Dash Cams

[_Snake_]

All depends on your budget as there are plenty of choices out there.

Companies send me dash cams for testing/reviews, so my winshield is usually cluttered with them.

With all the crazy $#!t I see on a daily basis, I won't drive without one.

I have an entire YouTube channel dedicated to my own daily dash cam videos lol

My daily beater currently has 3 separate setups (I've downsized)

Vantrue Nexus 5 (4 channel front/rear/front interior/rear interior)

Vantrue Sonnet 1 Pro (2 channel front/rear)

BlueSkySea B2W (2 channel front/rear interior)


Here's a vid of me getting rear ended by some lady in a Tahoe a couple months ago




And here's a video of a drunk driver I spotted last week

Dude was wasted!!

Managed to take his keys and called for help

What cameras would you recommend?

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

What cameras would you recommend?

All depends on your needs and budget.

On the bottom end, I like the B1W from BlueSkySea

It's a tiny single camera that has rock solid reliability, ultra low current draw and is dirt cheap.

I picked up a bunch of them on a group buy for $30 bucks a pop years ago and outfitted every car in our household with them.

Here's a sample from when I got rear ended in my beater XB (the $#!tbox)


A step up from that would be BlueSkySea's B2W

It's a 2 channel camera with interior night vision.

Odd looking design, but known for it's simplicity and reliability.

They've been sold out on Amazon, but I recently picked up a pair directly from the manufacturer for $50 bucks each

Here's a sample from when a Dodge Ram in front of me blew a tire.



My advice is not to get hung up on fancy options like GPS, motion sensing, voice command and whatnot.

Your main concern is for it to work when it should and capture what you need when you need it.

Focus on getting a reliable camera that will work without you having to fiddle with it constantly.

Just set it and forget it.

Nothing sucks more than having a fancy dashcam that fails to record when you need it the most.

I actually turn off all of the unnecessary options for all my cameras (GPS, motion sensors, time/date/speed stamps, voice command, etc., etc.)

Keep in mind the higher you go on the spectrum, the more you will need to spend on higher quality sd cards.

The cheap BlueSkySea cameras have no issues running cheap sd cards, but the higher end multi-camera Vantrue units need large, ultra fast sd cards that can add up to quite a bit.

I personally feel the more camera angles you have, the better.

I'd much rather have a 3 or 4 camera system with mediocre quality than a high quality single or dual camera that misses the shot completely.

Love my Vantrue N5 (4 channel) as it pretty much captures everything from all angles.

Kinda spendy though when you cater for a big sd card.

 

[_Snake_]

All depends on your needs and budget.

On the bottom end, I like the B1W from BlueSkySea

It's a tiny single camera that has rock solid reliability, ultra low current draw and is dirt cheap.

I picked up a bunch of them on a group buy for $30 bucks a pop years ago and outfitted every car in our household with them.

Here's a sample from when I got rear ended in my beater XB (the $#!tbox)


A step up from that would be BlueSkySea's B2W

It's a 2 channel camera with interior night vision.

Odd looking design, but known for it's simplicity and reliability.

They've been sold out on Amazon, but I recently picked up a pair directly from the manufacturer for $50 bucks each

Here's a sample from when a Dodge Ram in front of me blew a tire.



My advice is not to get hung up on fancy options like GPS, motion sensing, voice command and whatnot.

Your main concern is for it to work when it should and capture what you need when you need it.

Focus on getting a reliable camera that will work without you having to fiddle with it constantly.

Just set it and forget it.

Nothing sucks more than having a fancy dashcam that fails to record when you need it the most.

I actually turn off all of the unnecessary options for all my cameras (GPS, motion sensors, time/date/speed stamps, voice command, etc., etc.)

Keep in mind the higher you go on the spectrum, the more you will need to spend on higher quality sd cards.

The cheap BlueSkySea cameras have no issues running cheap sd cards, but the higher end multi-camera Vantrue units need large, ultra fast sd cards that can add up to quite a bit.

I personally feel the more camera angles you have, the better.

I'd much rather have a 3 or 4 camera system with mediocre quality than a high quality single or dual camera that misses the shot completely.

Love my Vantrue N5 (4 channel) as it pretty much captures everything from all angles.

Kinda spendy though when you cater for a big sd card.

How do the upper end Blackvue’s compare to Vantrue?

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

How do the upper end Blackvue’s compare to Vantrue?

Can't go wrong with either, but I prefer the Vantrue as you tend to get more useful features for the money.

Higher end BlackVue's are rather picky when it comes to their sd card choice.

If it's not an uberspensive BlackVue branded sd card, it will most likely have issues (especially when it comes time to update firmware).

I also prefer the Vantrue app as it's very consistent and easy to use.

The BlackVue app is hit or miss depending on the model of dash cam and the phone you use, but if you disregard all the fluff and just let the camera do what it's supposed to do, there really is no need to use the app at all.

Another good choice would be Viofo's A139 3-channel (front/interior/rear)


Solid dash cam for the money and the non screen design with all separate cameras means you can do a cleaner install.

Dash cams that have a 2-in-one design like my N5 means having to mount it low on the windshield to get a proper view from the interior cam (looks terrible).