Car black box video recorders

GoodBuddy · 28/03/14 - 23:59

Does anyone own one of these or can maybe recommend one?

I do a lot of motorway driving and see lots of idiots and after some numpty nearly ran me off the road trying to get across quickly as he almost missed the motorway junction I thought about getting one.
They vary quite a bit with prices on eBay- starting about £15 for what claims to be a HD camera:o
Seems to cheap to cheap to actually be any good.

Just wondered if anyone has one in their car.

a_c_g_t · 29/03/14 - 01:13

GoodBuddy wrote: »

Does anyone own one of these or can maybe recommend one?

I do a lot of motorway driving and see lots of idiots and after some numpty nearly ran me off the road trying to get across quickly as he almost missed the motorway junction I thought about getting one.
They vary quite a bit with prices on eBay- starting about £15 for what claims to be a HD camera:o
Seems to cheap to cheap to actually be any good.

Just wondered if anyone has one in their car.

Basically you'd be buying a bag of crap. You want something decent for driving capture. £300 approx to capture H.D. evidence for 1-2 hours approx..

Fantasy over.

Say you do get all that stuff.

Tell me are you really going to spend you life trying to hunt down the little piss ant who you think broke some rule on the highway code on the M25 at 4:30pm on a Friday afternoon?

Anyway go-cam will do if you want one that may do the job for you.

That's what I use in my car.

evil c · 29/03/14 - 01:29

In this month's (April) issue of Which?, they have had a 'First Look' at the Nextbase In-Car Cam 402G Professional, a dashboard camera that films the road ahead in Full HD. They found the sat-nav style mount easy to fit, but attaching the camera to the mount was fiddly. Image quality is strong with a very wide view but it struggles with particularly bright or dark shots - say in direct sunlight or on a road without street lights.

It'll be getting a full lab test shortly. £150 at Amazon and Halfords.

koantemplation · 29/03/14 - 01:43

GoodBuddy wrote: »

Does anyone own one of these or can maybe recommend one?

I do a lot of motorway driving and see lots of idiots and after some numpty nearly ran me off the road trying to get across quickly as he almost missed the motorway junction I thought about getting one.
They vary quite a bit with prices on eBay- starting about £15 for what claims to be a HD camera:o
Seems to cheap to cheap to actually be any good.

Just wondered if anyone has one in their car.

I recommend the Mobius Action Camera. It does not record data from the car (e.g. Speed) but the video quality is very good and can be made to start recording as soon as the car starts up.

Check out youtube for example videos.

[Deleted User] · 29/03/14 - 02:46

i work for an insurance broker and a lot of my clients have these in their lorries. There are several companies that do them, but we mainly use a company called Roadhawk. The quality of the footage is excellent, and has been very useful in contesting claims when both parties have different versions of an accident. They operate on an SD card and you can change the settings on them to only record impact above a certain level, so that every pothole or bump in the road doesnt set it off. The decent models are probably quite expensive for a private car user though. I agree though, check some of the videos out on you tube. Especially useful for crash for cash claims, or when third parties are claiming all sorts of injuries but the footage shows them jumping out of their cars etc.

artnada · 29/03/14 - 06:50

If you have an Android phone then get Caroo Pro it's about £2.50 or get AutoGuard which again is around £2.00.
Or the third recommendation for me would be DailyRoads. Another couple of quid. They all record speed, GPs data etc.

I have all 3 on my Samsung Galaxy Mega. I tend to use the CaroOPro more out of the three.

Failing that, I recommend the Mobius it's around £60.

See Youtube's Techmoan for reviews on a lot of car dash cams.

Few of my videos here; You can change the bitrate on the video, also press the CC Caption button for spped GPS etc..

CaroOPro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfL2Sp6XTHA

Autoguard (press CC button) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVD4bkm84EI

DailyRoads (press CC button) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhkg40ukjsQ

gomezz · 29/03/14 - 07:57

Does not a forward-facing camera only go to show up your own poor observaton and anticipation?

artnada · 29/03/14 - 08:14

gomezz wrote: »

Does not a forward-facing camera only go to show up your own poor observaton and anticipation?

THIS is the reason why most people, including myself, have a forward facing camera. Nothing to do with "poor observaton and anticipation"

gomezz · 29/03/14 - 08:41

Surprise, surprise! A videocam company using an interview piece to push sales. Did not see any relevant onboard footage. Did see some rear-end damage which a forward-facing camera would have done nothing to assist with.

artnada · 29/03/14 - 09:02

Look on Youtube then.

