How And Why You Should Invest In A Dash Cam

Megalith

Megalith

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So let’s hear it about dash cams. I’ve been meaning to get one for the longest time now but haven’t settled on the right model yet, but I would love to hear what you’ve been using and if it has helped you in any incidents thus far.

…dash cam sales rose 9 percent this year (wholesale) and 7 percent in dollars. By 2017, dash cam sales could reach a total of $52 million, possibly even $90 million when combined with rear windshield or backup camera sales. Dash cams are unlike regular cameras or smartphones, because they're essentially protective devices—you won't necessarily know if the car next to you is equipped with a dash cam, and you're not supposed to. You also may purchase a dash cam and never have to pull footage, and some users won't be able to justify buying a device that they install once and never "use." But the one time you find yourself in a driving predicament, a dash cam can provide invaluable information about a crash or incident you experienced on the road.
 
My Fiance gave me a super cheap shitty one as a joke after we watched some Russian dash cam videos online.

I imagine they have a legitimate purpose as evidence if there is an accident and an insurance company tries to screw you over.

The best use I found for it before it died was to share my frustration with terrible aggressive drivers, like this one:



Make sure to get one with HD resolution unlike mine, so you can get license plate numbers off of it :p

I've been considering picking up a couple (front and rear) as evidence in case anyone ever hits me again. I'd be curious what people consider to be good.
 
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Have a friend who got driver-side T-boned going through on his green light by some mouth-breather at god-knows-how-fast.
The sonofabitch jumps out of the car and comes over to scream at my friend, even though my friend was going through ON A FRESH GREEN.
Had he not had fore and aft cams to show, definitively, that he was in the right, my buddy would have been

Front Cam:

Back Cam:
 
I am thinking about getting the Black Box G1W-CB. Anyone have positive or negative experiences with it (or with any of the G1W variants)?
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
I am thinking about getting the Black Box G1W-CB. Anyone have positive or negative experiences with it (or with any of the G1W variants)?
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I have been using the G1W-C going on 2 years now. Works well, typical funky Chinese instructions, but it has been bullet proof for me. Do not use Samsung EVO memory cards, the for some reason they fry themselves after a few weeks of use. Video quality is surprisingly good.
 
Met-AL said:
Not supposed to go slower than traffic in the left lane.
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LOL, I guess you suggest I should have driven THROUGH the car infront of me? :p

Besides it is excruciatingly clear that booth I and the car infront of me are travelling faster than the traffic to our immediate right.
 
Something I've seen mentioned when dealing with police or insurance, only if you know you're in the right do you even mention have the camera. I've read of instances where, especially police, where in some cases they will immediately confiscate the SD card from the camera. I've also read of instances where when brought up in court that you have footage and you don't have it on you you're not allowed to admit it because they fear tampering. Some people speculate that when you tell your insurance agency when you do have one they'll use it as a way to increase your premiums when you're in the right by reviewing old footage from the SD card.
 
SlayVus said:
Something I've seen mentioned when dealing with police or insurance, only if you know you're in the right do you even mention have the camera. I've read of instances where, especially police, where in some cases they will immediately confiscate the SD card from the camera. I've also read of instances where when brought up in court that you have footage and you don't have it on you you're not allowed to admit it because they fear tampering. Some people speculate that when you tell your insurance agency when you do have one they'll use it as a way to increase your premiums when you're in the right by reviewing old footage from the SD card.
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I would t volunteer the fact that I have a dash cam during a traffic stop.

I'd extract the data from it after the fact, and present only the video relevant to the incident in either fighting a erroneous ticket or filing an appeal with my insurance company.
 
I have a drive cam. I've been trying to figure out which is a good one and which is a bad one or have suggestions.

Unfortunately it seems as if the market is flooded with mostly chinese dash cams with poor instructions. Some are decent, some are crap. I would go with specs (hd - 720 or 1080p, gps built in, a decent sensor) rather than a brand at this point.

