Anybody here use them? I'm thinking about getting them for all my vehicles and wondering what experience anyone has had with them.
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. ...
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It was introduced in 2016 but is pretty much out of date by today's standards.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
it's also possible for your spouse to check up on you.