Post by Bad Drivers of the DC Area on Jan 3, 2016 18:09:35 GMT -5
It’s a new year, and I wanted to start it off with a guide, so that you can learn about dashcams and what products are out there, I’m a good source for this because I’m a moderator in /r/dashcam on Reddit and a very active user in the DashCamTalk forum.
Battery vs Capacitor:
A capacitor is sort of a small battery that charges very quickly and discharges quickly as well, but it has the benefit of not wearing out, it’s used in computers, gaming consoles, etc. Dashcams use “supercapacitors” which are very big versions (see here) of regular capacitors. These supercapacitors can power a dashcam for as long as 10 seconds and may fully charge in that same amount of time.
Batteries are a bad thing in a dashcam, they’re not supposed to charge when it’s below freezing temperature, and if it’s plugged in, it’ll charge, and that will wear out the battery, they’re also not supposed to be exposed to high temperatures, so if your car is parked in the sun at high temps, they will lose capacity and may inflate and if they inflate, battery acid may leak out, and you probably don’t want that. Dashcams use much cheaper batteries than phones do, so a dashcam battery may last 10 minutes when new, by a year later it might only last 10 seconds. Most battery dashcams will not shut off instantly, they will delay 10 seconds before shutting off, so if you’re in an accident and turn off the engine, you might lose the clip, leaving you with no proof at all that you’re not at fault in that accident.
There’s benefits to batteries, you may show a police officer footage of the accident even if your car is not in working order, and you may film with the car off, and use the dashcam to take pictures of the damage if you don’t have your phone on you.
I recommend a capacitor if you wish to keep your dashcam on the long term.
Hardwire or not to hardwire? (And alternatives to hardwiring):
Hardwiring to your fusebox allows you to free your 12v ports, and maybe use your parking mode, there’s two main types of hardwiring, here’s the two:
Voltage-regulator for constant power, you use a device such as the Multisafer and hardwire it to two different fuses, one that’s always live, and one that only runs when the engine is on, you set it to the desired voltage limit so that it doesn’t fall under it (I recommend 12v, which should run a dashcam for a few hours without the risk of needing a jump), you may also set it with a timer, so If you’re at work for 5 hours, you set it for 5 hours.
The other option is hardwiring so that the cam runs just with the engine is on, there’s a couple ways of doing this, if your dashcam is 5v (check the power adapter that comes with the camera, if it says 5V 1.5A or 5V 1.0A) you would use this if your camera uses miniusb (G1W, A118, etc) or this one if your camera uses microusb (Mini 0801, 0803, 0805, 0806, 0826, 0901, etc)
There’s alternatives to hardwiring, if your camera is 5v you may use a cellphone power bank such as this one to run your camera while the car is off
And if you have the money, there’s power banks designed for dashcams that also work with 12v dashcams, they plug in or hardwire as a regular dashcam, and may allow you to use your camera 24/7, here’s some of them.
Memory cards, which to avoid and which to use
Let me start off with this: as of 2016, avoid Sandisk Ultra cards, the new batches of these cards are fully compatible with Novatek dashcams (G1W, A118, Mobius and others (I think DOD as well, not sure if they’re still using Novatek)), they may cause corrupted clips and may lock up the camera. I personally went through 3 dead Sandisk cards.
For dashcams, class 10 is recommended, and I suggest at least 32gb so that the memory card is not abused with constant delete and rewrite cycles, as they only have a limited amount of rewrites.
Brands to use:
Brands to avoid:
About Sandisk and warranty claims: Sandisk doesn’t cover cards used in dashcams, so if you do a claim with them, do not mention that it was used in a dashcam, as that will lead to your claim being denied.
Dashcams:
Cheapest
G1W-CB ($62) (Ebay ($49))
Basically a G1W with a capacitor and without the shiny ring in the middle, it’s a great reliable cam, and that specific seller has a 1 year warranty on it. Quality is great, and night quality is pretty decent.
Cheapest discreet
A118C ($80) (Ebay ($60))
Also known as the B40C, it’s the capacitor version of the A118. Same chip and cmos as the G1W-CB, so quality is similar. Lens is slightly wider than the G1W-CB, so it should catch more stuff. It sits closer to the windshield so rain doesn’t affect it as much, but it has a lot of reflection, and no CPL filter available, so it might be a problem. It’s way smaller than it looks and can hide perfectly behind the mirror.
Has GPS available, but it doesn’t embed speed in the video.
Cheapest dual-cam
Blacksys CF-100 ($90 but price varies a lot)
Cheapest dual-cam system that’s reliable and has real 1080p quality in the front. Rear camera is so-so and it combines the front and back into one .avi file, so regular players can’t play it. VLC and the included software are the only ones that can open those files. There’s a tool available to separate those files though.
