Dashcams
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Midlands
Posts: 377
Dashcams
I had a VERY close encounter with an e-scooter this afternoon whilst driving. Could have been nasty, but luckily wasn’t.
It’s made me want to invest in a Dashcam, but having no experience in such devices I’d appreciate the experience of others who use such things as to what to look out for (Performance wise) and devices to avoid. I appreciate that individual product promotion on this forum is not permitted, but advice would be appreciated.
It’s made me want to invest in a Dashcam, but having no experience in such devices I’d appreciate the experience of others who use such things as to what to look out for (Performance wise) and devices to avoid. I appreciate that individual product promotion on this forum is not permitted, but advice would be appreciated.
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Home at last
Age: 78
Posts: 18
I recently had my front bumper ripped off by someone cutting in front of me. He tried saying it was my fault. My wife had called the police, when they arrived I showed them the dashcam. It was obvious the other driver was at fault. The police called him to see the video, he iimmediately agreed it was his fault. We filled out an insurance claim form, the police gave him a ticket, and a couple of weeks later I received cash payment from the insurance company to buy a new complete front bumper.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Midlands
Posts: 377
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 62
Posts: 2,224
I use a Nextbase 522GW, mounted in front window, and the additional rear camera which plugs into the unit. Decent quality video, it has a polarising filter you can turn to get rid of dashboard reflection in the windscreen.
Has been used to give Notts Police video footage which the used for an incident. I use a 128GB card which more than does a full day. There is an app which you can download video. The camera has WiFi and Bluetooth.
Has been used to give Notts Police video footage which the used for an incident. I use a 128GB card which more than does a full day. There is an app which you can download video. The camera has WiFi and Bluetooth.
Controversial, moi?
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 1,602
I still have a Goluk T1 in one of my cars fitted in 2017. Still available for around £117. Neat and unobtrusive unit. Goluk T1
I have just fitted a GNET G-ON2 to a new car which has a front camera with 2560x1440 resolutionand also has a rear camera plugged in to teh front camera with 1920x1080 resolution. It was pricey at just over £300.
My suggestion would be to read a few reviews and go for the best you can afford. My Goluk is good but at night it will not read a number plate unless it is on a slow moving or stationary car. The GNET cameras are streets ahead.
I have cameras in all my cars now because people will blatantly lie after a collision because of the cost of an accident when you are held to blame. If it saves the argument and the cost then a good in car camera system is worth every penny.
I have just fitted a GNET G-ON2 to a new car which has a front camera with 2560x1440 resolutionand also has a rear camera plugged in to teh front camera with 1920x1080 resolution. It was pricey at just over £300.
My suggestion would be to read a few reviews and go for the best you can afford. My Goluk is good but at night it will not read a number plate unless it is on a slow moving or stationary car. The GNET cameras are streets ahead.
I have cameras in all my cars now because people will blatantly lie after a collision because of the cost of an accident when you are held to blame. If it saves the argument and the cost then a good in car camera system is worth every penny.
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: UK
Posts: 456
Some quick bullet points:
It's worth investing in a decent quality one with good definition. If all you have from an incident is a blur for a number plate, it is useless.
Some (our MiVue ones - 4 of them!) have a weird rolling erasing algorithm, to re-write over the lowest numbered file. So when you get all the way to FILE9999 and the oldest (32G worth, or about 8 hours worth) is say FILE9902, instead of continuing to keep on overwriting the oldest file and saving it with a higher number, it sticks to its ill-considered algorithm, and the lowest numbered file (FILE9902) is then repeatedly over-written, and it keeps being over written, so all you have is the last 5 minutes, and all the much older stuff from a few weeks or months ago, but not the most recent driving videos. The only cure I know is to set a diary date for checking when you're up to about FILE9990, then manually delete the lot (provided you have nothing to keep), and then it will work fine from FILE0000 again for the next 9999 files, or about 800 hours worth of driving.
A rear camera is just as useful as a front camera. In fact more useful, if you consider that idiot tailgaters are more likely to hit you than something you might be able to avoid in front of you, by your very careful driving. If you can only afford to fit one, consider fitting it to the rear. 90% of my 'incidents' seem to come from behind rather than in front.
To illustrate the above points, my wife's 2x MiVue cameras saved us a LOT of money. As she was in a car park about to park, the car in front turned sharply right and stopped, apparently parking, and suddenly reversed fast straight into the side of her car as she continued forwards. The other driver falsely claimed he stopped completely, and that it was her careless driving that scraped her car all across his rear bumper as he was on stop. He counter claimed against her. Fortunately the front and rear dashcams showed everything very clearly: the front camera showed him swerving right, and stopping having just crossed a convenient and distinctive white line, and then his reversing light coming on. Both cameras recorded the sound of nasty scraping of metal work and my wife scream as she drove past, then the rear camera showed his car a good metre further back from the white line he had reversed back over to hit her car, followed by him quickly jumping his car forwards a metre to appear as though it had never reversed.
