do you have a dashcam?

Next base from Halfords, £150 and hard wired into car. Fit and forget and it stores memory that can’t be overwritten in the event of a high G loading (i.e. if there’s an accident).
Wife got hit head on (on her side of the road) and the guy put his hands up for driving not he wrong side of the road. Police, ambulance were both in attendance and her back is still iffy 6 months later. My Discovery was written off.
Pictures were taken of my Discovery alloy being pressed into the wooden bank on the near side, where my wife had taken avoiding action and the guy made a statement admitting he was on the wrong side of the road to the Police. There were no white lines in the middle of the road and no CCTV. His insurers tried to claim 50/50!!!
Cameras fitted to all our cars now.

wolfenstein – Member

huckersneck – Member
There are many updates to that camer, wolfenstein, up to the 80806 now?

what do you mean updated? I assume you got one… can the GPS logger be deactivated?…I’m GPS data shy [/quote]

Mother of God! I apologise for the terrible spelling etc. in my post.

I don’t have one of these cameras but kept an eye on them for a while, as I generally move towards getting one. I seem to remember that the GPS capability was in the mount rather than the camera itself? So you can therefore choose what capabilities you want in your system.

Assume it could always be used against you though too!

His insurers tried to claim 50/50!!!

THIS is where they come into their own. There’s SO many accidents whereby it might have been either drivers fault, when looking at the incident after the event, without the benefit of footage. Pretty much any lane discipline incident, anywhere where markings on road aren’t clear, any bump where parties dispute what the traffic lights said, etc, etc. In these circumstances, it’s absolutely no skin of the nose of insurance companies to go ‘knock for knock’. They share the cost, and BOTH get to sting their drivers for excesses, lost no claims and increased premiums. It’s a no brainer for them. Footage just clears this all up. If you’re a half decent human being, you could also volunteer your footage as a witness to anything too. I reckon in a few years they will be almost compulsory, by means of insurance premiums being silly without one.

My dash cam and rear cam set up arrived t’day (see the flying Ox’s link on first page), looks good, simple to use and the picture quality is decent – I’ll get it hardwired in to my van t’morn.

@somafunk.. im looking at that as well dude.. can you comment on pictures at low light…and can it be fitted with tape and not suction cup thingy?

im also interested in how unobtrusive it can be, and how easy to wire up…..

Shit!……in my pinot noir addled confusion i seem to have refreshed the page instead of posting the carefully thought out few paragraphs of review i had typed – bugger……….. 😉

Never mind, Yes it’s worth it,
Yes the the picture quality is fine
The rear camera is decent enough for it’s purpose, and it’s handy as an aid to reversing my van.
Camera quality is surprisingly decent and very solid in use, the functions are easy to access.
I imagine if you have on ounce of mechanical aptitude you will be able to use/bodge the many aftermarket mounts to get it to fit as you wish.

review over, got wine to finish and tea to get.

Some useful info there Somafunk, cheers. Think I’m going to order one of those in the near future. Plan is to plug it into the power socket in the boot and run wire along the top of the doors inside to the rear view mirror. Do you reckon the wires supplied are long enough for this or do they assume you’ll plug it into the front ciggy lighter?

plug it into the power socket in the boot and run wire along the top of the doors inside to the rear view mirror

thats what I’ve done with mine, so some manufacturers supply a long enough lead. Every dashcam I’ve had anything to do with has had a generous lead.

The usb supply power lead/cig lighter fitting is approx 3.4m long, I’m going to cut it and connect to a switched live feed on my fusebox so it starts filming when my ignition is switched on.

going to cut it and connect to a switched live feed on my fusebox so it starts filming when my ignition is switched on.

Don’t forget about the whole 12v down to 5v thing (I’m sure you haven’t, but I wouldn’t want you to fry your cam)

I have a 5v feed out of a separate 12v – 5v feed into fuse box as I’ve previously wired in two usb sockets for my iPhone & stuff and a socket in the rear of the van for recharging stuff, I’ll take my live feed from that as the supply is rated at 8000 mAh or thereabouts.

I think the majority of drivers should have dash cams..and volcano insurance.

Not for me, unless I was doing silly miles professionally or had a habit of close misses.

S.Manchester drivers? Don’t drive in Trafford park, full of commuters in a rush to get out of Manchester!

Easy to tuck wires behind trim panels. Airbags WILL NOT go off unless you apply a voltage to the connectors. The risk is (in theory) that this could be a static charge from your clothes. But only if you unplug and handle it. There is zero risk tucking wires behind panels that may also have airbags somewhere nearby.

Whilst I do agree with you, I would caution that manufacturers often advise against this, presumably because they perceive a risk of wires getting tangled up in airbags as they deploy. My handsfree kit is mounted with the wires tucked into the A pillar, though. I suspect it’s fine unless you go shoving a few yards of excess wire in there.

Just wondering, could you not take a feed from the courtesy lights? Would save removing A pillar trim in many cars.

Its ok fitting wires in the side pillars, just dont run the wire over the top of the air curtains or it will inhibit there operation when needed.

My cam turned up today and it seems ok (better than nothing). I don’t think I will use the rear cam. I need to purchase one of those piggy back cables to hard wire it in.

There’s a roundabout near my work that the cash for crash artists hang out at, this is why I’ve got one.

flying ox, you linked to this camera on page one as it has a reverse camera too. cant work out whether it will record both forward and reverse pics at same time, or you have to pick which one. sods law if you have an accident itd be the opposite end if so 🙂

v8ninety, also interested in your link ta.

im guessing the video quality would be similar, theyd both need an SD card buying too, but can anyone confirm how easy it is to get footage from it? dont want to be trying to take it down or getting to fiddly little slots to remove the card…..
do either (or any other similar priced jobbies for that matter) ‘talk’ to a smartphone? or even allow a phone to connect to it wired and d/load the footage?

ta

It records both images at the same time, the rear display is overlaid in the upper corner of the dashcam screen and you can toggle between front view only or front view + rear view in corner of screen or rear view + front view in corner of screen, to get the images from it you remove the card and slot it into a usb card reader thingy.

