Dash Cams

[flm_savage]

Perhaps I am just watching too many Russian dash cam videos on youtube but given the fact that I am seeing more and more distracted drivers these days coupled with the fact that I drive a company truck, I decided to invest in one.
After a few hours of reading reviews I picked up this one.
I know it has the older novatech chipset and not the Ambarella A7 but the quality seems to be great and their customer support has excellent ratings.

This is a video of the same camera.

Anybody else have one?

 

[WoodiE]

Hey @flm_savage what made you pick that dashcam? I've been thinking about getting one myself as I have about a 30-40minute commute each way for work and thought it might be a nice addition.

The one I see recommended a lot for budget cams is the Black box G1W. Costco also has a Cobra that's about $99.

 

[flm_savage]

I spent a few hours on this forum reading reviews and I came to the conclusion that no matter what camera you decide on, its going to have plenty of positive and negative reviews. Honestly it got to be very frustrating and I just about gave up on the whole thing.

There are a few things to consider. Most cameras will come with a 30s - 1 minute backup power source which is typically a small battery or capacitor. They say the capacitor ones are better suited for extreme temperatures but they are tougher to find and it wasn't a determining factor since i am not going to leave mine in the direct sunlight all day while the truck is off.
The chipset is also very important as this affects not only to the quality of the video but also how efficiently it compresses the video. My camera uses the Novatek NT96650 chipset which is older but very popular. Some cameras are equipped with the Ambarella A7 chip which is the same one that the GoPro uses. It offers a higher resolution than the Novatek but I didn't find the difference to be staggering. My camera uses about 100MB per minute @1080P

I work with a guy who has a G1W variant and he likes it however he mentioned it can start to mess up occasionally when the memory card gets full. Most cameras offer loop recording which just keeps overwriting the oldest file as the camera continues to record. For example, mine is currently setup to save the video every 5 minutes.

My camera also came with GPS included and its integrated into the mount which i thought was cool and didn't require me to purchase and mount another sensor.

I finally decided on mine for the following reasons:
1. Excellent customer service ratings and a 1YR warranty
2. Decent chipset offering great video quality and acceptable memory usage
3. Fairly small form factor with integrated GPS in the mount


I think that just about covers it.... Probably my longest post on RCNT.....

Let me know if you have any other questions while its still fresh in my brain.

few images i snapped today. wasn't planning to share so they aren't perfect. The big X is the ram mount for my phablet. haha

 

[robmob]

Man down!

Army sniper dude needs some help.

 

[flm_savage]

Haha, he made it. Twas but a flesh wound.