His insurance company chased her hard as being the driver at fault, right up until close to the Court action from my wife's insurance company, and they submitted the dashcam evidence to the 3rd party, and they settled within 24 hours out of court. With GAP insurance and 2x £200 cameras, we received a full purchase cost of her car, which was written off, and no fault on insurance. Without the cameras, she would have been £5k out of pocket and trying for 50/50 blame at best, but likely to be blamed by the 3rd party's insurance company as fully at fault. The 4x cameras we have, front and rear in both our cars, has been the best £800 ever spent.
It's worth investing in a decent quality one with good definition. If all you have from an incident is a blur for a number plate, it is useless.
Some (our MiVue ones - 4 of them!) have a weird rolling erasing algorithm, to re-write over the lowest numbered file. So when you get all the way to FILE9999 and the oldest (32G worth, or about 8 hours worth) is say FILE9902, instead of continuing to keep on overwriting the oldest file and saving it with a higher number, it sticks to its ill-considered algorithm, and the lowest numbered file (FILE9902) is then repeatedly over-written, and it keeps being over written, so all you have is the last 5 minutes, and all the much older stuff from a few weeks or months ago, but not the most recent driving videos. The only cure I know is to set a diary date for checking when you're up to about FILE9990, then manually delete the lot (provided you have nothing to keep), and then it will work fine from FILE0000 again for the next 9999 files, or about 800 hours worth of driving.
A rear camera is just as useful as a front camera. In fact more useful, if you consider that idiot tailgaters are more likely to hit you than something you might be able to avoid in front of you, by your very careful driving. If you can only afford to fit one, consider fitting it to the rear. 90% of my 'incidents' seem to come from behind rather than in front.
To illustrate the above points, my wife's 2x MiVue cameras saved us a LOT of money. As she was in a car park about to park, the car in front turned sharply right and stopped, apparently parking, and suddenly reversed fast straight into the side of her car as she continued forwards. The other driver falsely claimed he stopped completely, and that it was her careless driving that scraped her car all across his rear bumper as he was on stop. He counter claimed against her. Fortunately the front and rear dashcams showed everything very clearly: the front camera showed him swerving right, and stopping having just crossed a convenient and distinctive white line, and then his reversing light coming on. Both cameras recorded the sound of nasty scraping of metal work and my wife scream as she drove past, then the rear camera showed his car a good metre further back from the white line he had reversed back over to hit her car, followed by him quickly jumping his car forwards a metre to appear as though it had never reversed.
His insurance company chased her hard as being the driver at fault, right up until close to the Court action from my wife's insurance company, and they submitted the dashcam evidence to the 3rd party, and they settled within 24 hours out of court. With GAP insurance and 2x £200 cameras, we received a full purchase cost of her car, which was written off, and no fault on insurance. Without the cameras, she would have been £5k out of pocket and trying for 50/50 blame at best, but likely to be blamed by the 3rd party's insurance company as fully at fault. The 4x cameras we have, front and rear in both our cars, has been the best £800 ever spent.
Nigerian In Law
Join Date: May 2004
Location: The stool at the of the bar
Age: 63
Posts: 1,051
I use a Nextbase 522GW, mounted in front window, and the additional rear camera which plugs into the unit. Decent quality video, it has a polarising filter you can turn to get rid of dashboard reflection in the windscreen.
Has been used to give Notts Police video footage which the used for an incident. I use a 128GB card which more than does a full day. There is an app which you can download video. The camera has WiFi and Bluetooth.
Has been used to give Notts Police video footage which the used for an incident. I use a 128GB card which more than does a full day. There is an app which you can download video. The camera has WiFi and Bluetooth.
NEO
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 58
Posts: 10,111
I fitted a cheapish model of Go Pro to my push bike about six or seven years ago which could have been useful on several occasions i immediately recall - one was a woman who stepped into the road (not at a crossing) just in front of me - the video clearly showed she didn't look, she was entirely focused on the phone in her hand; the other involved a van door opened into me which just clipped my shoulder. I was too close? Perhaps but I had a car overtaking me and the van was illegally parked. I avoided both accidents but would have very pleased to have evidence supporting my innocence!
Gripes about that model of Go Pro are that registrations of vehicles were not easily legible and the life of the rechargeable battery proved to be fairly short and not easily replaced. If I start cycling again I would want a much better product.
