Dashcam recommendations

[Chris_D]

Got tw@tted yesterday by a dizzy betch who didn't even stop to exchange details / survey damage.
Turned around and gave chase but she had vanished. :x

So I'm now looking to install a decent dashcam (front & rear looking).
Has to be as unobtrusive and discrete as possible as while I think theyre a good idea I don't like having bits and pieces plugged in and wires traced all over the place.

Any suggestions? I've trundled through some posts here and Nextbase cams seem to be a popular choice.

The damage from yesterdays little contretemps! grrrr

 

[NickDE]

I have a Nextbase. Forward looking only. I also used the wiring kit to connect to the fuse box so the wiring is almost invisible.

 

[Zoomer]

Got the Halfords one and wired in on my daily.

 

[Jl-c]

Use Mobius on all my cars but not forward and rear facing, you would need two. Small and unobtrusive and a good quality picture, pretty good at night too for the money. £54.65 each from Banggood.com, Chinese site but have never had a failed delivery.

 

[MalNCH]

I'd recommend Aukey, quality is not far off my mates very expensive Nextbase and it has a wider angle lens 170 compared to his 140. You don't get an app for your phone and the option to download via wifi though.... depends what you are after, I'm just happy to record arsehole road users and record evidence in case of a shunt.

 

[ben g]

I've got a transcend dp200. I manually plug it into the cig lighter, incase I want to switch it off for any spirited drives :lol:

Does the job, catches great footage.

 

[oldgitdave]

I went for this for my X1 : https://www.avrmobiles.co.uk/acatalog/thinkware-f800-dash-camera-forward-rear.html. It's fit & forget tbh but very happy with the result. Professionally fitted at home & easy to use. I've played back couple of near misses & well pleased with the quality of the images. Depends how much you want to spend I suppose. I don't have one in my Z4 mainly because I don't do the mileage. Guess which one will be the first to be twatted :x .

 

[Davz]

Whichever make you go for just make sure it doesn't have a battery but has a super capacitor. The problem with the battery ones is that they can catch fire in direct sunlight.

I spent months reading about dashcams and went for Viccovation opia2 and two Vicovation Marcus 4's. The Opia is recognised for having the best video quality (2k 60fps) but also smart parking mode, with time lapse and motion activation. The Marcus 4 also has smart parking with 2560 x 1080 @ 30 fps and a superb 21:9 movie mode which provides a great cinematic video. Both cams are ultra HDR so low light quality is very good. I have had the Marcus' for 2yrs and the opia a year and have performed faultlessly.

I use two separate cams for front and back, if you go for a linked system make sure the bitrate is high enough to cope. Dod and Thinkware do a linked system but they are never going to compete in image quality to separate cams.

They do need hardwiring so a battery management device will be required or you run the risk of flattening your battery. Be wary of the cheap chinese ones on fleabay as the set voltage is too low and will ruin your battery. Vico do a high tech digital one but like all vico stuff its pricey.

techmoan is a good starting website for reading reviews but he doesn't seem to have reviewed much lately. Ignore the reviews on amazon, someone will say the image quality on a £50 cam is amazing but how can they compare to a high quality cam that they have no knowledge of?

 

[scarlet-jester]

So do I presume you all drive at the speed limit, or do they get turned off when you 'enjoy' your cars?

 

[enzed4]

So do I presume you all drive at the speed limit, or do they get turned off when you 'enjoy' your cars?

You can usually select whether to display speed and/or GPS, or not.
And of course we drive at the speed limit; we all bought Z4's to look good in (though I have to say that's a fail in my case :lol: )

 

[scarlet-jester]

You can usually select whether to display speed and/or GPS, or not.
And of course we drive at the speed limit; we all bought Z4's to look good in (though I have to say that's a fail in my case :lol: )

Even in an accident scenario? Will the camera ignore what the car was actually doing at the time?

 

[enzed4]

You can usually select whether to display speed and/or GPS, or not.
And of course we drive at the speed limit; we all bought Z4's to look good in (though I have to say that's a fail in my case :lol: )

Even in an accident scenario? Will the camera ignore what the car was actually doing at the time?

I don't see why not. If you turn off speed and gps display, it shouldn't be written to the file. Unless someone can show otherwise? My paranoia makes me doubt... :roll:

 

[wonkydonkey]

Whether your camera displays/records your speed or not, investigators would be able to determine your speed by picking reference points from the footage and timing your distance between them. This aspect of dashcam ownership is definitely the awkward part!

 

[adam04]

Nextbase also stores the information that can then be seen on their app (along side GPS position etc) even if not displayed.

 

[ph001]

For a very neat install - use the power feed from the rear view mirror - means you don't have to run wires down to the fusebox.... https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73905

 

[Davz]

For a very neat install - use the power feed from the rear view mirror - means you don't have to run wires down to the fusebox.... viewtopic.php?f=31&t=73905

The downside to this wiring method is that it is not a constant live so no parking mode.

Far better to wire to a live feed with a battery discharge device such as this........

 

[ph001]

I’m sure there will be a live feed up there as well. Parking wasn’t something I wanted so not an issue in my case.