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Dash Cams

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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Anybody here use them? I'm thinking about getting them for all my vehicles and wondering what experience anyone has had with them.
 

pixie

Well-known member
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My car got creamed at Hannaford by a Suburban so big they didn't see it or care.... no joy from insurance, store cameras or cops. It was a dealer plate.Got the number.Couldn't be traced. So what's the point?
I did have a camera for a year. I guess it worked but the noises and bad directions made me wonder about what was on the card.

Signed,
Tech Challenged user.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
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I've often thought about them, haven't bought one.

Guy at the fencing club has one in his GMC truck, he swears by it, but while I say that I can't ever recall him getting into an accident so not sure why he loves it.

FWIW, he bought a cheap Chinese one for about $40. When I looked at one of the review sites it really liked a Street Guardian for almost 4x that price.

Have you seen this page? They also have a forum. ==> https://dashcamtalk.com


FWIW, I'm not sure that I would want video evidence of my speeding and getting into an accident, even if I was hit from behind and totally blameless. So that said, I'd want a camera that did NOT have a GPS interface that recorded speed. JMO
 

Doc

Bottoms Up
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I had one of the cheap $40 chinese made ones. It worked okay but I got tired of the wires from it to the cig lighter. I thought I'd use it when on longer highway trips but that has not happened. I sold the car I was using it in, so not even sure where I stashed it at the moment.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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Well, seems like I should just buy one to start off with and see if it works out. Everyone here has brought up some interesting pointers. Magellan makes one that is around 60 bucks or so and that would be a good price to see if it is something that will work out for me.

BTW, Mel, my wife also brought up the video evidence of speeding thing. Seems she knows I have a heavy foot.

Screen Shot 2018-03-10 at 6.13.31 PM.png
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
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See if it has an internal battery or capacitor. Batteries are inferior to capacitors when you have a hot car on a summer day with the windows rolled up and its parked in a lot in the sunshine.

See if you can turn off the microphone and GPS functions. No need to spy on yourself and incriminate yourself even if you are not to blame.

See if it has a parking mode with a G-shock sensor to record an accident in a parking lot while the vehicle is turned off.

Make sure it actually has decent video quality, especially at night. Many seem to have decent/good day video quality but substandard nighttime video.

Try to find a review by a review site, not an amazon reviewer, that gives objective information. There are good cheap cameras and bad cheap cameras. Not sure if the Magellan is good, bad or in between.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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See if it has an internal battery or capacitor. Batteries are inferior to capacitors when you have a hot car on a summer day with the windows rolled up and its parked in a lot in the sunshine.

It has an Internal Battery (2 lithium ion rechargables) to power parking mode if vehicle has no 12V when ignition is off.

See if you can turn off the microphone and GPS functions. No need to spy on yourself and incriminate yourself even if you are not to blame.

From owners manual that I downloaded: - GPS Stamp: Sets IF and how you want to record the GPS information. I will assume the word IF means I can turn it on and off.

See if it has a parking mode with a G-shock sensor to record an accident in a parking lot while the vehicle is turned off.

Yes, it does both G shock activated and a motion detector to pick up snooping people. If you have always on 12V at the power point (my truck only) you can set it to stay on all the time while parked. Not sure of the impact on the battery, but should not be too bad if the screen is turned off.

Make sure it actually has decent video quality, especially at night. Many seem to have decent/good day video quality but substandard nighttime video.

Youtube videos show 1080p video with decent night vision. More expensive one have UHD which is nice because it would make details like plate reading easier.


Try to find a review by a review site, not an amazon reviewer, that gives objective information. There are good cheap cameras and bad cheap cameras. Not sure if the Magellan is good, bad or in between.

Good advice. Only checked out Amazon so far and reviews are favorable. FWIW the unit is 10 bucks more with Prime.

I recognize the Magellan name as being right up there at one time with Garmin and TomTom for making standalone GPS. Not sure how that translates to the quality of this product. Prolly just a chinese unit they put their name on, who knows?
 
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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
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Good advice. Only checked out Amazon so far and reviews are favorable. ...


Problem with Amazon reviews is that they are generally garbage.

I buy item X, I like it, I give a good review. BUT that review is in absence of other competitive items so I don't actually know how it compares to other products. I can give a great review to something that is, in the real world, junk, simply because I like it, it is pretty, it has nice packaging, and shipment was quick ... none of which is relevant when image quality, durability, ability to stand up to high car temperatures, etc are needed.

