Dash Cam In Car Recorder

I know these were discussed on the forum a while back, but I decided to purchase a dash cam mainly for our trips in Europe in the event of an accident occurring and having some kind of visual evidence. They can also be used in a fun way by recording certain drives for uploading on YouTube which we hope to do when we go over the Millau viaduct & the Du Tarn Gorge when we go to France shortly.

The model I got is this one from eBay and seems ok




I understand in Russia that dash cams are compulsory and I heard on the radio recently that a truck driver is given a dash cam by his insurance company and is given a cheaper premium as a result of using it.

Hi CC

Have you got a link please?

PB

That looks much neater than the type I have. A local taxi company which has 20+ cars has had to buy them for all their cars following a spate of accidents, insurance company insisted on them.

Can't find the link for the seller I bought from as I used the eBay app.... Here is the same camera from another UK seller though so should be the same 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Full-HD-1080P-Mini-Size-Car-Truck-Cam-Dash-Dvr-Video-Camera-Recorder-HDMI-/111043825086?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19daba4dbe


Apparently these are copies of a well known cam minus built in GPS. On the screen they are very discrete and for the money I'm pretty impressed with mine. Truth will tell when I upload footage as to how clear it is but I saw an upload on YouTube of the same cam and it looked pretty good to me...

Paulmold wrote:That looks much neater than the type I have. A local taxi company which has 20+ cars has had to buy them for all their cars following a spate of accidents, insurance company insisted on them.

They were discussing dash cams on Radio 2 recently and they way they were talking it sounds like insurance company's are insisting on them a lot where driving is an occupation. 

One word of caution I would mention is to disable the audio.... I often rant while driving and this could possibly be used against you as evidence so I've just set it to record video and not audio as well.

CruizingComet wrote:..............

One word of caution I would mention is to disable the audio.... I often rant while driving and this could possibly be used against you as evidence so I've just set it to record video and not audio as well.

Oh how I like the honesty of that one!!  

My favourite saying (borrowed from my Uncle Jim) is "I'll buy you that bit of  ing road mate!" which I am sure would not translate very well overseas!! 

I'm seriously thinking of investing though.  With the amount of overseas driving that I do it seems to be another notch in the "Peas of Mine" belt. 

Best regards,

I'm seriously considering a dashcam after my incident with the dog and it's owner.
The neatest one must be the Mobius, it's tiny but the video quality is really good. Review here:
http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2013/7/8/the-mobius-camera-the-do-it-all-mount-anywhere-1080p-micro-c.html

Frank

Another reason for having these is to avoid scammers who hit you on purpose as seen here 

https://youtu.be/YWvG4KAYJfY

CruizingComet wrote:Another reason for having these is to avoid scammers who hit you on purpose as seen here 

https://youtu.be/YWvG4KAYJfY

Love it!!  

Reminds me of a sign in a local pub that says "Please don't ask for credit as a smack in the mouth often offends!" and I think that may have been the level of shock when the innocent driver pointed to his camera! 

I think I am sold on the idea! 

Best regards,

Be careful where you position them. If it blocks your view of the road it's an MOT failure.
You could always remove it before the MOT of course, and put it back after.

Frank

boxerman wrote:Be careful where you position them. If it blocks your view of the road it's an MOT failure.
You could always remove it before the MOT of course, and put it back after.

Frank

IIRC things like satnavs, cameras, fluffy dice, nodding dogs, christmas trees, etc., must not impinge on the area of the windscreen that is swept by the wipers, though I've only heard this anecdotally and not seen an original written source. If correct, I'd guess that a lot of satnav users would fail the rule.

Incidentally, it seems a daft, arbitrary rule in a way, in that as far as I'm aware there is nothing to prevent you as a car owner from fitting shorter wiper baldes! But in fairness the idea behind it (that people should not be driving around with their windows obscured) is a sound one. I recently saw a young lady driving a car with no less than four A4 "For sale" notices taped on windscreen, rear screen and both front side windows!

http://forums.motester.co.uk/forum3/2914.html
Browsing through this forum, it seems that it's the drivers view of the road which must not be blocked, it does not specifically mention the area swept by the wipers unless it's damage to the windscreen.
In fact, one thread is a discussion on some Jaguar rearview mirrors which are technically an RFR  but are only allowed to pass because they are a factory fitment.

I agree that you see some satnavs in silly places and I suspect that they are removed at MOT time or they get failed.

One thing that makes me cringe in winter is the sight of people driving around with all the windows covered in frost apart from a "letterbox" on the windscreen.

Frank

Well I've also gone and bought one.

I never realised there was so many to choose from ! 100..s....and together with all the models there are equally differing views
as to how good or not each model is. Again the views can be as diverse  as 'brilliant' to 'utter c**p'.