Has GPS available, but it doesn’t embed speed in the video. No screen, just sound messages to know what’s going on.
Best night quality and best support
Street Guardian SG9665GC ($210)
I have this one, night quality is nuts, to the point where the sky lights up at night, it includes GPS but does not embed speed, support is the best out there, they will replace the camera instantly if there’s any issue. The owner of the company (jokiin) and the US seller (Pier28) are both very active in the Dashcamtalk forum
It has the same plastic casing as the A118C, so it looks the same (which is good, since it’s a very discreet cam), but the internals are very different, it uses different lens and a much better imagine sensor, which explains the amazing night quality, and it has an optional CMOS filter.
Feature-packed discreet dual cam
Blackvue DR650GW-2CH $350
It’s the most discreet dual-cam out there, it has plenty of features, including GPS, Wi-Fi, Cloud functionality, etc.
Audio quality is so-so, and the video isn’t the best out there, but it holds its own. Rear camera is 720p and is not the best out there when it comes to night.
If there’s a MiFI in the car, one may monitor the car’s location and see live video remotely, so that can be a very useful feature if one is using the camera in a shared vehicle, and may be used as a sort of lo-jack If needed.
Dashcams to avoid
B60: Claims to be a better version of the B40/A118 but it is made with less quality control and does not change any internal components, night quality is much worse.
KDLinks X1: Basically a G1W with a different body and GPS. Battery is very bad and swells up really easily. Plenty of much better options for the price
Mini 0806: Horrible reliability, claims to have a parking mode but it doesn’t.
Other cams
DOD LS460W: Same sensor and chip as the Street Guardian SG9665GC, but with a battery, so that could be a problem. Night quality is also very good. Has GPS embedded in the screen
Mini Series: They’re a lottery, build quality isn’t the best, but there’s a possibility you might get a good one. If you’re thinking of getting one, wait a bit, they’re releasing new versions with capacitor and (hopefully) better reliability.
Vicovation Marcus: Great reliable cameras, but form factor is horrible and they’re not widely used in the US, so I can’t vouch for them yet.
Dome D201: Not widely used, no support at all (generic Chinese camera only sold by Chinese sellers), battery, but it’s the only dashcam out there that does 1080p 60fps. Initial batches seem reliable and it has GPS.
Any questions/comments/disagreements please feel free to reply
Battery vs Capacitor:
A capacitor is sort of a small battery that charges very quickly and discharges quickly as well, but it has the benefit of not wearing out, it’s used in computers, gaming consoles, etc. Dashcams use “supercapacitors” which are very big versions (see here) of regular capacitors. These supercapacitors can power a dashcam for as long as 10 seconds and may fully charge in that same amount of time.
Batteries are a bad thing in a dashcam, they’re not supposed to charge when it’s below freezing temperature, and if it’s plugged in, it’ll charge, and that will wear out the battery, they’re also not supposed to be exposed to high temperatures, so if your car is parked in the sun at high temps, they will lose capacity and may inflate and if they inflate, battery acid may leak out, and you probably don’t want that. Dashcams use much cheaper batteries than phones do, so a dashcam battery may last 10 minutes when new, by a year later it might only last 10 seconds. Most battery dashcams will not shut off instantly, they will delay 10 seconds before shutting off, so if you’re in an accident and turn off the engine, you might lose the clip, leaving you with no proof at all that you’re not at fault in that accident.
There’s benefits to batteries, you may show a police officer footage of the accident even if your car is not in working order, and you may film with the car off, and use the dashcam to take pictures of the damage if you don’t have your phone on you.
I recommend a capacitor if you wish to keep your dashcam on the long term.
Hardwire or not to hardwire? (And alternatives to hardwiring):
Hardwiring to your fusebox allows you to free your 12v ports, and maybe use your parking mode, there’s two main types of hardwiring, here’s the two:
Voltage-regulator for constant power, you use a device such as the Multisafer and hardwire it to two different fuses, one that’s always live, and one that only runs when the engine is on, you set it to the desired voltage limit so that it doesn’t fall under it (I recommend 12v, which should run a dashcam for a few hours without the risk of needing a jump), you may also set it with a timer, so If you’re at work for 5 hours, you set it for 5 hours.
The other option is hardwiring so that the cam runs just with the engine is on, there’s a couple ways of doing this, if your dashcam is 5v (check the power adapter that comes with the camera, if it says 5V 1.5A or 5V 1.0A) you would use this if your camera uses miniusb (G1W, A118, etc) or this one if your camera uses microusb (Mini 0801, 0803, 0805, 0806, 0826, 0901, etc)
There’s alternatives to hardwiring, if your camera is 5v you may use a cellphone power bank such as this one to run your camera while the car is off
And if you have the money, there’s power banks designed for dashcams that also work with 12v dashcams, they plug in or hardwire as a regular dashcam, and may allow you to use your camera 24/7, here’s some of them.
