Dashcams

rwalker28

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May 21, 2011
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I was thinking about dash cams for awhile. and have looked at them a bit, however, I have not purchased anything. I get a bit bewildered about tech stuff... dont want to buy when the next better thing will certainly come out sooner or later, do I need some high end deal, or will a simple model do, or what certain item is teh "make or break" if you dont get it you will really wish you had it. However I am a bit more motivated now and wonder if this would be a good thread to start to discuss pros and cons, how to spec them out, who had good or bad recommendations or experiences and what worked best in what applications - cars, trucks or bikes. Pretty much what did you do and why and what would you have done differently. I did an Access Niorton search and did not see this topic addressed before and this group always have valuable info.
 
I use a cheap gopro clone mounted on handlebar, I have a powered USB socket in the harness that is live when the lights are on and I always run lights on. Hence the camera powers off when the lights are turned off, it's not a dashcam but gives the same functionality.
 
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There are motorcycle specific dash cams but they can get expensive. Then are waterproof and may have two cameras.

I have a dash cam in one of the cars. It works well and I may actually get it hard wired one of these days. I have the kit but not the motivation to run the wiring.

I think the ideal motorcycle dash cam would be a 360 camera mounted on top of the helmet. I said ideal as there are several technical hurdles to that idea.

What is your motivation for a dash cam?
 
Unclear if you are wanting a cam for the dash of a car or force fit a car cam on a bike?
Ive been exploring cams for cars. Lots of products and features out there. Better ones have two channel recording, meaning two cams, front/rear can record to one card. Im leaning toward the rear view mirror type, which is an all in one touch screen display and forward facing cam, slips over existing mirror. These function as normal rear view mirror when not displaying cam views and can be a very good rear view "mirror” when displaying rear cam image. Much more visibility of rear than with any normal mirror.
Higher resolution, 1080-2440-4k, gives much better ability to read lic plates, important when using in a legal case.
Wifi review/downloading to phone is very good to have, less shuffling a mem card around.
 
I am looking for car and pickup truck more than a bike right now, those are most of my miles. When I retire in the next year or so I will be looking more at a bike system . Mainly improved visibility to surroundings, esp. Backing up, I am terrified I will back over some kid in a parking lot as I get older and also for security, I live in the hit and run capital of America.
 
rwalker28 said:
I am looking for car and pickup truck more than a bike right now, those are most of my miles. When I retire in the next year or so I will be looking more at a bike system . Mainly improved visibility to surroundings, esp. Backing up, I am terrified I will back over some kid in a parking lot as I get older and also for security, I live in the hit and run capital of America.
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Here's a review of one of the mirror types I'm looking at (4k front/1080p rear cams):

 
rwalker28 said:
I am looking for car and pickup truck more than a bike right now, those are most of my miles. When I retire in the next year or so I will be looking more at a bike system . Mainly improved visibility to surroundings, esp. Backing up, I am terrified I will back over some kid in a parking lot as I get older and also for security, I live in the hit and run capital of America.
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Do your vehicles not have backup cameras? If so maybe look at aftermarket backup camera options.
 
For me, I would make sure that it has high enough resolution to capture license plate details at "normal" speeds.
 
swooshdave said:
Do your vehicles not have backup cameras? If so maybe look at aftermarket backup camera options.
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The truck is fairly big, I bought a 2018 2500 dodge diesel 4 door crewcab with an 8 foot bed (because it was the last PU I could get with a manual transmission, even Dodge gave up on them after 2018), but it is the lower model with the small rear view screen and not too easy to see (better now my cataracts were replaced) but it has no recording/ security capability. The 1985 El Camino of course has nothing, but it does have a generous back window and sits fairly low.
 
rwalker28 said:
I like the looks of this one, I will look into it.
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One thing not shown in the linked review, when viewing the cam image, you can scroll vertically up/down to see a lot more area than displayed on the mirror....this means the whole camera field of view is recorded, not just what you see on the mirror. Also means you can really see down to your bumper out the rear assuming you've got the rear cam mounted in a suitable location. Rear cam is waterproof and can mount on the bumper or license plate area...unlike in video where he places it inside the cab of his pickup...severely limiting view of what's behind his tailgate.
 
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