Guys, my wife got roughed- up by an idiot driver today, nothing physically just abuse and crap driving but she's a bit shaken up by it so i'm looking at fitting a dash cam. All these videos of road crashes seem to come from Russia where they tend to fit cameras because of the fraudulent accident risk and for insurance purposes. Has anyone got a reliable low maintenance camera fitted. I don't want to think about it until I need to take the card out and download some crap driving. Ideally it would just record over itself every 10 hours or so, I just need something simple, not some HD Go Pro.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 11:49 pm
by Gizmo68
I have a Blackvue DR 400 HD in my car, crystal clear images and does exactly what you want it to:
(Bear in mind youtube reduce the quality before they broadcast it)
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:00 am
by TimDogg
Thanks for that, you are awesome - I'll look it up. Looks like a great cam although you might not want to publish your 'dealer' going through a red light?
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:05 am
by MikeFish
Wow, that's great quality! How does it know the speed? I assume it is not wired to the cars computer and uses gps?
Dude, that is a blatant red light! Which raises a good point, can the police use your own camera as evidence to prosecute you for speeding/ dangerous driving?
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:09 am
by Gizmo68
I have no issues with anyone knowing what he did, he is even on camera an hour before this, the beauty is with the date, time speed and GPS location logged there is no way they can deny it (they had the car for a week for some warranty work, this incident happened 2 days before I got the car back!)
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:14 am
by Gizmo68
The DR 400 HD has built in GPS, I dare say it could be used as evidence against you (if they knew you had one fitted) but if you were in the wrong then it takes 2 seconds to pop the micro SD card, it only records onto this there is no internal memory.
I know the speed can be turned off (so it is not visible) I assume other things can be as well? but IMO you want as much info on there as possible if you are going to use it as evidence in your favour.
I was non to impressed with the fitter I can tell you, as you say he made no attempt to stop, the only saving grace is the other lights had not changed to green.
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:16 am
by TimDogg
You can call the police and complain, my wife did this and they said that they build a case every time somebody calls in until they have enough evidence to issue a fixed penalty notice. If the defendant complains then they just take him to court automatically using the evidence provided by the public. Some guys are just idiots on the road and deserve no place behind the wheel, unless you do something they will continue to be a menace - was he driving your car?
Yes as I say the car was in their hands all week, I did speak to the dealer who was very apologetic, lets just say my next service was not as much as it should have been.
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:27 am
by TimDogg
Good on you. I'd have still have shopped them to the police
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 12:30 am
by TimDogg
Thanks for the link - I'll join up and look to buy.
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:03 am
by Rick_RS4
sorry changing the subject to the video? did you get any compo from the fitter? thats terrible
Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:31 am
by sonny
Remember if you need these images to stand a good chance in court ( worst case scenario) you stand a better chance if they are time/date stamped.
Re: Wife threatened - anyone got a dash cam?
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 7:55 am
by adsgreen
+1 on the blackvue
It has some nice features
- you don't need to keep changing the SD card. It auto overwrites the oldest video.
- software is nice and easy to use.
- get the GPS version as it has google map and speed integration. It also gets the time from GPS so no need to worry about accuracy.
- good video even in low light
- internal mic
- parking mode is cool. Unit goes into a power saving mode but monitors the video feed. If it detects movement it records.
Fitting is easy - either run the wire round the windscreen to the fuse panel (garage door one is good) or direct into the overhead light panel.
You can get them from the manufacturer much cheaper too.