Dashcams

[Justin Wilcox]

Wow! That actually looks better than a lot of peoples hd cam footage. This thing caught my eye a while back.

http://www.dpreview.com/articles/69...mi-challenges-gopro-with-new-yi-action-camera

 

[Devin Pitts]

Picked up a new dash cam recently as my old one couldn't handle a Central California summer with it's battery. Picked up a Street Guardian SGZC12SS and got to take it out for a test run this past weekend. No audio as I had it muted without realizing and I haven't figured out how to remove the timestamp yet(if the option is there, it's not very obvious in the camera settings). Pretty happy with it regardless, picks up everything in the windshield no problem. The capacitor should get it through the summer well enough too.

Sun directly in the camera:

Storm view in camera:

Edit: I guess this camera doesn't have the option to turn off the timestamp, but the newer version of it does.

 

[James Hammett]

I just installed a Yi dash camera with a 64GB microSD card. Should be good for a nearly 8 hour loop. Not very stealthy but cheap and certainly less bulky than strapping a DSLR up there like I used to do. I hardwired it so it always records any time aux power is on. Video quality seems decent but I still need to test sky exposure.

 

[Adam Ploessl]

I've just been hanging the tablet in the window. Can do both streaming and recording. I've seen a couple others use phones either active or their old phone on a wifi connection.

Old photo, but same idea:
View attachment d3743ee10c6a9a86552f12401e4173d6.jpg

 

[Rick Schmidt]

I would be willing to bet that hanging ANY screen on the windshield would be illegal in most if not all states.

 

[James Hammett]

I sprung for a real dashcam for the loop recording and auto on/off. So there's no chance of missing something important year-round. It's also cheap enough to not be a huge theft target.

The law in most states is ambiguous when it comes to mounting devices on your windshield. But if it's larger or more obstructing than a typical GPS unit you may be asking for trouble (and dealing with a real safety concern).

 

[Adam Ploessl]

Like I said you can always switch to a smaller cell phone which would work just as good. I usually have the screen turned off and use a slightly smaller tablet than the one in the photo that is mound higher up and behind the rearview mirror, but the idea is the same and seemingly much less unobstructing. I have a couple dozen tablets of various models so I just use whatever is available when chasing storms instead of buying a lot of dedicated equipment.

 

[ScottCurry]

For my dashcam, I use an old Android cell phone running the "DailyRoads Voyager" App. I mount it in various places, but like to keep it low. One year, I had a tablet sitting at the top, right corner of my windshield, and I couldn't see the clouds because the tablet was blocking my view! I like having GPS, which can produce additional information beyond just a video. You can use the GPS information to overlay a map on your video if you want. I just display the text at the bottom of my videos. You can of course display as much or as little information as you want.

Go to 10 seconds in to see the GPS information...

 

[Todd Lemery]

Dash cams are so inexpensive nowadays, there's not a whole lot of reasons not to just hit up Amazon and check them out. If at the end of the day you want to save your video, you can just pull one card, insert another and you are all set for the next day. You can edit later when you have the time.

 

[Clarence Bennett]

Just got the Street Guardian SG9665GC V3 (2017 Edition) with 64gb card from Amazon. Quality is great, it is easy to use, and it starts recording as soon as it powers up. I have an F150, so I spent quite a bit of time trying to find the best place to mount it so that I could actually reach the buttons without having to fumble with it behind the mirror, yet still have it as close to center as possible. I may end up moving it, but so far, I am very impressed. One of the things I like about the Street Guardian is the 120 degree field of view...it is not too wide, but wide enough. Any wider and you start to get distortion.