The rear dash cam is sort of a nice to have at the moment, really all you need is the forward one.

Most of them have some sort of looping recording built in so that if the card fills up, it will overwrite the older files.

The newest ones have a wifi hotspot built in so they can connect to your phone which is neat, but most of those forego the lcd screen which i'd rather have to make sure it's working (since it's chinese and all).

Even if you don't think you need one, really consider it. No one can confiscate shit that's your own personal property. People may try and pressure you to agree to hand it over but nope, it's not theirs.
 
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Hypergreatthing said:
I had a drive cam. I've been trying to figure out which is a good one and which is a bad one or have suggestions./QUOTE] Techmoan on YouTube does a lot of dash cam reviews. Even though he's in the UK, you can usually find them online on Amazon in the US.
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[21CW]killerofall said:
I am thinking about getting the Black Box G1W-CB. Anyone have positive or negative experiences with it (or with any of the G1W variants)?
Click to expand...

I use a G1W, it saved me from a lengthy insurance battle when some old asian woman ran a red light. Without it it would have been a he said she said situation, with me being a young 20 something year old driving a black S2000 and she being a 50 something year old driving a Volvo wagon. I'm sure they would have taken her side had it not been for the G1W.

However, I do not like suction cup mounts, too unreliable. I would get a mirror mount, or the A118 or B40. Same sensor and chipset, just a different body.
 
I bought one and promptly gave it away. I don't need any evidence that I speed and drive like an aggressive asshole to show an insurance company or a court room.
 
I have the Transcend DrivePro 100 and it's damn fine for about $89. Has a screen and it actually uses commercial IC's versus the consumer IC's of many others, so it can withstand high car temps. Many cheapo
Chinese cams shut down because of that. Also has a decent warranty (2 years?) and comes with SD cards.

Bought two and 3d printed some mounts. One for the mirror stem and one for the rear window. Works great.

I've heard bad things about the DrivePro 200/220 though.
 
id09542 said:
I have been using the G1W-C going on 2 years now. Works well, typical funky Chinese instructions, but it has been bullet proof for me. Do not use Samsung EVO memory cards, the for some reason they fry themselves after a few weeks of use. Video quality is surprisingly good.
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Maybe you bought a knock off or something, my Samsung EVO cards have been going strong for a year with 2 hours of driving every day.

EVERYONE go to DashCamTalk to compare and read dashcam reviews, also visit the forum to get help, share and learn.

Street Guardian brand is very popular and reliable, and manufacturer is very responsive on the dashcam forums.
 
kandrey89 said:
Maybe you bought a knock off or something, my Samsung EVO cards have been going strong for a year with 2 hours of driving every day.

EVERYONE go to DashCamTalk to compare and read dashcam reviews, also visit the forum to get help, share and learn.

Street Guardian brand is very popular and reliable, and manufacturer is very responsive on the dashcam forums.
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I have utilized that website many times, great place. On there they do confirm that the Samsung EVO are a problem and not to use them. Sounds like you had good luck, me not so much. You certainly do have to watch for knockoffs, mine is legit, even updated the microcode a couple times. Look for reviews of who you purchase from and even then it appears the knockoffs are sometimes hard to distinguish even from legit sellers.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
My Fiance gave me a super cheap shitty one as a joke after we watched some Russian dash cam videos online.

I imagine they have a legitimate purpose as evidence if there is an accident and an insurance company tries to screw you over.

The best use I found for it before it died was to share my frustration with terrible aggressive drivers, like this one:



Make sure to get one with HD resolution unlike mine, so you can get license plate numbers off of it :p

I've been considering picking up a couple (front and rear) as evidence in case anyone ever hits me again. I'd be curious what people consider to be good.
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Horns are meant for alerting other drivers, not because you're an angry asshole.
 
I work in accident and health insurance, but this puts me working with a ton of property and casualty insurance agents. Buy yourself a dash cam...It is absolutely worth having.
 