FWIW, over at some of the dash cam review sites the name brand products are generally held in very low regard as the major product brands tend to have long lead times and are obsolete before they hit the market as technology changes faster than their marketing. Magellan (and I used to own own of their GPS units) is not considered to be a good brand of dash cam by any website I've found. Garmin has 1 unit that is somewhat well received, but generally their products are not well received either ... and I currently have 2 of their GPS units and think they are pretty darn good GPS units.

So, since Dash Cams are not GPS units you may want to look at brands you've never heard of, or read some review sites that rate brands on quality of support, image quality during day and night, etc.
 

Melensdad

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All that said, this thread has me thinking about Dash Cams again.

If I bought one, and if I bought a forward facing one, I'd probably look really hard at the Street Guardian. Seems like roughly $150 is better money spent ... ONCE. Rather than buying something and then later buying something to replace my mistake.

But some of the review sites list some budget cams that are far less $ too.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
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BTW, looks the Magellan is just a rebranded Chinese made "Ausdom A261" camera which is an average rated camera on Amazon, at 3.5 stars with 280 reviews.

It was introduced in 2016 but is pretty much out of date by today's standards.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
BTW, looks the Magellan is just a rebranded Chinese made "Ausdom A261" camera which is an average rated camera on Amazon, at 3.5 stars with 280 reviews.

It was introduced in 2016 but is pretty much out of date by today's standards.

Yep, further research and a visit to that forum you linked has pretty much confirmed what you have said.

One cam that seems to pop up as pretty good is the Falcon Zero.

Here is their web site. More money but looks to be much better.

https://www.falconzero.com/products/falcon-zero-f170-dash-cam-bundle-with-multi-vehicle-accessories
 

Melensdad

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The Falcon Zero is also an Ausdom camera, rebranded under the Falcon name. Sells for about $66 on Amazon
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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I leaning toward the Falcon Zero. Will talk to them on Monday and do more research in the meantime. I like the package with the kit for two cars. I will save money that way as I will put the extra kit in the sports car that only drive half the year.

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tiredretired

The Old Salt
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The Falcon Zero is also an Ausdom camera, rebranded under the Falcon name. Sells for about $66 on Amazon

Hmmm, OK. If you google best dash cams, their name comes up over and over. Interesting. OK, back to the drawing board. LOL.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
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Hmmm, OK. If you google best dash cams, their name comes up over and over. Interesting. OK, back to the drawing board. LOL.

OK, so I did a few google searches of best dash cams.

Found a few websites that had "best 10 or best 6 or best 12 or the best whatever" dash cams.

Went back to my link and did some cross reference work. One of the sites listed a "best of 2018" camera that was actually released in 2014 with only an average review rating :unsure:

I found another 2018 'best' camera that was from 2015 and again only had an average overall review on the page I linked above.

Yet another page's #2 choice for 2018 was a 2017 model, and they didn't mention the newer, and improved, 2018 model.

So as far as the "best" pages go, I simply don't trust them. Most get their money though advertising money when you click through on their links. The page I linked to is the best I've found ... not saying it is the best page, but I've not found one that is better, or that gives more complete reviews, or has as many users that tear these cameras apart, rebuild them, use and abuse them.

A couple years ago I spent days researching these things. Review after review. Not sure what the good value cameras are this year. But the Street Guardian is a brand I remember as being on the recommended list, its still on the list, most of the others have changed. Another familiar brand from then that is still around, with newer good reviews are the MINI which now is up to the 9xx series cameras. That says something to me.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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OK, so I did a few google searches of best dash cams.

Found a few websites that had "best 10 or best 6 or best 12 or the best whatever" dash cams.

Went back to my link and did some cross reference work. One of the sites listed a "best of 2018" camera that was actually released in 2014 with only an average review rating :unsure:

I found another 2018 'best' camera that was from 2015 and again only had an average overall review on the page I linked above.

Yet another page's #2 choice for 2018 was a 2017 model, and they didn't mention the newer, and improved, 2018 model.

So as far as the "best" pages go, I simply don't trust them. Most get their money though advertising money when you click through on their links. The page I linked to is the best I've found ... not saying it is the best page, but I've not found one that is better, or that gives more complete reviews, or has as many users that tear these cameras apart, rebuild them, use and abuse them.

A couple years ago I spent days researching these things. Review after review. Not sure what the good value cameras are this year. But the Street Guardian is a brand I remember as being on the recommended list, its still on the list, most of the others have changed. Another familiar brand from then that is still around, with newer good reviews are the MINI which now is up to the 9xx series cameras. That says something to me.

