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+--- Thread: Dash cams (/showthread.php?tid=10545)
RE: Dash cams - TomK - 01-23-2013
Prompted by Dayna's recent thread about her and daughter's frightening experience being chased by some crazy guy in a jeep, and Hikatz also mentioning in that thread mulling over getting a dash cam, I thought I'd briefly(!) describe my first experience with the one I bought and installed the other day in case it's useful.
So I bought this and have been driving around with it for the last couple of days. I like it and although there are cheaper cameras out there, this was recommended in a link given earlier in the thread. This is a non-GPS camera so no info on driving speed, location etc, but wasn't too interested in that. If you want GPS as well, there are several cameras out there that have it.
Image quality is good (I have it set to 1920x1080 at 30fps) and using a 16GB SD card means well over 5 hours of video can be recorded before the card is full. The camera doesn't come with a card so you will need to buy your own one. It's set up so that when the card is full it loops so will delete earlier files on the card. You can set it too take movie clips of 1 to 45 minutes, or even just turn that off if you want so just keeps recording one long video. The advantage of setting the movie clip length is that if the card fills up only the earlier clips get deleted rather than the whole 5+ hours of movie.
The camera arrived set up in Russian mode so had to fiddle about a bit before getting things shown in English on the LCD screen but only took a couple of minutes to figure that out. You have to figure out how to mount it yourself, the manual didn't cover this but again it didn't take long to work it out. It mounts to the windshield and that's where I had to think a bit.
Hawaii law suggests these things can only be mounted in two places on the windshield - within a 5x5 inch square at the bottom of the driver's side of the windshield or in a 7x7 inch square at the bottom of the passenger's side windshield. The ideal place to mount it would be by the rear view mirror but think that's illegal here. Anyway, I have it mounted right in the bottom left hand corner of the windshield which means I can easily reach it to change settings or remove/install the camera from the mount easily (not while driving though - that wouldn't be a good idea!). The other bit of law I discovered is that I think it's illegal to drive with the LCD at the back of the camera turned on - a driver could be ticketed for having a TV/DVD-like display switched on while driving under the driver distraction laws. I'm not certain about this but you can set it up so the LCD turns off a minute after recording starts, so that's what I'm doing.
Finally, the manual is awful. Some of the less helpful instructions include "Before cleaning the device is always his turn" and "If you are unable to remove yourself, then contact the Service Center". It seems to be a direct translation of Russian since I think the car crash industry is booming there, but this site helped me figure things out and the optimal settings.
Hope this helps if anyone is considering a dash cam. I think this is a good investment due to the increase in loonies I seem to be encountering recently plus it could save you a lot of money if you're in a crash that you can now show wasn't your fault or are the victim of some insurance scam.
PS. I should add that if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them here or in email and that the law stuff should be taken as is, I'm not a lawyer, it's just my own interpretation.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
RE: Dash cams - PaulW - 01-23-2013
Thanks Tom, great information. I'm thinking of getting one too.
What do you have it set to now, to make 45-minute videos? If I understand correctly, if you set it to record 5 hours in one go then you could end up deleting everything just after something interesting happens.
What is it about Russians and dash cams? This video says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxHPJAONpE
ETA: The video I first posted had been removed
RE: Dash cams - TomK - 01-23-2013
Paul - I have it set to 45 minutes right now but am still experimenting with this. 45 minutes covers my normal commute but even if you set it to shorter periods it only takes a second or so before it automatically starts recording the next clip, so I'm not quite sure what the optimal setting is for me. Yes, I clearly didn't explain this properly on re-reading my post. Unlike a normal camera, this will automatically start a new movie recording once the current one has been written to the SD card. In other words, if you set it to 5 minutes you end up with dozens of movie files on the card before it starts to overwrite them (that's with a 16GB card - it can take up to a 32GB card).
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
RE: Dash cams - Carey - 01-24-2013
Tom, Had to smile, as the police commander I talked to over the police chase last month thought it was waaayyy to expensive for the police to have dash cams in their vehicles (at $600/month vehicle allowance...I think they could amortize the cam you got quite nicely)...If only I had had one in my car then(and of course had it ON while parked!)I would have been saved a bit of a hassle....of course if the police actually had bothered to have one (or not engaged in a chase when they couldn't ID the vehicle)...maybe that whole hassle would not have happened
Really hate to think that we need to have surveillance for people to behave...but I really think some do have to have it.
RE: Dash cams - rainyjim - 01-24-2013
quote:
Originally posted by Carey
Really hate to think that we need to have surveillance for people to behave...but I really think some do have to have it.
Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
quote:
Originally posted by Ken
This coming from one of Punaweb's biggest verified troll!!
quote:
Originally posted by Ken
ole rainy !
RE: Dash cams - TomK - 01-24-2013
Carey - you know what? I also learned from my friend/colleague I mentioned a little earlier in this thread that the cops here don't have dash cams. She wasn't sure if the new marked police cars had them though but we wondered if it was because the most of the cop cars are privately owned. Still, there's just no way it's an expense issue. You can buy dash cams for $20 on amazon. They might not be very good and you have to buy the SD card to go with them, but that's it.
Let's say $100 per police car to have them all fitted with dash cams. I don't think the tax payer will be too upset with that given it'll improve accountability and is a minute percentage of the overall cost of the car and maintenance. Plus it means the public might just have a little more confidence that it's not simply their word against a cop. I do wonder if the real reason they don't use dash cams is a liability thing, but that isn't something they would admit to I feel, even if it is the issue.
Would be good if Oink commented although don't want to pressure him into it. Not sure if he had a dash cam while on duty but he might have a point of view I've not considered.
Tom
http://apacificview.blogspot.com/
RE: Dash cams - hikatz - 01-24-2013
Tom,
Thank you for the in-depth information and links, you made the dash cam setup so much easier to understand.
RE: Dash cams - kalakoa - 01-25-2013
TomK, you're answering your own question: most police (and probably the County) don't want to "improve accountability". Cost is not the issue.
RE: Dash cams - EightFingers - 01-25-2013
Tom,
Can you put some of your "footage" on your blog so I can see how good the camera is?
RE: Dash cams - Carey - 01-25-2013
The Hawaii County marked cars do not have the dash cams.
I was amazed when I was informed about this after the police chase that ended in a vehicle crash into my property, seeing that the marked cars our county purchased were waaayy more expensive than the "average" police cars...seems our county went for the most expensive equipment package, EXCEPT not for the added documentation package (ie, no police car here has onboard computing or video/imaging of any type) the police that were engaged in the chase & crash at my house did not even seem to have a camera to document the damage done....
And seeing how they flubbed up the report on my issue... I also know they are not properly trained in any type of proper documentation.
Hardly a surprise that so many cases are dropped here, seems there is a major problem with accuracy in the police documentation & lawyers know it!
Added: Link for the news story w/ our county marked police vehicles cost 2X other police depts.:
http://westhawaiitoday.com/sections/news/local-news/marked-cars-good-idea-not-cost-effective-says-chief.html