I have a Garmin NuviCam with a 64GB card. 1080p recording, plus gps and traffic(where applicable). I love it.
 
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auntjemima said:
He didn't come close to killing you. It's adorable you think so.
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Here's obviously someone who shouldn't have a drivers license. Either you don't have a clue what safe driving entails, or you don't understand how wide angle lenses work. He was less than a half a foot from my front bumper at almost 80mph. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him.

Generally when driving, you should never pull out into traffic (or merge into a lane) if it causes any other driver to change their speed or take an evasive maneuver)

Proper following distance is two seconds, which at 80mph is 235ft or approximately 16.5 car lenghts. Not 6 inches.

What that driver did was EXTREMELY irresponsible. He shouldn't have a license at all anymore. It's a shame there is never a cop there when you need one (but there is one there when you are going 60mph in 55 zone...)

Even I was way too close to the Rav4 or whatever the hell that was infront of me. A safe following distance should have been 3+ times longer than the distance between me and that car (shame on me, if I recall, I was coasting down from a higher speed because traffic was slowing down and I didn't want to waste fuel by hitting the brakes), and then this douche driving extremely aggressively squeezes in where there is no space at all.

Add to that, he was obviously racing that black merc that came after him. If there had been a cop there, he would have lost his license for YEARS.


If you don't think what he did was dangerous, then sorry pal, you probably shouldn't have a license either.
 
I have a front and rear mounted Mobius Action Cam, which are only $65 on ebay at the time and very discreet. USB powered, so they turn on automatically with the car, and have a battery so they record for 10 mins after parking.

They record automatically in a loop to my 32GB cards, which ends up being a couple days of driving for me.

Already used it once as a deterrent. The guy was lying his ass off, then I asked him to walk over to my car and pointed out the cameras, and recommended he change his statement before the officer arrives, informing him that insurance fraud and falsifying a police report are major criminal offenses (totally made up, probably not true), and he did changing his story to that he didn't realize that pulling onto the entrance ramp from stopped traffic wasn't a legitmate lane (he was cutting traffic) and that he didn't see me (I'm sure he did).
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Here's obviously someone who shouldn't have a drivers license. Either you don't have a clue what safe driving entails, or you don't understand how wide angle lenses work. He was less than a half a foot from my front bumper at almost 80mph. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him.

Generally when driving, you should never pull out into traffic (or merge into a lane) if it causes any other driver to change their speed or take an evasive maneuver)

Proper following distance is two seconds, which at 80mph is 235ft or approximately 16.5 car lenghts. Not 6 inches.

What that driver did was EXTREMELY irresponsible. He shouldn't have a license at all anymore. It's a shame there is never a cop there when you need one (but there is one there when you are going 60mph in 55 zone...)

Even I was way too close to the Rav4 or whatever the hell that was infront of me. A safe following distance should have been 3+ times longer than the distance between me and that car (shame on me, if I recall, I was coasting down from a higher speed because traffic was slowing down and I didn't want to waste fuel by hitting the brakes), and then this douche driving extremely aggressively squeezes in where there is no space at all.

Add to that, he was obviously racing that black merc that came after him. If there had been a cop there, he would have lost his license for YEARS.


If you don't think what he did was dangerous, then sorry pal, you probably shouldn't have a license either.
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Why do the math for legal following distance when you weren't following it either?

When people like you ride me, I lock up the brakes.

Remember 16.5 car lengths ;)
 
I've noticed dash cams popping up at CostCo the past few months, not sure if it's any good but it usually is an indication of trend following.

I just wish I could figure out how to have a near "invisible" cam, shit hanging from a suction cup is just retarded, it's like early GPS units which did that and put a big honking blind spot in your vision.
 
Probleminfected said:
I bought one and promptly gave it away. I don't need any evidence that I speed and drive like an aggressive asshole to show an insurance company or a court room.
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Without a warrant or a subpeona they cannot legally get that footage from you. The dashcams are for situations where fault isn't immediately clear from just looking at the accident scene or damage. Of course if you live in a no fault country or have no fault insurance...
 
auntjemima said:
When people like you ride me, I lock up the brakes.
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A good reason to have a dashcam. Intentionally brake checking is a criminal offense.

