Onboard dash cameras

[madvlad]

Well since that one thread got derailed, I will derail it some more

What brands of onboard dash cams are you using and why? Been thinking about getting a front and rear camera on the car, just way too many idiots out here and it'd be nice to have proof just in case the unwanted happens.

[~Barn~]

I saved a lot of money on my car insurance by canceling it.

[madvlad]

[The Black Knight]

EDIT:
As per GoPro police, I have changed my comment about my GoPro not being able to record. I have just been enlightened to the knowledge that in fact you can go longer with a GoPro. I now realize that GoPro is the end all, be all in everything.

I'm removing the link to the dash cams I found on YouTube, as they are not GoPro related and thus have no place in the halls of recording equipment.

If you or anyone you know are thinking about using a camera other than a GoPro, DON'T!!! Only use GoPro, as GoPro is proven awesomeness time and again, are genuinely made with real pieces of actual Thunderstorms inside. They really are the bees knees and should be treated as such.

All Hail GoPro!!

[Kim-n-Dean]

.. Plus it had the ability to I believe record up to 8 hours of driving. Which not even my GoPro will do that, unless I get a bigger SD card.

I love it! You say that "not even my GoPro will do that", just to immediately follow it with "unless I get a bigger SD card". So, it sound like a GoPro will do that.

You can also say that a GoPro will do even less if you put a smaller SD card in it.

On my bike, I use a GoPro Hero 4 Silver with a 128GB SD card and a battery eliminator (still have a battery installed). Memory card runs for 8.5 hours non-stop.

In the truck, same camera, but it's plugged into the trucks USB port. Same 8.5 hours non-stop.

With the latest GoPro firmware, you can now power the camera with USB while a battery is in the camera. It's important to have a battery installed. If you crash and lose power, you want the battery to take over so you don't lose the current writing to the memory card. After all, it's the last write that will have the data you want in an accident. Since GoPro writes in 17 minute segments, you could lose your evidence...

[The Black Knight]

I love it! You say that "not even my GoPro will do that", just to immediately follow it with "unless I get a bigger SD card". So, it sound like a GoPro will do that.

You can also say that a GoPro will do even less if you put a smaller SD card in it.

On my bike, I use a GoPro Hero 4 Silver with a 128GB SD card and a battery eliminator (still have a battery installed). Memory card runs for 8.5 hours non-stop.

In the truck, same camera, but it's plugged into the trucks USB port. Same 8.5 hours non-stop.

With the latest GoPro firmware, you can now power the camera with USB while a battery is in the camera. It's important to have a battery installed. If you crash and lose power, you want the battery to take over so you don't lose the current writing to the memory card. After all, it's the last write that will have the data you want in an accident. Since GoPro writes in 17 minute segments, you could lose your evidence...

I guess what I'm getting at is that a GoPro being used as a dashcam is rather over kill. They tend to chew up the memory(least mine does). Certainly it's perfect for track use or high performance activity use, which I used mine for. However, with the 8gb SD cards I had for it, I was lucky to get about 1.5hrs worth of footage. The camera in question I was trying to remember just had a set memory card in it and would allow for a long time to record and would just write over once you achieved the allotted amount of time that it would store. Again, point was the camera I was talking about, was around the $60 range. Which in my opinion works great as a dashcam that isn't super expensive and you don't have to worry about it being a temptation for a would be thief. Whereas, a big awesome cool tough guy Hero 4 GoPro is in the $300-$400 price range and is a certainly a great temptation for a would be thief. Granted some people might just try to break in and get the camera regardless of what it is, but that's life.

By all means use a GoPro as a dash cam, I am in no way knocking GoPro as I own one myself(just going off my experiences). If I had known you were part of the GoPro police, I would have considered how I worded my comment more carefully. My gravest apologies...

Madvlad asked for dash cam info, so I provided some with a quick search on YouTube, as I was mainly looking for the one in question that I saw about a year or so ago.

[Kim-n-Dean]

I guess what I'm getting at is that a GoPro being used as a dashcam is rather over kill.

True, but if you already have it, why not use it!

... The camera in question I was trying to remember just had a set memory card in it and would allow for a long time to record and would just write over once you achieved the allotted amount of time that it would store.

You can set a GoPro to do the same thing. I, however, prefer to have the camera run to the end of storage or end of battery, which ever comes first. That way, if you're laying in a ditch for a long time, the camera won't over-right what happened. Ya gotta think about these things...