In the end I finished up with the same model Frank was looking at. The video review impressed me as did other views on the net.

I paid £60 for it...could 've got it for slightly less but I was impressed again by the reviews on this dealer:

link   http://webbex.ecrater.co.uk/p/18141697/mobius-action-camera-micro-hd


I was in France a couple of years ago and I had my wing mirror taken off by a Lexus/4x4. He just took off. The camera would have helped me

in what could be difficult circumstances when dealing with officials who do not speak english.I'm about to go back and so now I'm prepared!

Cheers Ian

Hope you've ordered the mounting bracket as well?
I've ordered mine from China, £44:60 + £2:91 for the suction cup thingy, post free.

Frank

I recently purchased an electronic control box from China and got caught over £20 with customs....I've now gone off that idea.

Good Luck

Ian

That's a bit steep!
Fingers crossed

Thanks for the warning.

Frank

ian wrote:I recently purchased an electronic control box from China and got caught over £20 with customs....I've now gone off that idea.

Good Luck

Ian

Ouch, unlucky, I buy loads of stuff from china & never had problems, just got a £350.00 full FPV system, straight through, no probs, 
saved over £100 UK prices:allthumbz:

The control box was a really nice piece of kit.

This is the way it worked with customs.

Once the item had arrived in the UK it passed to Royal Mails responsibility.

Customs then added its charges...which was only a small amount.

Royal Mail automatically paid this and then wrote to me to advise I had a parcel for delivery.

Included were their charges for paying the customs. From memory they charged £18 for this service!!! 

I had no choice 'pay up' or no parcel.

Daylight Robbery.

It seems that customs charges are 'hit and miss' 
But Royal Mail are taking the p*ss!

'Calm down Ian, and take your pills'. You're a poet.


Ian (why is it that I never get away with anything?) 

Had a in car-cam for long while now, got it from Amazon £30 odd with SD card. Maybe not the best but does it`s job. No insurance discount, just some reasurance when driving.

Gary

Got mine yesterday!

Spent half a day reading, reading again, and then giving up on the instructions.

It's not that the instructions are poor it's that I forget the last one as I move on to the next!  

Anyway managed to 'engineer' a fixing mount onto my satnav mount and then went out for a drive.

Came home and plugged into the laptop and it's brilliant. Picture is really very good. Great view of the road as if you
were driving the motorhomw.

I'm going to play around with the settings again today.....don't understand the terminology in the instructions

and so will have a look at the you tube video.

I'm glad Frank put this one up because judging from all the reviews it does appear to be a reliable and effective camera.

Cheers Ian

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Hi Ian,
I've been reading on some forums that the camera can cause probs with some GPS units if it's mounted too close.
As yours is right next to your GPS, I take it yours OK?

Have you downloaded the mobius setup programme?

Frank

ian wrote:Got mine yesterday!

Spent half a day reading, reading again, and then giving up on the instructions.

................

Ian,

You would make a very poor Operator in the oil and gas industry!  Reading the Manual first? Whatever next!! 

The Operator's motto is "When all else fails read the Manual." and here you are reading the Manual and THEN trying to get it to work!!  No wonder you failed!  

I have my better half's permission to buy one. After reading your Post I will watch the video again, and again and maybe again again!! 

Best regards,
 
Ian

Hi Frank,

My TomTom is less sophisticated than most(older model) and no the mobius hasn't interfered but then I've only been up and down the road! I'll see what happens on the open road.

I wanted to mount it as discretely as possible and feel this has been achieved. It is so small!

One thing I should have bought is a second mount for using the mobius in my car.

I've been into the setup program today and now have the mobius set to start recording on power on.

It is also set for loop and I've turned the audio off. The actual video settings I've left on default.

The results were amazing. Difficult to make any criticism of the quality.

It's a shame to be only using it for its purpose in the motorhome.


Cheers Ian

ps Ian (I wrote mine as you were doing yours)

I'm not usually one for instructions but on this occasion all you are faced with is this matchbox sized black box!

Difficult to decide what to do!!  

There's better help on the website tho'

Cheers Ian

CruizingComet

A quick question on the dash cam you posted the link for, can it be mounted with the suction cup on it's base?
I have a notion to fit it nearer the bottom of my windscreen, it would be less intrusive and nearer the 12v socket.  Like that I could have the suction cup at the bottom of the screen and the camera perched above it.

Many thanks for the link.

KR

Ken

Hi Ken,

If you look at the video link it shows you the different types of connections you can have.

I went for the basic which is similar in size to a box of matches. It has a detachable sliding base.

You can attach this base with double sided tape(supplied) or you can use the female nut that can be fitted to tripod bases.

Difficult to explain...watch the video

Cheers Ian