Which Dash camera to buy ????

[Jamies460]

Hello ive been looking at Dash Camera's as i would like to put one in the XR8 for when me & the wife go away, ive looked at some on ebay for a start im after one that clips to your rear veiw mirror and if possible works off battery's instead of plugging it in to a power port, prefer with GPS but one that is pretty basic to work for a 59 year old, so if any-one has any tips on what brand to buy feel free to head me in the right direction..... Many Thanks.

[russellw]

Any of the reputable brands are fine. The entirely self powered ones tend to have a fairly short run time so think carefully about that option.

[hackney]

Originally Posted by Jamies460

Hello ive been looking at Dash Camera's as i would like to put one in the XR8 for when me & the wife go away, ive looked at some on ebay for a start im after one that clips to your rear veiw mirror and if possible works off battery's instead of plugging it in to a power port, prefer with GPS but one that is pretty basic to work for a 59 year old, so if any-one has any tips on what brand to buy feel free to head me in the right direction..... Many Thanks.

I have two, a Garmin mini dash cam2, & a Garmin 67w, both are excellent.

[Big_Daz]

I have Blackvue DR750 2 Channel (Front and rear) in both our cars and are very happy with them.

[PHANTMXR6]

I’ll second the Blackvue product.
I have the DR750 also, and with the power supply option, works a treat.

[arm79]

Have a read of my 2 posts in this thread: https://fordforums.com.au/showthread...hlight=Dashcam

Might have some good points to consider and give you an idea of how to narrow the search.

[commodorenutt]

You're not really going to get anything to run on its own battery unless you're up for something like a GoPro.

The rear-view mirror types are often made for the majority market - LH drive, and unless you can angle the lense, aren't real good in Australia.

Personally, I would fit one that's stuck on the windscreen with a decent adhesive. Suction mounts and other crap fails over time, often very annoyingly. Adhesive tend to last.

I've been running dashcams for 12 years now, and they've come a long, long way since the early ones. I went through several cheaper ones, some that warped in the hot summer sun and pressed their own buttons in, rendering them useless. I had a Blackvue for a while, and it was relatively good, but it became unreliable - sometimes it would work, but when you needed it, the red fault light (facing the passenger) was flashing. It was also a pain to get the rotation right - there was no wifi like the newer ones, so you had to record a block, then pull the card out & check it, to make sure you got the angle set.

In 2019 I bought a Viofo A129 duo and installed it in my daily driver. It was like the old cliche of the ray of sunshine through the clouds. A great camera. I already had the low voltage cutout wiring harness that I'd installed with the Blackvue, so it's wired to that, off the battery. It runs for a good 6-8 hours before cutting off, but that's mostly because I have an AGM battery, so the voltage level is a bit lower than lead-acid (the Matson monitor also gets a bit concerned about it, but it's not an issue). Anyway, the parking mode is crap. It does like a low quality CCTV "blocky" time lapse about a minute or so after you've stopped (even when still powered up). I've had one carpark bump where the frames captured completely missed the number plate. As most of my parking is at home or at work, and I don't often go to the shops (when I do, I park a long way away from other cars) this part didn't bother me too much, but it's pretty annoying when you know the unit is capable of recording high quality images at 30fps, and the one time you need to rely on it, the parking mode frames skip over the vital part. But anyway, that's my only complaint with it.

Apart from that, I'm very happy with it. The rear camera is tiny, but still performs well (no good at night, as headlights stop everything). The front camera is very good, even at night. I've had footage I've been able to show the Police that allowed me to get the insurance info from a hit/run guy who changed lanes onto me on the freeway (actually came across 4 lanes without looking) and took off after impact. He tried to tell the cops he wasn't driving (it was his wife's car) but the image clearly showed him, and he was already disqualified at the time, so that really ruined his day (and made my claim a lot harder - but that's another story, fortunately with a happy ending)

The A129 allows you to link a phone, ipad or laptop to it via wifi, and view recorded footage, or download it. I did this during the initial setup, but then forgot the password, and haven't bothered since. I just pull the card out every few weeks and dump it onto a portable hard drive. Apparently you can also use an app to plot the car on a map, when you're reviewing the footage, but I never tried it out.

The screen on the main cam allows you to get the camera angle perfect, and shows picture-in-picture with the rear camera in the corner. All the usual functions are there - like how long to record blocks for, how hard for auto-protecting event files on the micro SD card etc. The "Keep that" button is easy to press, and a yellow triangle confirms when you've saved an event. It's also very low profile, so it doesn't get in your way.

I would recommend the A129 to anyone. I've had just over 3 years with mine now, and it only hiccupped once - and that's because the card ran out of room to over-write. It was filled up with protected events. But the flashing lights told me something was wrong, and I was able to fix it promptly.

The image quality is great. But I have found the cleanliness of your windscreen also plays a part in this - make sure it's in a spot where your wipers wipe in front of it.

It puts your GPS coordinates & speed on the image. You can switch off the microphone if you want - I didn't bother. I sent an email of a short clip to some work colleagues one day when I captured a Yaris lose it on the roundabout near work. I'd forgotten about the mic. One colleague replied back saying they liked my reaction. I went instantly pale, wondering what I'd said..... but it was only "woohoo, go the Yaris" so nothing that would send me to HR......

The power wiring goes into a base that you fit to the windscreen with an adhesive pad.
You can remove the whole camera from it's base easily, without disturbing the main wiring (except the rear camera if you have it - it plugs into the main camera). Makes cleaning the windscreen easier, and when I misplaced my micro-SD to USB card reader, I was able to plug the cam into the PC via a USB cable. No mucking about with suction cups or realignment either - just clip it back into its base.

Based on my experience - my own cameras, and those I have installed for friends, kids of friends, and relatives, I'd recommend the Viofo A129 (2 camera) to anyone. It's not cheap, but it's not real expensive either. It's easy to use - easier than some cams I've had, and it's the most reliable cam I've owned.

The only one I'd rate as nearly as good to use is a Uniden model that I installed 3 of during Christmas 2020 (a mate bought each of his kids a dashcam for Christmas).
I can't remember the model number, but they were around $300 each (front and rear cam).
The front cam has a big screen, and hangs down from a mount into your field of view - some people don't mind this, but I don't like it. The Viofo is much neater with the angled body. The rear cam also wasn't as neat as the Viofo, but still pretty good. They had wifi and an app as well, which made setup a breeze. Image quality was pretty good, and they're all still running fine over 12 months later.

[Toiler]

+1
I also run the Viofo A129 (2 camera) system.