My dad has a Transcend dash cam (£90ish on amazon) and that can play images to his iPad with the Transcend app if needs be.

Cashcam? FFS why? Next we’ll all be walking round town with GoPros on our heads, just incase someone else does something we don’t like. Worlds gone mad!!!

It’s not a great situation but I can absolutely see why people want video evidence when insurers are keen to treat every knock as 50:50 plus issues with uninsured drivers leaving the scene or folk doing crash-for-cash scams.

what is your solution agent007?

mine arrived as well today from ebay.. cheapo piece of SHTT 👿 going back straight tomorrow to the seller… I will fight tooth and nails to get this back to the seller, thats how bad mine is when I tested it earlier.. cannot even read plate number a meter away 😡 VGA, 720p 1080p .. all same quality and not a single pixel difference.

back to square one, I will have a look in currys tomorrow and get a proper one.. maybe that Transcend thingy

what is your solution agent007

How about we all learn to drive a bit better and be more considerate towards each other instead if trying to pin the blame onto someone else every time something goes wrong?

Personally I object to people filming me without my permission when I’m out and about. CCTV everywhere is bad enough but now every Tom, Dick and Harry has a dashcam, seemingly ready to ‘dob in’ or post the mistakes of others online for all to see. Get a life FFS !!!

@wolfenstein The same one as this? cam

I tested mine and I played it back on my Chromebook saves as .mp4 (handy) and it was fine. The way I see it is that it’s better than nowt!

@agent007 unfortunately the standard of driving + the cash for crash gits are making them a necessity to keep your no claims!

@monkeychild .. its this one.horrible!

I got the one in my link and it’s ok IMHO.

@agent007 unfortunately the standard of driving + the cash for crash gits are making them a necessity to keep your no claims!

Absolute bobbins – if you’re properly observant and leave sufficient space between you and the car in-front then why would you ever fall victim to this sort of thing? Perhaps that Cashcam money would be better spent on some extra driver training which might stop you having an accident in the first place?

Yep extra training will help when the car goes from parked at the side of the road with the door open and left hand indicator on into the side of your passengers door, then claims you were overtaking them while they waited to pass the vehicle in front.

Their word against ours and the insurance went with them. A dash cam would have shown them to be lying out their arse.

I fitted a dash cam after that and a few near misses with people pulling out of junctions and round abouts at stupid times. People must be too busy surfing facebook or something to actually drive.

Okay great so it seems we’re all more than happy to use dashcam footage to ‘sue the arse’ out of anyone else who makes a mistake, yet none of us is prepared to take extra training themselves to make the roads a safer place?

if you’re properly observant and leave sufficient space between you and the car in-front then why would you ever fall victim to this sort of thing?

So, for example, you stop behind someone at the traffic lights. They reverse into you and then claim you hit them. Your word against theirs and default position of insurers is to pay out as your fault.

Okay great so it seems we’re all more than happy to use dashcam footage to ‘sue the arse’ out of anyone else who makes a mistake,

I don’t think anyone on this thread has suggested anything of the sort?

As dash cams become more popular the general standard of driving goes down, and more aggressive drivers become. I find that odd.
Is it just a perceived benefit as plod don’t take the footage seriously?

Correlation != Causation

That clearly explains why people are spending wasting money on these cameras, thanks.
I obviously think that they’re a total waste of money.

Is it just a perceived benefit as plod don’t take the footage seriously?

Haven’t there been numerous cases of the polis investigating various incidents as a result of dashcam/helmet cam footage?

Oh and as GrahamS said, correlation =/= causation. More likely that plummeting driving standards (if they are plummeting) and people like eg trail-rat above feeling let down by insurance companies who can’t be bothered to fight their corner as knock-for-knock is easier have caused the increased use of dashcams.

Or was your dashcams = plummeting standards a troll? 😕

Or was your dashcams = plummeting standards a troll?

Not a troll, I see some appalling driving on a day to day basis and yet the perpetators don’t seem to be put off by the possibility of being caught on camera. In a few cases there might be some merit. But in general, no.

So you’re maintaining that dashcams cause plummeting standards and that polis don’t act on footage of (serious) incidents? Sorry…just trying to work out the point you were making.

So you’re maintaining that dashcams cause plummeting standards

Now who’s trolling? That’s nowhere near what I said.
The question is why bother spending money on a dashcam if they serve no purpose?

Steady on fella – I’m only trying to work out what you meant when you said:

As dash cams become more popular the general standard of driving goes down, and more aggressive drivers become. I find that odd.

The question is why bother spending money on a dashcam if they serve no purpose?

Oh right, have we established that they serve no purpose?

Going to wade in again.

My dad was hit head on by an vw lt35 van in france last year.

He was riding his motorbike. Blind luck he is still here with us even if he is still suffering

Mr french man got out his van and said to the gendarmerie. English man was on the wrong side of the road- and they were prepared to accept this when they started questioning my dads mates accusing them of lying.

They then cracked out the helmet cam (wit gps speed data showing they were cruising at 30)footage from their bikes and showed a van careering across the road onto the wrong side of the road and wiping out my dad head on and sideswiping the following bike. – the police took the van driver off in cuffs

The french insurance company then started pushing back saying the same thing as mr van driver despite charges. Again – camera foootage was deployed.

How does extra training prevent that and he subsequent lying.

Basically too many self serving **** in this world you gotta look out for number 1