Having a camera can assist in preventing Insurance (false) claims, and help determine who is really at fault. It can show exactly who is at fault and whether there is some sort of scam going on. The insurance industry like them.

How many times have you had people cut you up or nearly go into you etc. Think if they hit you...according to standard road rules, you hit them up the rear, you're at fault. But if you had camera footage of the 3rd party driving dangerously by cutting you up with no chance for you to avoid them, then you're saved!

Don't believe you're perfect at driving, because it can happen to anyone. Even "good" drivers....like us

DMN1968 · 29/03/14 - 11:23

A couple of questions - I have been thinking about getting one of these for the reasons above.

1. Is the data collected actually viable in apportioning blame? i.e. Can the video actually be used as evidence in court?

2. Do they affect your insurance premium?

3. Can they be used against you in any way?

grumpyscot · 29/03/14 - 11:28

Just remember - its illegal to place it in such a way as it comes within the area swept by your windscreen wipers. Therefore, in rain, the camera will nicely pick up the raindrops and not the traffic!

artnada · 29/03/14 - 11:41

grumpyscot wrote: »

Just remember - its illegal to place it in such a way as it comes within the area swept by your windscreen wipers. Therefore, in rain, the camera will nicely pick up the raindrops and not the traffic!

Put it behind your mirror and point slightly down. No problems at all.

Finglonga · 29/03/14 - 13:55

DMN1968 wrote: »

A couple of questions - I have been thinking about getting one of these for the reasons above.

1. Is the data collected actually viable in apportioning blame? i.e. Can the video actually be used as evidence in court?

2. Do they affect your insurance premium?

3. Can they be used against you in any way?

Yes to all the above, the last shouldn't be a problem for anyone unless they drive like an idiot then they deserve all they get.

My wife has one in her car and I have one in mine, both of us get a 15% discount on insurance for having them as well. She has caught a motorcyclist hitting a deer and the footage helped him with his claim. I have caught two accidents on mine and plenty of near misses by people not looking properly before pulling out on me and others.

I know of one claim from someone that was rear ended and the other party said they reversed into them at the junction. The driver didn't say anything and the footage was used at court to prove the driver was stationary at the time and the other party infact drove into the back of him.

Wouldn't feel right driving without a dash cam now.

grumpyscot wrote: »

Just remember - its illegal to place it in such a way as it comes within the area swept by your windscreen wipers. Therefore, in rain, the camera will nicely pick up the raindrops and not the traffic!

Then all the Emergency services are driving with illegally fitted cameras as well as most the others with dash cams. What is your source for that?

DMN1968 · 29/03/14 - 15:07

Many thanks Finglonga.

I have been toying with getting one since someone at work had a woman turn into the road he was waiting to turn out of, cut the corner and clipped the front of his car. She claimed he pulled out whilst she was turning in, however the person behind him had a dashboard camera which proved he was stationary behind the stop line, and she was on the phone. So what was going to be split 50:50 ended up being 100% the womans fault.

dmp · 29/03/14 - 16:43

I have two roadhawks fitted in my car as I drive around 25k miles a year on all sorts of roads, the thing is not to forget as said above it will also film your mistakes. The roadhawk also has gps and mapping so it shows your speed and where you were at the time of the accident or incident. Never had to use mine as evidence and hope I don't but they're there just in case.
If you want to know how effective they are just watch russian dash cam videos on youtube.
Dave

John_Patrick · 29/03/14 - 20:45

artnada wrote: »

Put it behind your mirror and point slightly down. No problems at all.

This. ^^

koantemplation · 30/03/14 - 03:50

BTW you may want to check out this website for more info about Dashcams.

http://dashcamtalk.com/

grumpyscot · 30/03/14 - 10:46

Finglonga wrote: »

Then all the Emergency services are driving with illegally fitted cameras as well as most the others with dash cams. What is your source for that?

Emergency Services are exempt

See http://www.ukmot.com/6-1.asp

RobinOfLoxley · 30/03/14 - 12:52

I'd say, if you can afford whatever level of quality, go for it. The Russians do.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?pws=0&gl=uk&q=yourtube+russian+traffic+videos

Not to report bad drivers. That's annoying but part of life.

It pays years down the line, when someone is lying their ass off about your bad driving, in a crash, in court or to the insurance company and you can prove it was their bad driving/stepping into road etc.

Hey there!

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Car black box video recorders

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