I've been wanting to get one but what I want is one that's built into the rearview mirror. That way all you would see is the power cord.

I've used the DashCamTalk web site before:

http://dashcamtalk.com/

 

I think I'm gonna give this one a try.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0091P...r=8-16&pi=SL75

It's relatively inexpensive and has good reviews.

Anyone knows of a conversion kit to skip the cig lighter adapter and hard wire straight to the fusebox?

 

Looks like a nice product. I could have used one to capture the plate of the @$##er hit my front bumper while parked!
I'd be in for one BlachVue

 

My question is not in jest, psh Roseanne

So the answer to your question yes! My car was hit recently, and if I were not there the guy probably would've ran. Could you divulge some more information on how dash cams work? How are they running all the time? How do you deal with memory storage issues?

 

One another option is to just use your iPhone or Android phone and get a Bluetooth OBD2 attachment and a RAM mount.

I use an app called Harry's Lap Timer that can receive Bluetooth data and wired data from external sensors such as OBD2 and GPS.
Harry's Lap Timer is for the iPhone. I'm not sure if he's ported the app to Android yet. There is an Android app call "Torque" that can take in OBD2 data but I"m not sure if it does GPS data. However, of the two programs only Harry's Lap Timer is able to take video and then do a data overlay. I believe "Torque" only shows data from the OBD2

Harry's Lap Timer (comes in 3 versions)
http://www.gps-laptimer.de/Home.html

Torque
http://torque-bhp.com/

RAM mounts
http://www.rammount.com/

 

the windshield mount dash cameras are very common in korea. they even have a tv show that has all the crazy stuff that happens. accidents/crimes/trees falling etc etc.

very cheap and simple!!!!

 

Ive never seen this site before, ill definitely check it out


this was one of my first choices on the type of camera, but I currently have an auto dim rear view mirror in my s2k and didnt want to lose that feature.

you can look up MagicPro from blackvue and it will allow you to hardwire straight to your fuse box


that sucks, and the chances someone saw or even cared to leave a note are slim. even if you had a witness, cops wouldnt do much and wont purse it as a hit and run and since most parking lots are "private" lots, youre SOL

they essentially hook up to your cig lighter and once it receives power, it will automatically start recording. the Blackvue cameras will actually have a voice saying "blackvue for your safe driving, starting normal recording" when it boots up. there is a good 5 second lag between power and starting to record.

it records to a mirco sd card and once full, it will auto delete the older files. you can upgrade to 16 gig or 32gig (depends on the model of camera)

yes you can make them run all the time. the camera will enter into "parking mode" after 10 mintues of non movement (another voice will say "parking mode enabled") to do this, you need to hardwire the cameras. you need MagicPro from blackvue.

in parking mode, the camera will not always be recording. if it feels a bump or something to set off the gsenor (you can adjust sensitivitiy) it will record 15 seconds BEFORE and 15 seconds AFTER the bump. i currently dont have any expereince with this as of yet. but will give it a try in the future.

ive seen this run in my friends crown vic. its a good idea and probably the cheapest since all you need to do is buy the obd2 adapter and a mount for the phone. but are you able to run programs in the background like stream music? and the idea of always having to hook it up and pushing record and not forgetting to do this might get old and i know for me, ill probably stop using it lol



yeah, ive seen some of those videos. crazy stuff

 

dr380 brand new in box


dr500 brand new in box


dr500 installed in my car (note, my whole front windshield is tinted 50%)


dr380 installed in my moms and sisters car

 

Nice set up Desii. Pretty darn stealth.

I too like the ones built into the rearview mirror (like Ldo mentioned) and I looked into those about a year or so ago. I was very hot for it, particularly the ones which allowed for multiple inputs so you could run other lens mounted elsewhere into it, but I couldn't really find a reputable supplier and any US reviews. The market has changed in that year's time and now you can find some reviews from people who have bought them. Techmoan.com did a review of a camera in the rearview mirror style unit and he did note some rather important downsides to them. But if you are okay with those issues, it's no biggie. They tend to be a little heavy (which could cause the ball mount to loosen up), they are wide and can impede the use of the sun visors (which won't matter if you don't use the visors ever), and on cars with already large mirrors there can be fitment issues since they clip over the existing mirror (in the S, that is unlikely to be a problem).

Lots of info out there to sift through. I've spent some time at http://www.carcamcentral.com/, http://www.dashcamtalk.com, and http://www.techmoan.com. I know there are many more forums as well.

 

Back at ya!

Desii covered pretty much all of your questions. There are some who would ask why not just run a GoPro and the answer is partly in what you have hit on when you asked how do you deal with storage issues. A GoPro works like a regular video camera and stops recording when memory is full. Unless you stop and start recording, it creates one big video file. A dashcam records in small segments (like 1-5 minutes and is usually adjustable) and it uses a First-In-First-Out method of overwriting footage. As the microSD card gets full, the oldest segment gets overwritten so that you never stop recording. It's basically a never ending loop. GoPro can't do that. Now, with a GoPro you find yourself having to edit *down* your footage length to upload to YouTube, with a dashcam you find yourself stitching together segments before upload, but most video editing software does that no problem. GoPros are always going to have better overall quality, but they have a different purpose than a dashcam. Dashcam is set it and forget it.

Now, if you are a couple of steps ahead of the discussion here, you might be wondering, "Well, what if I get into an accident but I don't pull the microSD card out right away? Will it overwrite my accident footage?" No. The impact of the accident causes the g-sensor to trigger an "event" and the camera saves the currently recording segment into a "lock" folder so it can't be overwritten. Some cameras will actually save not only the currently recording segment but the one just before and just after the event too. That's kind of nice. You can also hit a button on the cameras and artificially trigger an event. So you're driving down the 405 and you happen to come up on the Oscar-Mayer Wiener Wagon and you want to save your footage of it to share with your friends. Hit the "event" button and it will save that footage for you.

Desii already covered about the power supply. You can plug into the cig lighter or you can get a device like Power Magic Pro from BlackVue so you can make use of "park mode". I really really like the PMP idea. I mean, I seriously lust after it. I'm weird like that.

Some cameras don't necessarily use just the g-sensor to save a recording when in "park mode". Some of them use what acts like a motion sensor in that it detects a change in the image that the camera is seeing and detecting this change triggers an "event" like the g-sensor does. So let's say your car is backed into a spot in a parking structure while you're enjoying some tasty BBQ and you have the camera in park mode. If someone walks up to your car and decides to rattle-can their favorite message on your hood, you're going to have an excellent picture of them doing exactly that even though they haven't triggered the g-sensor to record the action. The change in image that the camera is viewing will trigger it.

Cool stuff, eh?