Time for a dash cam for moi, advice in plain English appreciated.

[Nomes]

Greetings al!

The standard of driving in Sydney is declining rapidly.

This past week I have witnessed:

* I saw a car run up the back of another car who had stopped on the left amber arrow.  I was in the left lane stopped at a red light.  The driver that hit the car, screamed around it as if it were taking off and stopped in front of the car and now in my lane.  He got out, I thought I was about to witness some heavy road rage by the look on his face and body language as he walked towards the rear ended driver.

He was almost at the bonnet of their car when two hugest of huge police officers alighted from their unmarked car, one of the offices picked up the bumper bar off the road.  The angry bloke went white.  Too funny.

* Today, today I followed a small old hiace van for several kilometers, and during that time we had stopped beside each other at traffic lights etc.  On the rear were 4 push bikes, on the roof frrom windscreen and beyond the back window was a bundle of belongings wrapped in plastic tarps held down by ropes, there might have been a rack up there, but I couldn't see it, this was stacked about a meter high.  And on the passenger side was a ladder that went from the front window and across the passenger window and about level with the final bike. The passenger had no way of getting out of that door. There was another ladder going from behind the drivers window to the rear of the van.

I could not work out if they were moving or going on a long holiday with the kids.  It was not stable at all.

* This morning I was stopped at a red arrow turning right, behind a holden ute.  He had swung his tail out into the lane going straight, as if setting himself up for the right hand corner but I think he saw the red light camera and decided not to risk running a red.
 
I heard a bdouble screeching his brakes.  With my foot firmly planted on the brake I was wondering  if I should do the aeroplane brace and should I have bought a full bull bar instead of the nudge and are the air bags going to smash my face whilst holding my breath.

I saw some amazing driving as the truckie managed to squeeze past the ute with only centimeters to spare, the truckie had 2 lanes of traffic beside him and had nowhere to go, not sure what would have happened if he had clipped that rear corner of the ute.  I think I was lucky.

Anyway,  I would like to get a dashcam, so I can show others the ejits but not keen on having it mounted on the dashboard unless it is really small.

I would appreciate your suggestions and happy to get my auto electrician to install it if wires need to be routed in.

Thanks and I hope you are all well and happy.

Cheers, Naomi.

[Taza]

Hi there

I have an iRoad V9 it is dual front and rear cameras both recording in 1080p.

The new model is the Q9

Both have gps module to record speed. You don't need to use it tho. and you can log into the camera with your mobile via wifi for live view or for seeing your recordings.also can download directly to your mobile. You also get software for pc to download to pc and also with gps on you can track your trips thru google maps

I paid about $600 12 months ago with a 64Gb sd card included.

Also it is hard wired to the battery with a voltage cut if it drops volts below your set level.

Has also have lane assist and shock and motion sensor for car park mode


https://iroadhd.com.au/q9/


Cheers
Taza

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[BMux]

Hi Naomi,

It's not just Sydney I can assure you. Yesterday I had someone pull out of a petrol station, drift into the left lane, which caused the guy next to me to slam his brakes, and then drift across into the right hand lane where I was. We were doing 80km/h whilst this guy decided to drift in front of us. Luckily I had noticed him pulling out of the petrol station, so I had already slowed down. All of this in pitch black darkness, and he didn't have any lights on either! Lovely stuff!

Anyway, I would highly recommend the dashcam's from Street Guardian:

https://streetguardian.info/dash-cams

I have been in the contact with the owner for a few years, watching the development of his camera's and waiting patiently for his "dual cam" system which has now been released! I think it is something you should consider, having the rear cam is more important these days as you will find people blatantly lying and blaming you for the accident.

You can get cheap cam's off eBay etc., but in this case you do get what you pay for in terms of reliability and image quality, i.e. being able to see the number plates and being able to record decent quality at night. Another factor is how they hold up to the heat in summer when the inside of your vehicle bakes in the sun!

Good luck, let us know how you go 

[monbeg]

Hi Naomi

I have got one of these installed on mine. Got mine on ebay, latest is the 119S.
http://www.dashcamscentral.com.au/dash-cam/dash-cam-viofo-a119/

I have fitted it behind the mirror with the lens below the spotted area around where the mirror is mounted.

You can fit it easily yourself, just use a bit of flat plastic or similiar to push the cable behind the trim above the windscreen from above the mirror along behind the trim down the left passenger side and then back towards the slide out bottle holder.
I fitted two of the supplied small cable holders under the bottle holder and then up under the lid of the top passenger side glove box to the cigarette lighter plug in there.

The only bit of wire visible is the bit under the bottle holder.

Camera review here...
https://www.carcamcentral.com/review/viofo-a119-review


 Click on pics to expand...