Tempted to wear one as a pedestrian; eg yesterday an incident with a cyclist on a zebra crossing which could easily have ended up as a serious accident and a mild confrontation with an
jogger on a track in the park (a wide mown path, my friend was walking on the narrow grass free bit, I was walking beside her, there was loads of room for him to pass either side but apparently we pair of arthritic oldsters should have leaped out of his way... I didn't catch what he said, she did and responded far more politely than I would have!)
Gripes about that model of Go Pro are that registrations of vehicles were not easily legible and the life of the rechargeable battery proved to be fairly short and not easily replaced. If I start cycling again I would want a much better product.
Tempted to wear one as a pedestrian; eg yesterday an incident with a cyclist on a zebra crossing which could easily have ended up as a serious accident and a mild confrontation with an

Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Herefordshire
Posts: 292
I use a Nextbase 522GW, mounted in front window, and the additional rear camera which plugs into the unit. Decent quality video, it has a polarising filter you can turn to get rid of dashboard reflection in the windscreen.
Has been used to give Notts Police video footage which the used for an incident. I use a 128GB card which more than does a full day. There is an app which you can download video. The camera has WiFi and Bluetooth.
Has been used to give Notts Police video footage which the used for an incident. I use a 128GB card which more than does a full day. There is an app which you can download video. The camera has WiFi and Bluetooth.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: South Oxfordshire
Posts: 624
Whichever model you go for, if you can, invest in one which has a rear camera option and a parking mode -i.e. records when the car is parked. Mine has a parking mode which initiates automatically after a certain period during which no movement is detected. In this mode it records only when an impact is detected.
A larger video storage capacity is also a good idea. I think I can get about three days on my memory card before the oldest file is overwritten. (I typically drive about 2-3 hours a day, on work days).
My dashcam is about 5 years old now - you should be able to get hold of something pretty decent these days at a reasonable cost.
A larger video storage capacity is also a good idea. I think I can get about three days on my memory card before the oldest file is overwritten. (I typically drive about 2-3 hours a day, on work days).
My dashcam is about 5 years old now - you should be able to get hold of something pretty decent these days at a reasonable cost.
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Southampton
Posts: 793
I have a MiVue 812 camera that also includes traffic camera alerts (with free updates). Whilst some people may say that you shouldn't speed and be aware how fast you go, it is very easy to unintentionally drift over the limit. It has saved me a fine or two in the past, even in areas that I am very familiar with.
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: NV
Age: 74
Posts: 165
How does the unit differentiate between parked in a grocery store lot and your garage? When does it power down?
Whichever model you go for, if you can, invest in one which has a rear camera option and a parking mode -i.e. records when the car is parked. Mine has a parking mode which initiates automatically after a certain period during which no movement is detected. In this mode it records only when an impact is detected.
A larger video storage capacity is also a good idea. I think I can get about three days on my memory card before the oldest file is overwritten. (I typically drive about 2-3 hours a day, on work days).
My dashcam is about 5 years old now - you should be able to get hold of something pretty decent these days at a reasonable cost.
A larger video storage capacity is also a good idea. I think I can get about three days on my memory card before the oldest file is overwritten. (I typically drive about 2-3 hours a day, on work days).
My dashcam is about 5 years old now - you should be able to get hold of something pretty decent these days at a reasonable cost.
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Darkest Lincs
Posts: 495
As far as I can see, dashcams either have to be either hardwired into a power source, or plugged into a power socket, which involves a wire dangling down the windscreen.
Are there any on the market with an internal, rechargeable battery ?
Are there any on the market with an internal, rechargeable battery ?
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: LONDON
Posts: 77
Whichever model you go for, if you can, invest in one which has a rear camera option and a parking mode -i.e. records when the car is parked. Mine has a parking mode which initiates automatically after a certain period during which no movement is detected. In this mode it records only when an impact is detected.
A larger video storage capacity is also a good idea. I think I can get about three days on my memory card before the oldest file is overwritten. (I typically drive about 2-3 hours a day, on work days).
My dashcam is about 5 years old now - you should be able to get hold of something pretty decent these days at a reasonable cost.
A larger video storage capacity is also a good idea. I think I can get about three days on my memory card before the oldest file is overwritten. (I typically drive about 2-3 hours a day, on work days).
My dashcam is about 5 years old now - you should be able to get hold of something pretty decent these days at a reasonable cost.
I think I'd want to take it with me if I was parked. Do most of them unclip easily?
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Darkest Lincs
Posts: 495
I think you are being rather over concerned.
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Southampton
Posts: 793