Well, thank you Bob for sharing your internet research. I actually did spend some time looking at the Street Guardian brand and I like it. Now I have square eyeballs and must just stop doing this for a while. :yum:
 

NorthernRedneck

Well-known member
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I bought a budget ebay Chinese brand one a couple years ago. It made it out of the package and onto a shelf in the garage. That's where it's stayed. Lol
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
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I bought a budget ebay Chinese brand one a couple years ago. It made it out of the package and onto a shelf in the garage. That's where it's stayed. Lol

Maybe you want to sell it to TiredRetired :bolt:
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
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Well, thank you Bob for sharing your internet research. I actually did spend some time looking at the Street Guardian brand and I like it. Now I have square eyeballs and must just stop doing this for a while. :yum:

There are similar brands out there, this one costs less and is rated as one of the best values overall. https://dashcamtalk.com/viofo-a119s/

The main reason I like the Street Guardian is because it seems to have the best support out there among all the brands. When I dip my toes into the unknown I sort of like the idea of having someone to hold my hand if I fall down.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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There are similar brands out there, this one costs less and is rated as one of the best values overall. https://dashcamtalk.com/viofo-a119s/

The main reason I like the Street Guardian is because it seems to have the best support out there among all the brands. When I dip my toes into the unknown I sort of like the idea of having someone to hold my hand if I fall down.

Great. The link to Amazon shows that the one they are selling is 99 bucks, also has a new improved Version 2 pin system which was one of the cons of the unit with one of the pins sticking and not making electrical contact. That has now been rectified with the new contact system.

I like the double stick tape mounting as well. Those damn suction cups never work right.

Cons:
Unit does not have parking mode. I need to give that some thought. That is one of the reasons I want one of these to watch my truck / cars when I am not around.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
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...

Cons:
Unit does not have parking mode. I need to give that some thought. That is one of the reasons I want one of these to watch my truck / cars when I am not around.

1 - The units that have the parking mode usually cost more.

2 - Most to the units with parking mode only save video if a shock sensor has been tripped. So it won't record anything that happens around your car, it only records if your car was hit hard enough to trip the sensor.

3 - are you only looking at single camera systems? If you want the parking mode then you may find more options in the dual camera systems.
 

loboloco

Well-known member
I have used them off and on. Can really save your butt if you need it, but can hang you if you screwed up.
 

Melensdad

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I have used them off and on. Can really save your butt if you need it, but can hang you if you screwed up.

And this is one of the things that keeps me from buying one.

It is also one of the reasons I'd never have one hooked up to a GPS sensor either.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
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And this is one of the things that keeps me from buying one.

It is also one of the reasons I'd never have one hooked up to a GPS sensor either.

Agreed 110%. I am bagging this whole idea. To hell with spending over $300 bucks or more for 2 units and then incriminate myself when so ass hole runs a red light, but I was doing 31 in a 25 and the lawyer turns me into God know what. Screw that action I think I will just put the money to good use on an updated Garmin GPS for my truck with lifetime map updates. The better ones have lane departure and other driver assist functions my older truck does not have. I like Garmin products as I have always had great luck with them over the years so it will just be a matter of determining the best bang for the buck model.

Thanx all for great feedback and discussion. :clap:
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
Checked out the Garmin GPS stand alone units and found a nice one for 200 bucks. Seems the damn thing also has a built in dash cam. I can't get away from them now:yum::yum:

Screen Shot 2018-03-12 at 11.32.17 AM.png
 

JimVT

Bronze Member
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Agreed 110%. I am bagging this whole idea. To hell with spending over $300 bucks or more for 2 units and then incriminate myself when so ass hole runs a red light, but I was doing 31 in a 25 and the lawyer turns me into God know what. Screw that action I think I will just put the money to good use on an updated Garmin GPS for my truck with lifetime map updates. The better ones have lane departure and other driver assist functions my older truck does not have. I like Garmin products as I have always had great luck with them over the years so it will just be a matter of determining the best bang for the buck model.

Thanx all for great feedback and discussion. :clap:

it's also possible for your spouse to check up on you.
 

tiredretired

The Old Salt
SUPER Site Supporter
it's also possible for your spouse to check up on you.

She does not need that. She has google which sends me an email every month telling me where I've been and what I did. At my age, I don't have a damn thing to hide. :yum:
 
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