you would see him dangerous driving but he won't of course. People, I really don't like them near me.

Perhaps he was related to the driver of this one...

2ASnpYEm.jpg

People like that should have a flashing light on the roof so we know to stay well clear.
 
Back
Top Bottom