If your intentional action causes another vehicle further behind in the chain reaction to suffer a fatality, you can be held liable if there's someone with video evidence. You won't bare 100% of the blame, as the rear vehicle will be cited for following too closely, but you can both get "percentages of fault" in most states.

For example, police were looking for the driver that caused this crash due to brake checking... imagine if that SUV had crossed over into oncoming traffic and killed a whole family in a minivan in a head on:
 
auntjemima said:
Why do the math for legal following distance when you weren't following it either?

When people like you ride me, I lock up the brakes.

Remember 16.5 car lengths ;)
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Brake checking is also illegal, and for good reason, as it can get perfectly innocent bystanders killed. Just because someone else slips up, doesn't mean that you should cause an accident.

You seem to have some real driving aggression problems. Maybe you should seek help for that.

As I said, shame on me. I usually try to maintain a safe distance when driving, which according to the Massachusetts Drivers Manual (page 70) is a "minimum of 2 seconds" (not 2 car lengths like you said in that post you deleted) Every now and then I either don't think about it and get a little close, or allow my coasting down from a higher speed to consume a little bit of my safety distance so I can drive more smoothly and not use the brakes, after which I immediately return to a safe following distance.

Other things that are illegal include racing, weaving in traffic, passing on the right, all of which that douche was doing, and judging by how defensive you are getting about it, probably is how you drive as well.

People like you are the problem on the roads. They think they are better than everyone else, have better reflexes than everyone else, are a better driver than everyone else, so the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to them.

I've had no tickets in the last 15 years. How many have you had?

Do yourself a favor and change your ways, leave your testosterone at home and practice some zen when you drive, before you wind up losing your license, or worse, get yourself or someone else killed.
 
Then don't follow me. You think you'll guilt trip me by illegally following me and then claim I illegally brake checked? Get off my ass.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Brake checking is also illegal, and for good reason, as it can get perfectly innocent bystanders killed. Just because someone else slips up, doesn't mean that you should cause an accident.

You seem to have some real driving aggression problems. Maybe you should seek help for that.

As I said, shame on me. I usually try to maintain a safe distance when driving, which according to the Massachusetts Drivers Manual (page 70) is a "minimum of 2 seconds" (not 2 car lengths like you said in that post you deleted) Every now and then I either don't think about it and get a little close, or allow my coasting down from a higher speed to consume a little bit of my safety distance so I can drive more smoothly and not use the brakes, after which I immediately return to a safe following distance.

Other things that are illegal include racing, weaving in traffic, passing on the right, all of which that douche was doing, and judging by how defensive you are getting about it, probably is how you drive as well.

People like you are the problem on the roads. They think they are better than everyone else, have better reflexes than everyone else, are a better driver than everyone else, so the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to them.

I've had no tickets in the last 15 years. How many have you had?

Do yourself a favor and change your ways, leave your testosterone at home and practice some zen when you drive, before you wind up losing your license, or worse, get yourself or someone else killed.
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I have only ever had one ticket in my life and it was for 15kph over. It was many years ago. I drive just slightly over the speed limit, come to complete stops at EVERY intersection, even without traffic, and signal ALL turns or lane changes.

Don't assume you know me because I feel your driver habits are terrible.
 
Ducman69 said:
I have a front and rear mounted Mobius Action Cam, which are only $65 on ebay at the time and very discreet. USB powered, so they turn on automatically with the car, and have a battery so they record for 10 mins after parking.

They record automatically in a loop to my 32GB cards, which ends up being a couple days of driving for me.

