26
votes
What dashcam do you use?
My last dashcam was a total dud and wasn't even operational for 6 hours. I'm hoping to get some community recommendations on reliable units with good image quality. If you would also share the approx. length of time you've had/used it that would be a huge help as well. Thanks in advance!
I don't have a specific device to recommend but I suggest buying quality cards for recording.
Instead of getting a card that is marketed for its fast write speed like SanDisk Ultra, buy the cards that are marketed for endurance like SanDisk High Endurance, Samsung Pro Endurance, or Samsung EVO Plus (sold as EVO Select on Amazon). People have reported to have trouble accessing recordings made on lower quality cards (and even the fast, expensive cards which don't have specific longevity guarantees).
I bought an expensive dashcam a few years ago but after coming back from a long trip it stopped powering on completely. I guess the sun melted it inside. Six months ago I replaced that with a cheap dashcam from taobao and it's been perfectly fine (but it only speaks Chinese (like the sound effects when turning on) even when the UI is in English)
I absolutely second this, I have bricked an SD card from the constant writes of my dashcam and have no idea how long it wasn’t recording for. I didn’t realize until I tried to save an interesting (but thankfully not critical) clip.
Garmin Dashcam mini 3. Tiny, no screen or other distractions, it’s set and forget. Has a bunch of automatic cloud uploading stuff I don’t use - it just writes in a loop to the SD card. It’s accessed via their app over local wifi. Very rugged in terms of managing heat etc. Fantastic image quality both day and night. Man, this sounds like an ad! It’s not, I’m just very happy with it and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Concur with the other comment about buying a quality high endurance SD card. It’s worth paying the name brand premium.
I have 2x Mini 2s (front and rear) and my wife has a mini 2 as well. Don’t have much to add to your points; they’re high quality cameras that work when we need them.
You've sold me on this unit honestly, just one thing - you've found it perfectly serviceable without any app connection or LTE subscription?
I'll chime in as a Mini 2 user and have only used the local app access and found it adequate for grabbing videos of crazy things I see on the road.
If something happens and I want to retain it I hit the save button (could also use its voice command but I never have the mic on) on the back of the camera and then pull it with the app or direct off the card at a later time.
I permanently wired it with a 12V to 5V converter tied to an ignition-switched circuit and a DC circuit breaker because getting a fuse in where I was putting everything wasn't really necessary and I hate having to keep a stock of them.
Very much so. Like the other guy, I fire up the app any time I want to pull off some video, but fortunately that happens <1 time per year for me. The rest of the time it just sits there quietly recording in a loop. I have a 32GB high endurance card in it and that’s plenty… enough for many days of footage and realistically, if you need it, you need like the last 5 minutes of video before your “event” and that’s it. I think all the cloud stuff is a totally unnecessary complexity/upsell.
I have mine connected to an ignition switched USB port in the car. I never have to think about it.
Enjoy!!
Amazing, gonna go ahead and get one so that it will be here by the end of the weekend. Thank you so much!
I’ve had a BlackVue for about 4 years now, and no issues with it. My only complaint is that to connect to it, I have to use WiFi instead of Bluetooth, but I don’t use their cloud subscription or anything.
I only have the “front” camera, not one of the dual ones with a rear camera. And I don’t have the “persistent” ones that runs when my car is off.
It has a little bit of an annoying voice when it starts recording, every time I start my car. But I actually tune it out and it’s nice to know that it’s on and working.
I periodically check that it is actually recording, but it is a bit of a pain to do so with the WiFi mode connection instead of something “easier” like Bluetooth.
Thinkware stuff has this idiot woman who gives this thirty second rundown every single time. I hate her and her terrible voice. You can't even turn it off, which should be illegal.
I have this VioFo dashcam and it has worked well so far. Both Project Farm and LTT on YouTube did some dash cam reviews and this one consistently was at the top as well, especially with bang for your buck.
Here's a link to the Project Farm video where he compares quite a few of the popular dash cams available.
EDIT: Just saw that my dashcam is the same one you had and you've been having issues. For what it's worth, I've been running mine for over 2 years now without issue.
Had a Rove R2-4K for about 8 months. Not cheap, but I'm pleased with it; it does what says on the tin.
Comes with a rear camera, but I only installed the front one. Records to SD cards. Does WiFi and there's an app, but I usually just pop the card out and read it directly. Plugs into a USB port. Powers up when the car does, shuts off when the car does (with a slight delay to write to the SD card); with my car usage that's every couple of days). Picking a random video of a highway drive, VLC tells me it's 3840x2160. Subjectively, I get a good clear view of three lanes of traffic in front of me.