Again, point was the camera I was talking about, was around the $60 range. Which in my opinion works great as a dashcam that isn't super expensive and you don't have to worry about it being a temptation for a would be thief.

Are you telling me that you leave expensive shit in plain view in your vehicle?!? Where do you live? I remove my items, which is only a camera...

Whereas, a big awesome cool tough guy Hero 4 GoPro is in the $300-$400 price range and is a certainly a great temptation for a would be thief. Granted some people might just try to break in and get the camera regardless of what it is, but that's life.

Okay, we'll visit this again. I, actually, leave all of my vehicle doors unlocked. No joke. Better to open the door and find nothing, rather than break a window and find the same!

By all means use a GoPro as a dash cam, I am in no way knocking GoPro as I own one myself(just going off my experiences). If I had known you were part of the GoPro police, I would have considered how I worded my comment more carefully. My gravest apologies...

Apology accepted.

Madvlad asked for dash cam info, so I provided some with a quick search on YouTube, as I was mainly looking for the one in question that I saw about a year or so ago.

Cool....

[Kim-n-Dean]

Oh shit! Just saw the edit... Too funny!

We just got back from a week long trip in Montrose. Did well over 1,000 miles. If anybody's ass should be hurt, it's mine!

Sorry you got so butt hurt...

EDIT:
As per GoPro police, I have changed my comment about my GoPro not being able to record. I have just been enlightened to the knowledge that in fact you can go longer with a GoPro. I now realize that GoPro is the end all, be all in everything.

I'm removing the link to the dash cams I found on YouTube, as they are not GoPro related and thus have no place in the halls of recording equipment.

If you or anyone you know are thinking about using a camera other than a GoPro, DON'T!!! Only use GoPro, as GoPro is proven awesomeness time and again, are genuinely made with real pieces of actual Thunderstorms inside. They really are the bees knees and should be treated as such.

All Hail GoPro!!

[matt2778]

So I missed what were the other cameras other than GoPro? I feel a GoPro a great sports camera. I just want something less expensive that I can use in my car all the time

[Kim-n-Dean]

So I missed what were the other cameras other than GoPro?......

TBK deleted them...

[The Black Knight]

True, but if you already have it, why not use it!

You can set a GoPro to do the same thing. I, however, prefer to have the camera run to the end of storage or end of battery, which ever comes first. That way, if you're laying in a ditch for a long time, the camera won't over-right what happened. Ya gotta think about these things...

Are you telling me that you leave expensive shit in plain view in your vehicle?!? Where do you live? I remove my items, which is only a camera...

Okay, we'll visit this again. I, actually, leave all of my vehicle doors unlocked. No joke. Better to open the door and find nothing, rather than break a window and find the same!

Apology accepted.


Cool....

I do when I'm at work leave certain valuable items in my vehicle. Not to mention, I have the usual motor vehicle paperwork that is kept with them. So yes, I always lock my doors. I have an alarm that goes off if the doors are opened without the key being proximity of the vehicle. So should someone break in, the alarm goes off. I also work on a secured facility with armed guard and dozens of cameras, and I still lock my vehicle. Why? cause I trust no one...

I lock my doors to my vehicles everywhere I go. I even lock my doors when my car is in the garage. Not that I live in a bad neighborhood, I just trust no one. If someone were to gain entry into the garage, last thing I want is them having access to my vehicle.

I'm the opposite, I'd much rather someone attempt to break in, then it's also caught on my home surveillance. So then I have something and someone to prosecute captured on video. If your doors are left open, it really isn't a breaking and entering. It's just entering and any LEO will tell you, you asked for it if you left your doors unlocked.


This is what happens when you leave things unlocked....

Oh shit! Just saw the edit... Too funny!


We just got back from a week long trip in Montrose. Did well over 1,000 miles. If anybody's ass should be hurt, it's mine!

Sorry you got so butt hurt...

Just in a trolling mood....

So I missed what were the other cameras other than GoPro? I feel a GoPro a great sports camera. I just want something less expensive that I can use in my car all the time

TBK deleted them...

Yeah, look them up on YouTube, that's what I did. Took me all of 15 seconds to find something...