Already used it once as a deterrent. The guy was lying his ass off, then I asked him to walk over to my car and pointed out the cameras, and recommended he change his statement before the officer arrives, informing him that insurance fraud and falsifying a police report are major criminal offenses (totally made up, probably not true), and he did changing his story to that he didn't realize that pulling onto the entrance ramp from stopped traffic wasn't a legitmate lane (he was cutting traffic) and that he didn't see me (I'm sure he did).
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Way to help out some guy that was willing to fuck you over. I've told my wife no matter what don't tell anyone you have the camera. Let them lie and fill out false statements and then right before everything is done you remembered it's there or wait till court . Some people will be desperate enough that they might try and get the camera.
 
auntjemima said:
Don't assume you know me because I feel your driver habits are terrible.
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You're not a safe driver, because you told us you're not. You told us you lock the brakes up if someone isn't following you at a safe distance. You can't admit to being an unsafe a-hole and then claim you're super safe, lol!
Way to help out some guy that was willing to fuck you over.
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There are over 7 billion and growing people on the planet, and at least a quarter of them are a-holes. The path of least resistance is to avoid a back and forth legal battle, because I could go on a purge style spree for the rest of my life and not make a dent in the number of a-holes in the world, so no point in trying.
 
I never said "super safe". Keep grasping at straws to justify your habits :)
 
auntjemima said:
No kidding?! For real?.. good god, you two are thick.
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You mixed me up with Zarathustra, as I never tried to justify any habits, nor even brought up my driving habits... you're so defensive at this point, you're not being rational, and it seems like you're more worried about winning an argument than discussing good driving practices.
 
I actually had to look up the term "brake checking", it's not a term I've heard before. Here in Canada the tailgater would be 100% at fault, drivers have right of way over vehicles behind them in the same lane. They actively teach people to flash the brake lights at tailgaters here. This of course assumes that you've already moved over to the far-right hand lane to let faster traffic pass*. Most problems with tailgaters are caused by jerks driving slowly in the left-hand lane. Then all the crazies weave crazily through traffic instead of just speeding by on the left. I've driven to places where they rigidly enforce the keep right rule and it definitely helps reduce problems like this.

* People in Toronto don't actually do this.
 
Quix said:
I actually had to look up the term "brake checking", it's not a term I've heard before. Here in Canada the tailgater would be 100% at fault, drivers have right of way over vehicles behind them in the same lane. They actively teach people to flash the brake lights at tailgaters here. This of course assumes that you've already moved over to the far-right hand lane to let faster traffic pass*. Most problems with tailgaters are caused by jerks driving slowly in the left-hand lane. Then all the crazies weave crazily through traffic instead of just speeding by on the left. I've driven to places where they rigidly enforce the keep right rule and it definitely helps reduce problems like this.

* People in Toronto don't actually do this.
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My philosophy when it comes to the right lane, passing, and obeying the law is as follows:

I'm usually the fastest driver in traffic. Occasionally someone wants to drive faster than me, but it's rare.

I'll pass in the left lane, and usually it's just a long conga-line of slower vehicles so since I'm constantly passing, I tend to stay there.

If someone comes up quickly behind me, I usually look for a way to let them passed, but won't do it if it means I have to squeeze in between cars that are too close together. Sometimes because of traffic this takes a while. I'm still not in the wrong, because I am still passing and have every right to be there.

If a slot opens, I move over to the right and let them pass, then move left again and continue passing myself.

If I catch up with someone who is driving slower than me ahead in the left lane, I'll take my foot off the gas and allow myself to coast down to speed. I don't try to intimidate them by tailgating. I don't pass on the right. Both of these are worse offenses than hogging the passing lane in the first place.

I slow down, keep my distance, and if in a hurry I might flick my high beams to convince them to let me passed, but only if they aren't passing and there is space for them to move left.

This is when I usually have to deal with aggressive tailgating, weaving and asshole drivers, either tailgating me, passing me on the right and moving into my safety space ahead of me.

Essentially just being asshole jerks. I want to be moving faster too, but I can't because of the car ahead of me, and I refuse to drive unsafely or violate the law.

People just need to chill and practice some Zen or something.
 
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