I really want a dash cam and motorcycle cam (maybe helmet, I don't really care) just in case I'm ever in an accident, and to record some cruising maybe. I don't need something super expensive or high performance like a GoPro but I dont' know what else is out there, what's good and what's just junk.
I'd like: Small and unobtrusive. High enough resolution to identify a car easily. Doesn't need to read bumper stickers but plates would be nice. Fish eye would be nice for getting a wider angle especially in the case of a some bonehead T-boning me. Swivel 90 degrees on a dash mount in case of power tripping pigs. Enough record time for a long cruise (few hours? half a day?) & easy to dump via USB etc. Aux power would be good for longer rides without relying solely on a battery.
You can try one of these which is basically a copy of a Go-Pro but this one is $47 and free shipping from Hong Kong. It comes with all of the attachments and a touch screen display. http://www.ebay.com/itm/720...&hash=item3cd2b37187
Your requirements are in a little bit of conflict...
A dash cam that is going to protect you in an accident is a different device than an all weather motorcycle cam.
Dash cams typically are going to record continuously every time the car is on, have a GPS receiver, accelerometer, and a lot have a rear looking camera to record almost 360 degrees.
A motorcycle cam is going to be a rugged water proof camera that mainly just records a few hours at a time on batteries.
Are there devices that can do both? maybe. Are they cheap? Could be, but you get what you pay for. The Go Pro is the gold standard for weather proof cameras. A top of the line dash cam will be over $200.
EDIT: I've bought camera stuff through AliExpress. Always got my product - often with FREE shipping too! ------------------ My World of Wheels Winners (Click on links below) 3.4L Supercharged 87 GT and Super Duty 4 Indy #163
[This message has been edited by fierosound (edited 09-10-2013).]
Well, AliExpress is wholesale so you have to buy several for the minimum order, but often the same items are being resold individually on ebay.
IMSA, that looks like the unbranded version of this "Polaroid", also sold as Panasonic, Emerson, Cobra, Vivitar, Gear Pro wahtever that is... It's not uncommon for the chinese manufacturers to sell unbranded versions of what they're contracted to make by bigger names.
IMSA, do you have any videos from that one? Driving or on a bike would be good, but anything just to see the quality first.
[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 09-19-2013).]
Looks like I can find one of those gopro clones for as little as $30-40 shipped. But the reviews say they're junk and 640x480, have recording issues. I might give it a shot.
Here's the best I can find, for a car. True 1080p, WAY better than the gopro clones. $30 amazon or 25 on fleabay, shipping included: TSSS C600
I've been wanting one of these for some time now but some of these sound way too good to be true - or i should say way too cheep. Anybody got video they can postso we can see the quality.
Looks like I can find one of those gopro clones for as little as $30-40 shipped. But the reviews say they're junk and 640x480, have recording issues. I might give it a shot.
Here's the best I can find, for a car. True 1080p, WAY better than the gopro clones. $30 amazon or 25 on fleabay, shipping included: TSSS C600
Anything that cheap in price is not going to be true HD. You are not going to get HD and a nice night time recording until you get into the $100 range or so. Those cheap ones do have a picture that will "work" in the daytime, but that's about it. Not going to make out any license plates or any great detail.
I'm not expecting night recording, but actually some reviews of the dash cam do confirm true 1080 HD. Even if you can't read a plate, it should cover my ass in case of an accident or police brutality. I'll try to remember to post back once I get these.
I'm not expecting night recording, but actually some reviews of the dash cam do confirm true 1080 HD. Even if you can't read a plate, it should cover my ass in case of an accident or police brutality. I'll try to remember to post back once I get these.
I saw the reviews, but will say again, it is not. The first unit I ordered from ebay was supposed to be 720 HD, it was not. The trick they do to make it seem like a high resolution, like in the review, is interpolation so it takes a smaller resolution and makes it seem larger in the file. If you are lucky it might be a 640 by 480 and stretched out to 1080. I'm sure you know what that will look like. Night time might show a deer the split second before you hit it in the center of the grill, but that's about it. There are many knock offs of these units as noted in my first post here. Now for daytime use, yes it should do exactly what you want in your last post. Good enough, but no where near great. Sorry but 20/30 bucks for a true HD car dvr is not going to happen.
I'm not expecting night recording, but actually some reviews of the dash cam do confirm true 1080 HD. Even if you can't read a plate, it should cover my ass in case of an accident or police brutality. I'll try to remember to post back once I get these.
As far as recording police officers go, be very careful. Depending on the state, it is illegal. In Illinois, people have been sent to prison for recording officers with a helmet cam either without the officers knowledge or refusing to turn it off during a traffic stop. And yes, I did say prison. For years.
As far as recording police officers go, be very careful. Depending on the state, it is illegal. In Illinois, people have been sent to prison for recording officers with a helmet cam either without the officers knowledge or refusing to turn it off during a traffic stop. And yes, I did say prison. For years.
Might be wrongfully arrested by a cop that does not know the law, but illegal, not as of late last year.
Thanks for the warning Paul, but IIRC that BS was thrown out of court. The appeals court affirmed his right under the 1st Amendment, and that also sets a good precedent for anyone else put in the same position to have the case thrown out immediately. Eavesdropping/tapping laws are a separate issue from First Amendment recording rights, and this is a constitutional right to record public events and public officials in the line of their duty. Also, I checked my state laws on recording conversations & calls years ago just be safe (i.e. eavesdropping/tapping) and it's an "at least one party" state. That means anything can be secretly recorded as long as one part in the conversation knows, and that includes the person recording. If you call me or pull me into an interview or meeting, I don't have to tell you that I'm recording every word.
quote
Originally posted by Lambo nut: I saw the reviews, but will say again, it is not. The first unit I ordered from ebay was supposed to be 720 HD, it was not. The trick they do to make it seem like a high resolution, like in the review, is interpolation (...) Sorry but 20/30 bucks for a true HD car dvr is not going to happen. Kevin
Good info and I'm aware of the interpolation "stretching" tricks, but I will say again that IT IS 1080p. I just tested it. Yes, it was $26 "or best offer" on eBay, shipped to my door, and the sensors are cheap and noisy in low light, but it's still 1080p with audio!