[monbeg]

Photo grab from Viofo camera

Just your average Merc driver turning in front of me on a wet evening in Adelaide. I was going straight ahead but had to hit the skids 

Click to expand...

[My Names Earl]

Just purchased the Viofo A119 (not the 'S' model) , with GPS, polarizing filter and hard wiring kit from Foxoffer.com for $146 delivered also looking at the new Viofo VR1 for my daughters car.

Should arrive in the next week or so, will post some pics once installed.

Have a look at dashcam talk for information on dash cams and do some research on which micro SD cards to use. Standard micro SD cards don't last very long, need to get the endurance type.

[Nomes]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I have a starting point now.

Like everything else these days, you really have to do your homework.

Cheers,
Naomi.

[lurkr]

I purchased the Street Guardian SG9665GC-V3 via ebay for $238 with a 32GB SD Card and CPL included, from http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/strathfieldliverpool?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754.

A word of warning... unless the SD Card is being sold with the camera, I would recommend AGAINST purchasing an SD Card via EBAY. I had originally purchased what was advertised as a Samsung EVO 128GB Card, but it turned out to be a fake - and it took over a month to go through the process to get a refund via the Ebay Guarantee.

I had also originally purchased the Viofo A119, and while it is a great camera, it basically ceased to function as a direct result of the fake card ... once the card hit the point where it was overwriting itself, the VIOFO shutdown and would not turn back on (the seller refunded fully - they were great). It was after this that I opted to spend more on the Street Guardian - the difference being, that with the fake card in, the Street Guardian kept operating, but most of the videos were corrupted and unreadable - this was when I discovered, via testing, that the 128GB card I had was fake. Since using the 32GB card included with the Street Guardian Cam, all has been good.

I've hard-wired it in via a piggy-back fuse and mini-USB hardwire kit (purchased separately).

The disadvantage with this formfactor of camera - you cannot swivel it to change what the camera is capturing (If someone approached the drivers-side window, for example), and you need to pop the card out to view footage (or plug-in to the camera via the AV cable with a computer ... which I'm never going to do). The best on the market I've seen are the BlackVue (DR650S-2CH) .. wireless communication to phones and tablets etc for viewing footage, both front and rear camera with motion sensors to monitor for bumps when parked, and the footage I've seen from friends that have them is excellent - but they cost !

There is an option, if it's in your price range, to do the new one on Pre-Order - https://www.blackvue.com/product/dr490-2ch/ ... on pre-order, it's $262USD with a 64GB Card.

You can also go to places like Massdrop, and request the dashcam you want in a drop (or add your name to an existing request) and hope they setup a group buy - I've had some good deals from them occasionally - but you need to keep an eye on USD/AUD conversion rates and shipping costs, to ensure it is worthwhile.

[King Ragnar]

I`ve got one from Xiaomi, excellent and cheap camera from China. Small and easy to set up and have a good app also(Android)

https://xiaomi-mi.com/car-dvrs/xiaomi-yi-smart-dash-camera-gray/

If you Google it a lot of reviews will come up. I bought mine online in Thailand and paid 3000 Thai Baht and that included a 64 GB class 10 SD card   

[73SJR]

Got one of these fitted in each of our cars. $79 from an Aussie seller.

Quality just as good as name brand like Blackvue which cost 5 times as much.

http://www.elinz.com.au/buy/dash-cam-video-camera-dvr-recorder-148-night-visio/DCAT500-32GB

[mojo]

Agreed, best value for money cam on market. Xiaomi is the "Apple" of china, brilliant products. This camera allows you to pull videos straight to iPhone/android using wireless connection. No need to take out card etc $60 delivered from aliexpress.com can't go wrong.

I`ve got one from Xiaomi, excellent and cheap camera from China. Small and easy to set up and have a good app also(Android)

https://xiaomi-mi.com/car-dvrs/xiaomi-yi-smart-dash-camera-gray/

If you Google it a lot of reviews will come up. I bought mine online in Thailand and paid 3000 Thai Baht and that included a 64 GB class 10 SD card 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Nomes]

I wonder if the dashcam would have captured my antics today, I am a gardener and was working, the ute in the driveway, when the tap handle and head came off and sent water straight up which then hit the house eaves and I was drowned, even more drowned when I tried to fix it, which I did in the end after I found the washer.

Thanks again everyone I will let you know what I get.

[1gg101]

Another thing to consider when selecting this type of camera is the capture angle of the lens.
Most of the cheaper ones seem to be in the 150 degree range, great for something up to a couple of car lengths away but further than that everything gets too small on the screen.

I see the blackvue has only 130 degree angle which sounds a lot better for picture detail. Perhaps that is why they are so much more to buy?