Which Dashcam?

[Saracen999]

I did think about putting this in Automotive but I'd like as wide a response as possible, so I'll try here first.


The wife wants a decent quality dashcam, strong preference on both front and rear coverage. Quality needs to be decent, as do features, but we are looking for accident/incident recording, such as insurance claim usage, not to post videos of her hooning around .... because she doesn't.

The budget is decent, to get good quality but we aren't after Rolls Royce end-of-market.


Initial thoughrs are standard Nextbase stuff from Halfords, or possibly Blackvue (maybe DR590W-2CH Front & Rear) if, repeat if the extra cost is justified in terms of quality, functionality or durability, over Nextbase.

I suspects loads of you guys (and gals) have them, and am very interested in opinions and recommendations.


TIA.

[Hoonigan]

Blackvue are the ones to get at the moment, they're the sleekest in design and go up to 2160p 60Hz for excellent quality with very wide angles of recording. You also need to get a battery monitor for recording footage while you're parked up.

You might find that you're best served by finding a nearby installer, we have TheDashCamMan up here around the Glasgow area who gets excellent reviews.
However, I've installed dashcams into our Golf and our Aygo and both were easy to do and required only a multi meter, some plastic trim removal tools and a basic set of spanners and a screwdriver. Took maybe an hour on each car to route the cables and wire into the fuse box etc. That was only for front-facing though, for rear the story might well be much more difficult.

We have Nextbase but the unit itself is quite ugly and the footage could do with being a little higher resolution than the 720p but they're getting on for a few years old now. 1080p and 2160p were crazy expensive then.

[Mr_Jon]

I've had a Nextbase 212 lite for over two years. It'll be at the other end of the market from what you're looking for as it's a single camera budget job, but as a brand there's no complaints. Easy to configure, menu isn't chinese, does its job. Quality is fine in 1080p @ 30fps. Tried it in 720 but wouldn't recommend that. If there's options though, the moar fps the better as things happen pretty quickly on roads.

[Jonj1611]

I have a Thinkware camera in my car, my son has Nextbase, Nextbase hands down, far better quality and just works, as for which model, depends if you want GPS etc. GPS will allow you to playback your route and see exactly where you are on a map and what speed you are travelling etc. Depends on how you feel about that type of thing.

[Saracen999]

Thanks for comments so far.

Installation : Quite capable of doing it myself and have done loads of similar jobs from audio systens, to alarms, to custom instrument clusters. However, right now, it's too darn cold outside and I don't have a heated workshop, and even more importantly, I've beggared up my shoulder and after months of pain, and giving in and a month of osteopathy, I can just about open a jam jar. So ..... paid installation it is. Gotta find a good one though.

GPS? That's a bit more tricky. I'm not interesting in recording footage of where we've been on a map, and yes, there are privacy issues if that data is matched to Googlemaps or anything similar.

However .... I think a GPS capability, and sensors like accelerometers are essential for the "incident/accident" side of things, if it can show exactly where and when footage recorded occurred, speed of our vehicle at the time, etc. For instance, if you're caught in a "reverse crash" scam and can show you were doing 5mph, or indeed stationary, at time of impact and large damage/personal injury is alleged, then it negates the kind of damage that might have taken 40mph to do, according to assessing engineers, medics, etc.

That's really the intended use - as a sort of insurance policy against crash scams, and a method of recording exactly what happened in the even of a genuine accident.

Oh, and nice point about battery monitoring for operatioon while parked.

Thanks all.

[Jonj1611]

The Thinkware camera I have has a parked recording mode that has a battery monitor built in, you can set it to whatever voltage you want and if it gets below that then it shuts off, there are a lot of features on it however I cannot recommend it as a) the recording quality isn't very good and b) there is an annoying american voice you can't change. When she is saying your in a speed camera zone every few meters it drives you around the twist, to the point I have turned off speed camera alerts