For anything else, I'd say read the spec page on your favorite shopping site; I'm probably not using half the features it offers.
I have a FitcamX. It's installed in such a way that it almost looks like it came installed from the factory. The camera sits inside a piece of molded plastic that replaces the plastic cover that covers all the sensors on the windscreen. It's installed behind the rearview mirror and can be powered from the sunroof connector, making the installation very easy. Looks great and the picture quality is really good too.
Have had 2 in the past, and similar experience, really nice if your car is natively supported and you don't mind pulling stuff apart a bit to install. Only complaint is trying to remember it's WPA password (I believe it's 12345678 but I've sold those cars).
I have had a Garmin 47 for 2-3 years (can't remember exactly) with only one major hiccup. One time on a road trip, I stopped in a parking lot for about 10 minutes, but left the car running. The dash cam entered "Parking Guard" mode, so it recorded 10 minutes of me sitting still and then didn't record the following 5 hours of driving. Thankfully, I didn't end up needing that chunk of the recording, and that's the only issue I've ever had with it.
It attaches to the windshield magnetically. You have to glue one magnet to the windshield first and wait for it to dry before hanging the cam from another magnet. It's surprisingly stable while driving, but the fact that the magnet is glued means that once you pick a spot, you can't move it again.
The picture quality is about average. You can barely read a license plate unless you're right behind a car (e.g. at a stop light), but that's more to do with the wide-angle lens making even close-up objects appear tiny than the picture quality. It's decent enough at night.
Garmin offers cloud/wifi connections, but I don't use them and just view the video from a micro SD card. It saves the video one minute at a time in two formats. There is a 1080p .mp4 file that takes up 120 MB per minute and a 360p .GLV file that only takes 8 MB per minute. I'd never heard of a .GLV file before, but VLC plays it, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It works out to 7.5 GB per hour, so the included 16 GB card only holds about two hours. I'd recommend buying a separate higher-capacity card. I use a 256 GB card that holds several weeks of driving at a time.
The camera has a built-in GPS receiver and gives you the option to burn the GPS coordinates and vehicle speed into the video. In addition, it also embeds the GPS data into the video metadata, so with a bit of coding ability, you can extract .gpx traces from the video instead of having to use Garmin's proprietary software. Both the burnt-in and metadata GPS coordinates update once per second. It takes 10-15 seconds to find you when you first start the car, and even then, my .gpx traces are off by ~10 m at the start and take a minute or two to settle. After that, they are precise enough to even tell which lane you were in on the highway.
By default, the camera plays little noises to get your attention for certain things. E.g. it will beep at you if you are approaching a notorious speed trap. They sometimes trigger when they shouldn't, like the lane departure warning going off when you are just changing lanes, or the "traffic is moving again" beep when someone just inches forward at a red light. These are more annoying than useful, but it allows you to turn them off.
I have a Viofo A129 and while it’s decent for the price, I have my complaints. I have found it locked up and requiring a hard power reset (it’s hot wired so rarely loses power) on multiple occasions. Most recently I discovered it had been locked up for about 2 weeks - not something you want to discover after getting in to a situation where you need it.
Sadly, this is the make and model of my most recent dashcam. I also had issues with that while setting it up, and it seems the price point is really the best selling point this unit has.
interesting, ive had 3x a129 and a 229 and ive not had any issues with them overall except one didnt want to stay on loop mode for a bit.
id still recommend them as the pricepoint is great for a starvis2 cam
I ended up not buying one (it's an older car, I have third party liability only, couldn't justify the cost given this and my current situation), BUT:
I found this very useful and it seems unbiased as it's made by just a regular guy from Toronto, ON who buys the cameras with his own money: https://dashcamtalk.com/
I don't have a specific recommendation, but I can recommend The Hookup for in-depth reviews and comparisons of many products, dash cams included.
I always wondered this, maybe someone knows. It seems like dash cams are way more popular in Europe than in the US. I very rarely see dashcam footage posted online that's from the US, and I don't know anyone that has one. Is this a cultural thing, or is there some concrete reason for that?
This is extremely country-dependent within Europe. I'm pretty sure dashcams are straight-up illegal here in Germany.
Before moving from Vancouver Island to the lower mainland, I had the following installed:
Shortly after moving to the lower mainland, the rear camera filmed a vehicular stalker, who shortly thereafter received a visit from the RCMP. Without the video, I wouldn't have had any evidence.
I use a Viofo A129. The whole setup costs $200, but it has good quality, easy setup and runs when I need it. The only crash I've had was my own into a pole, but that camera (same model) was gifted to my brother after I misplaced it and bought a replacement. I like this one a lot because you run a power cable around the moulding, and a link cable to the back and you're done.