Memory cards, which to avoid and which to use
Let me start off with this: as of 2016, avoid Sandisk Ultra cards, the new batches of these cards are fully compatible with Novatek dashcams (G1W, A118, Mobius and others (I think DOD as well, not sure if they’re still using Novatek)), they may cause corrupted clips and may lock up the camera. I personally went through 3 dead Sandisk cards.
For dashcams, class 10 is recommended, and I suggest at least 32gb so that the memory card is not abused with constant delete and rewrite cycles, as they only have a limited amount of rewrites.
Brands to use:
- Lexar
- Transcend
- Samsung (some people don’t recommend these though)
Brands to avoid:
- Sandisk (Except for the High-endurance cards, which are made for dashcams)
- Generic Chinese brands from ebay
About Sandisk and warranty claims: Sandisk doesn’t cover cards used in dashcams, so if you do a claim with them, do not mention that it was used in a dashcam, as that will lead to your claim being denied.
Dashcams:
Cheapest
G1W-CB ($62) (Ebay ($49))
Basically a G1W with a capacitor and without the shiny ring in the middle, it’s a great reliable cam, and that specific seller has a 1 year warranty on it. Quality is great, and night quality is pretty decent.
Cheapest discreet
A118C ($80) (Ebay ($60))
Also known as the B40C, it’s the capacitor version of the A118. Same chip and cmos as the G1W-CB, so quality is similar. Lens is slightly wider than the G1W-CB, so it should catch more stuff. It sits closer to the windshield so rain doesn’t affect it as much, but it has a lot of reflection, and no CPL filter available, so it might be a problem. It’s way smaller than it looks and can hide perfectly behind the mirror.
Has GPS available, but it doesn’t embed speed in the video.
Cheapest dual-cam
Blacksys CF-100 ($90 but price varies a lot)
Cheapest dual-cam system that’s reliable and has real 1080p quality in the front. Rear camera is so-so and it combines the front and back into one .avi file, so regular players can’t play it. VLC and the included software are the only ones that can open those files. There’s a tool available to separate those files though.
Has GPS available, but it doesn’t embed speed in the video. No screen, just sound messages to know what’s going on.
Best night quality and best support
Street Guardian SG9665GC ($210)
I have this one, night quality is nuts, to the point where the sky lights up at night, it includes GPS but does not embed speed, support is the best out there, they will replace the camera instantly if there’s any issue. The owner of the company (jokiin) and the US seller (Pier28) are both very active in the Dashcamtalk forum
It has the same plastic casing as the A118C, so it looks the same (which is good, since it’s a very discreet cam), but the internals are very different, it uses different lens and a much better imagine sensor, which explains the amazing night quality, and it has an optional CMOS filter.
Feature-packed discreet dual cam
Blackvue DR650GW-2CH $350
It’s the most discreet dual-cam out there, it has plenty of features, including GPS, Wi-Fi, Cloud functionality, etc.
Audio quality is so-so, and the video isn’t the best out there, but it holds its own. Rear camera is 720p and is not the best out there when it comes to night.
If there’s a MiFI in the car, one may monitor the car’s location and see live video remotely, so that can be a very useful feature if one is using the camera in a shared vehicle, and may be used as a sort of lo-jack If needed.
Dashcams to avoid
B60: Claims to be a better version of the B40/A118 but it is made with less quality control and does not change any internal components, night quality is much worse.
KDLinks X1: Basically a G1W with a different body and GPS. Battery is very bad and swells up really easily. Plenty of much better options for the price
Mini 0806: Horrible reliability, claims to have a parking mode but it doesn’t.
Other cams
DOD LS460W: Same sensor and chip as the Street Guardian SG9665GC, but with a battery, so that could be a problem. Night quality is also very good. Has GPS embedded in the screen
Mini Series: They’re a lottery, build quality isn’t the best, but there’s a possibility you might get a good one. If you’re thinking of getting one, wait a bit, they’re releasing new versions with capacitor and (hopefully) better reliability.
Vicovation Marcus: Great reliable cameras, but form factor is horrible and they’re not widely used in the US, so I can’t vouch for them yet.
Dome D201: Not widely used, no support at all (generic Chinese camera only sold by Chinese sellers), battery, but it’s the only dashcam out there that does 1080p 60fps. Initial batches seem reliable and it has GPS.
Any questions/comments/disagreements please feel free to reply