[The Black Knight]

Hell yeah, here you go MadVlad, I found it..

http://roadcams.net/

https://www.youtube.com/user/RoadCams

Looks the price has come down. It's now just $40. Think I might snag one. Was just about to get the $70 Aukey 1080p dash cam on Amazon. But for $40 bucks, the RoadCams one might be the way to go. Only thing I've been noticing, as with anything you get what you pay for. The cameras close the $100 range all seem to be very nice and have great picture quality. The cheaper ones(including this RoadCams camera) don't show license plates or signs well. That's what was cool about the Aukey camera, seems to have good clarity about as close to the Viofo A119 cam I was checking out earlier.

[matt2778]

Aukey looks like it's a nice camera. Looks like it would be a nice middle ground camera, not the best but not the worse

[The Black Knight]

Aukey looks like it's a nice camera. Looks like it would be a nice middle ground camera, not the best but not the worse

Yeah, I went ahead and bought the Aukey 1080p cam. Got it for $70 on Amazon, as it seemed to get good reviews from the people who have it. One guy mentioned that it does have a wide range of temperatures that it works in, which is good since I'll be leaving it in the car in all weather. Comparing it to the Viofo A119, I really couldn't see many differences. I'm sure the Viofo is better, could have purchased the A119 for $100 with GPS logger mount, then another $15 for the glare reducing lens cover. So I went with what saves a bit of money. Felt the RoadCams camera was a little cheap. Might be a good one for my truck, as the truck is old and I'm not as concerned about it. However, my Impala needs the better of the two.

Can't wait to try it out, should be here in a few days from Amazon. I'll post up on how it well it works. Like Madvlad, I as well am looking for a little peace of mind. I've had two incidents while at work in the last two weeks, thankfully not my fault. However, for my personal vehicle I'd like something extra.

[Aaron]

I run a GoPro Hero 3 Black as my dashcam, and I'm not happy with it. I do not suggest a GoPro as a dash cam. I love the versatility, I also run it on my helmet on the bike, so it's cool to have one camera do both things, and rotate between any of my cars. I also like that I can remove it. For example when I got rear ended, I lifted the camera from the mount and held it in my hand when I first spoke with the girl. So if she changes her story later, admits shit, looks/sounds drunk, or goes crazy bitch on me it's all caught.

You don't need a rear facing camera, only front. If you get rear ended, it's nearly impossible for it to be your fault, unless you deliberately caused it, IE cutting someone off and brake checking. A front facing camera will show the impact, and you doing nothing to cause it. I've got a video below of me being rear ended.

But now for all the things GoPro SUCKS at:

1) They overheat if they are in sunlight and recording, and then shut down. I have mine in a skeleton case, and it still overheats frequently in direct sunlight. Doesn't happen on the bike, just the car.

2) The camera is buggy. It will randomly turn WiFi on and off frequently. I have it set on 1 push, where 1 button push turns the camera on and starts recording, but this often times doesn't work. The camera also freezes up and requires a reset every so often.

3) I have a 64 or 128 card in, the biggest you could use for the 3, and it gets me 4.5 hours at 1080. This is fine for me, but the auto-looping feature does not work. I even bought the special SD card made specifically for GoPro and the fucking auto loop still doesn't work. I have to delete media every 4.5 hours, which blows.

4) Like said before, the camera records in increments. So a 1 hour video will be broken up into 4 video files. This means you have to use video editing software to put them together if by chance you have an incident happen exactly at the cutoff. This is all fine, unless your computer is older than circa 2017. Then it won't have the processing power to edit 2 videos at once using GoPro Studio.

Overall it works good. I bought it when the Hero 3 Black first came out, and I still use it daily. Here's some of the videos I've gotten:

[Aaron]

[Aaron]

[The Black Knight]

I run a GoPro Hero 3 Black as my dashcam, and I'm not happy with it. I do not suggest a GoPro as a dash cam. I love the versatility, I also run it on my helmet on the bike, so it's cool to have one camera do both things, and rotate between any of my cars. I also like that I can remove it. For example when I got rear ended, I lifted the camera from the mount and held it in my hand when I first spoke with the girl. So if she changes her story later, admits shit, looks/sounds drunk, or goes crazy bitch on me it's all caught.

You don't need a rear facing camera, only front. If you get rear ended, it's nearly impossible for it to be your fault, unless you deliberately caused it, IE cutting someone off and brake checking. A front facing camera will show the impact, and you doing nothing to cause it. I've got a video below of me being rear ended.

But now for all the things GoPro SUCKS at:

1) They overheat if they are in sunlight and recording, and then shut down. I have mine in a skeleton case, and it still overheats frequently in direct sunlight. Doesn't happen on the bike, just the car.