I'm going to play with them and maybe post some videos of the quality outdoors. I expect it to be noisy and shake a lot, but they should work for what I need at a price I'm comfortable with until I can afford something better and give me a good idea whether I want to invest in something nicer.
[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 09-23-2013).]
Good info and I'm aware of the interpolation "stretching" tricks, but I will say again that IT IS 1080p. I just tested it.
Interesting that the reviews say that too, yet then say the plates and logos are somewhat blurry. Well if the thing was true 1080p they would be crystal clear. Seems a lot of people don't know what a true 1080p dvr carcam picture should look like. The video one reviewer posted looks like crap. My 720p that was not 720p looks better then that. Still, anything is better then nothing.
Kevin
[This message has been edited by Lambo nut (edited 09-24-2013).]
Crystal clear, not necessarily. Even true 1920x1080 can be blurry with bad light or something, especially with a cheap sensor that needs good lighting to avoid noise, and cheap optics to boot. But yeah, that video is horrible in the review. I don't know what that reviewer posted but it's definitely not representative of what the camera records. My guess is Amazon shrank it and re-encoded with horrible compression which is why you can't even read the date/time stamp. Even if the reviewer set it to low resolution, the time stamp stays the same size in pixels so it should be clearly visible.
I'll upload some video whenever I drive a car next. While the weather's nice I'm on the bike with the GoPro lookalike.
[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 09-24-2013).]
You have a good point. No telling what happened during the upload of the video. I am very interested to see your videos when you get a chance to post some.
My Advice is buy high definition only as the insurance companies especially if disputes involving same insurance will claim footage is grainy etc and dismiss evidence and plate wont show up within 5 meters if not hi def.
Kevin, like I said, I'll get to it when I drive a car next. I've been riding on 2 wheels every day instead. Chill out and stop insinuating things.
I'm cool as a cucumber. But seeing is has been three weeks since you got your toy and haven't spent the 30 minutes or so it would take to produce a video to show us just how good it is, pretty much speaks volumes.
My Advice is buy high definition only as the insurance companies especially if disputes involving same insurance will claim footage is grainy etc and dismiss evidence and plate wont show up within 5 meters if not hi def.
Translation, don't buy a $26 "High Definition" camera.
Well I don't need to capture license plate numbers, which don't show up if someone runs a stop sign anyway, unless they have plates on their doors. Even if plates don't show up, I'll be able to record enough to show whose fault an accident was. That's plenty for the police/insurance co/court, and that's all I intended them for.
Translation: a $26 HD camera suits me perfectly well for all of my purposes, including cost-benefit ratio.
Kevin, assuming that I'm beholden to prove anything to you, much less make it a priority over everything else I have going on, and thinking that I'm full of BS if I don't speak volumes about you and your attitude. I'm loaning two cars to family members for free, my little sister who is in college and my physically disabled father. Plus, like I said, I ride when the weather permits which has been every day. So no, I've been riding my bikes instead, I honestly haven't been on 4 wheels in over a month, and I will test these in a car when I do drive one.
So I can take footage on the bikes, but I'd have to duct tape the suction cup mount to my headlight bucket or something and it would vibrate like hell and make it blurry anyway, which it wouldn't do mounted in a car. Or I can take handlheld footage if you're so impatient and demanding of proof. Maybe I'll do that just to shut your smart mouth...
Uploading degraded the quality a bit so apparently YouTube transcodes even standard AVIs to save bandwidth. The original AVI is a little better if anyone wants to see it, but I guess gmail limits attachments to 25 MB. If you have another way, I can share it. But here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpvXhZi-GVI
What's that? That's 1080p with plates clearly readable past highway following distance. Still readable with enough room for a full size suburban to merge in between. I really don't think you can beat this with anything short of something that retails at $200-400.
Translation: A $26 HD camera is great for the price.
[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 10-15-2013).]
Uploading degraded the quality a bit so apparently YouTube transcodes even standard AVIs to save bandwidth. The original AVI is a little better if anyone wants to see it, but I guess gmail limits attachments to 25 MB. If you have another way, I can share it. But here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpvXhZi-GVI
What's that? That's 1080p with plates clearly readable past highway following distance. Still readable with enough room for a full size suburban to merge in between. I really don't think you can beat this with anything short of something that retails at $200-400.
Translation: A $26 HD camera is great for the price.
Just what I thought, you have no clue what a true high definition picture from a car dvr should look like.
You are correct though in that it is good for its price. I never said it wasn't, just that you are not going to get a TRUE 1080p high definition grade picture as proven above. My cheap ebay one looks the same (actually better) and it was supposed to be 720p, but only actually records in 640x480 which is just barely good enough. Hell I could say it is 1080 all day long, but will not change the fact that it has a crappy picture. I can read the plate of the car in front of me as well, but when you get time to test in a vehicle, you will not be able to make out signs on the road until you are up on them or plates on the other side of the road.
I got nothing against you or your camera. I believe you when you say the dvr says it is 1080, and that you think it is 1080, but it is not. I just don't want someone coming in the thread and think they are going to buy a DVR for their car that has TRUE 1080p capabilities for $26 bucks, It ain't going to happen.
Kevin
[This message has been edited by Lambo nut (edited 10-15-2013).]
