Thread: In Car Camera

Similar to the one I bought from Deal Extreme about a year ago.
One thing you should check though is that the camera has the option to record in segments. For example mine has the choice of breaking up the continuous recording in 1, 2 or 15 minute sections. So each file is 1, 2 or minutes in length. Once your memory card is full it will automatically overwrite the oldest file.
My brother bought a cheap camera the other day but took it back after he found out it wouldn't break the recording up like this but instead recording one full file. Once your memory card is full it will just overwrite the one whole file (not leaving you with any backup)
The other thing to look at is how you can power it.
Battery life on most of them is not very long so usually you'll leave the charger plugged in.
Again my brother found out that the one he bought would not record while charging.

Cheers weirdo, all good things to look out for that I wouldn't have thought of.

They are also becoming a must have with some of the loons on the road

Yeah that vid of the loon that was posted made me think about it. If he hadn't have had the footage I doubt anyone would have believed what happened.

It'd be good piece of mind for insurance too. I am amazed at how cheap these cams are.

Originally Posted by warbo

Yeah that vid of the loon that was posted made me think about it. If he hadn't have had the footage I doubt anyone would have believed what happened.

It'd be good piece of mind for insurance too. I am amazed at how cheap these cams are.

Absolutely. Its something only video can explain.

And it would be good to see how many near accidents my missus has

Originally Posted by warbo

Can anyone recommend a fairly decent in car camera?

It got me thinking when I saw this one for $68

There's 2 reviews at your linked site and they say it does record in segments but you only get about 40 minutes worth on a 4gb card before it starts overwriting. Still, not too bad really if you only drive 30 minutes to work. Nothing happens and it just starts recording over it again. You only want 10 minutes or so if pointing out a crash or something, and then you'd just stop recording after it happened. Doesn't seem like too bad of a cheap starter unit really.

+1 with what AA23 says . i have a $33 ebay special car cam in both cars , loaded with 32G SD cards , which give about 3 - 4 hours recording time. I have 2 spare SD cards in the glovebox so if an incident happens i can swap cards , keep the evidence safe and keep recording.

for installation i have mine mounted high on a bracket attached to the sunvisor clip thingy mounting screw. power is drawn from the interior light , run to a 12v ciggy lighter socket which the camera 12v adaptor is plugged into. ( the lot tucked into the rooflining ) i can turn this on and off via a microswitch , but usually leave it running all the time . current draw is 70ma.

video quality is reasonable , but i'm not complaining for the price. one day i'll get a better quality unit. i find that to effectively read say a number plate you have to be within a couple of car lengths to the car in front. which is fine.

Ive got a navig8tor, bought from post shop $80, it works a treat

I have no idea if the same setup is available cheaply but I like the way the Police ICV setup works, they basically idle without saving video until triggered (by any number of automatic triggers like activating the beacons or they can be triggered manually), then they will back-capture a set amount of time (like 30 seconds) from before the trigger was activated, and only then will it save the video.

Saves a lot of memory being used up on hours of mundane driving but still able to catch the 'action' when needed; see a dickhead, hit a button or flick a switch and dial TT's phone number (on your hands-free kit of course)!

Andrew

I got one from Rhino a while back to have a play with. $79 for single chan & $116 for 2 chan. The wide angle lens distorts the perspective. on the built in screen it looks like you are going 200kph & traffic that overtakes you or is coming the other way looks like they are going 500kph. Pull the SD card & play back on the computer it looks a whole lot better. Recorded images are in 2 minute files. Night vision is useless. Don't sing to yourself in the car cause the kids will swipe the footage & put it on you tube. Probably not a waste of money at that price.

Originally Posted by watchdog

I got one from Rhino a while back to have a play with. $79 for single chan & $116 for 2 chan. The wide angle lens distorts the perspective. on the built in screen it looks like you are going 200kph & traffic that overtakes you or is coming the other way looks like they are going 500kph. Pull the SD card & play back on the computer it looks a whole lot better. Recorded images are in 2 minute files. Night vision is useless. Don't sing to yourself in the car cause the kids will swipe the footage & put it on you tube. Probably not a waste of money at that price.

Hahahha.. that cracked me up....

I ended up buying the camera from officeworks online. Was pleasantly surprised that free shipping was included too!

Good info thanks

Originally Posted by best4less

You got a link to the one you got boss ??

If you're talking to me I'm just the sh*tkicker!

Originally Posted by jok11n

Here's a screenshot from my cam which is full HD
link to the pic here for full size image

What cam is that one jok11n?

it's my own product I've been working on

I got a cheapy one of egay a year ago wast of money the res is total crap,, If there was a car in front of you at the lights you can't even make out the number plate its that bad, and the color is stuffed also for some reason the sky is a pinky color,

Great thread Warbo and guys.. I was thinking the same thing after watching that nutbag road rage video.

Let us all know how the Kaiser camera goes Mate.