2) The camera is buggy. It will randomly turn WiFi on and off frequently. I have it set on 1 push, where 1 button push turns the camera on and starts recording, but this often times doesn't work. The camera also freezes up and requires a reset every so often.

3) I have a 64 or 128 card in, the biggest you could use for the 3, and it gets me 4.5 hours at 1080. This is fine for me, but the auto-looping feature does not work. I even bought the special SD card made specifically for GoPro and the fucking auto loop still doesn't work. I have to delete media every 4.5 hours, which blows.

4) Like said before, the camera records in increments. So a 1 hour video will be broken up into 4 video files. This means you have to use video editing software to put them together if by chance you have an incident happen exactly at the cutoff. This is all fine, unless your computer is older than circa 2017. Then it won't have the processing power to edit 2 videos at once using GoPro Studio.

Overall it works good. I bought it when the Hero 3 Black first came out, and I still use it daily. Here's some of the videos I've gotten:

What a minute now, so you're telling me that the GoPro is not the end all, be all of recording equipment, i.e. the camera that does it all and then some with sprinkles and frosty flakes on top?? Guess, I've been gettin lied too...

Dude, this is not going to make GoPro Police happy at all. GoPro Police hears you saying these sorts of blasphemy about GoPro, you're gonna hear about it. You just committed the ultimate sin my friend.


I do have a real question though for you. Why do the newer Hero cams break everything down into 4 segments of video for a 1 hours video?? I've got the Original Hero(yeah I know, it's old) and I've managed to go over 30 minutes a couple times for track sessions and when I would get home the cam had them all listed as individual videos and not broke down into smaller segments. So if I only did three or four sessions and filmed them, then I'd only have the same amount of videos on the GoPro. Most of the time, I'd just edit them down to show only track footage and omit the b.s. in the pits, out lap and in lap stuff.

[Aaron]

Maybe the GoPro Police will give me a GoPro that doesn't overheat, isn't buggy, auto-loops like it's supposed to, etc etc etc lol.

The broken up files are for 2 reasons. First, if you take a 4.5 hr video, my max length, and it somehow gets corrupted, you lose everything. However when broken up, you'd only lose 15min or so.

But the main reason is that most every modern SD card is formatted in Fat32, which can't handle file segments larger than 4gb, so it breaks then up into files smaller than 4. Fat32 is also the reason the auto-looping doesn't work.

[Aaron]

On a side note, I successfully reformatted my SD card into ntfs or exfat, I think exfat, either way not old as shit Fat32, and it still breaks the videos up and still won't auto loop.

[#1Townie]

What a minute now, so you're telling me that the GoPro is not the end all, be all of recording equipment, i.e. the camera that does it all and then some with sprinkles and frosty flakes on top?? Guess, I've been gettin lied too...

Dude, this is not going to make GoPro Police happy at all. GoPro Police hears you saying these sorts of blasphemy about GoPro, you're gonna hear about it. You just committed the ultimate sin my friend.


I do have a real question though for you. Why do the newer Hero cams break everything down into 4 segments of video for a 1 hours video?? I've got the Original Hero(yeah I know, it's old) and I've managed to go over 30 minutes a couple times for track sessions and when I would get home the cam had them all listed as individual videos and not broke down into smaller segments. So if I only did three or four sessions and filmed them, then I'd only have the same amount of videos on the GoPro. Most of the time, I'd just edit them down to show only track footage and omit the b.s. in the pits, out lap and in lap stuff.

I do believe it's for editing. most videos edited from very large clips. those large clips can be a bit of a bitch when you start loading and unloading them in editors. at least back when I playing with my videos. haven't done one in a long time. maybe I'm wrong. probably wrong.

[Aaron]

That's a good point, and although not one of the reasons per GoPro, customer happiness would dive if people couldn't edit the videos. And I have trouble with the 3.XX gb files.

[Kim-n-Dean]

On a side note, I successfully reformatted my SD card into ntfs or exfat, I think exfat, either way not old as shit Fat32, and it still breaks the videos up and still won't auto loop.

You guys should join the GoPro police force. We get special cameras. I don't have any of the problems you described...

[The Black Knight]

You guys should join the GoPro police force. We get special cameras. I don't have any of the problems you described...

Thus sayeth the god of GoPro, so let it be written, so let it be done...