J3ffrey

The whole point of these cams is to set them up once and forget about them, go pros require too much work.

J3ffrey

bs on that. if they are out in public they can feel however they want, it's not illegal in the slightest.

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

If you hardwire your camera like Jeffrey then yes, it will charge itself while hardwired.

I looked at this one and I think it's more designed for "action sports" than dash cam usage. For example, I see nothing on here about it being able to run continuously while plugged in, or being able to turn on and off automatically with the car's power (it's instead triggered by noise), or being able to do looped recording (where it automatically records over the oldest file). All of these are necessary for a dash cam, and I don't think this features it.

This is a good watch-out, but pretty much every state has ruled that any type of required party consent laws do not apply to anyone in public (including on-duty police officers). That means that even in a state that requires all parties to consent to legally record, this does not apply in public. The only two states were there are caveats to this appear to be Massachusetts and Illinois.

The main use of a dash cam is to film things going on outside your car. I personally am using mine for that purpose, to prevent insurance fraud, etc. If you're pulled over and plan to record the police encounter, it would be most prudent to inform the officer that your camera is running and it's being recorded. However, in most any state it would still be legal to record it without informing him since consent laws don't apply to people in public (including on-duty police officers).

Here's more info: http://gizmodo.com/5900680/7-rules-for-recording-police

Lastly, the camera I linked to above, and probably most others, allow you to choose whether you want to record audio or not.

carlos

iTrader: (1)

I just bought this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/FULL-HD-1080...item3a710d1932

I liked the form factor compared to the other ones. I'll keep you guys updated.

don

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for feedback Calvin.



So is there a discrete (well, discrete as you can get for a dash cam) way of setting it up? That is, no hanging wires and not obvious where I have to remove it every time I leave the car

RangerJoe

iTrader: (1)

Check local laws. This article is old, but illustrates the point.

http://www.rense.com/general11/fur.htm

Filming them when they know are being recorded will probably not be illegal, but no guarantees. And remember, just because it isn't illegal doesn't mean you won't get arrested for it. It happens all the time. Sure the charges may be dropped later, but you will still go downtown, get booked, and sit in a cell while you wait to go before a judge. That probably isn't something you want to go through.

Don't get me wrong, holding police (just like anyone else) accountable for their actions is a good thing. You just need to decide for yourself what kind of hassle it could be worth.

Here is an article (republished I believe) in Gizmodo. This scenarios they describe in it are a bit different than a traffic stop type of situation, but the points are still good.

http://gizmodo.com/5900680/7-rules-for-recording-police

RocketGuy3

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, not surprising, heh:
http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceno...-the-rich.html

But yeah, having to remove and/or hide the camera every time I park the car is one of the main reasons I'm reluctant to get one. That plus the hassle of connecting it or wiring it in a eye-pleasing manner, heh.

I wonder if any cars come with devices like this as built-in optional features... If not, they should. Would be pretty nifty.

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

I think J3ffrey's setup above is about as good as it gets and that's what I'm going to try and accomplish. First because I already have my radar detector hardwired and second because I want them attached together. The only downside to this is it's still visible in the window and might be a target for thieves. I'm not sure what else you'd do to get more discrete while also enabling the camera to have a clear view of the front of the car.

monet33

iTrader: (1)

I have the blackvue camera and found a constant power from the mirror wires. I did some reading and found out that you can use the pink wire (constant 12v) instead of the black wire. I have a 2010 model. The blackvue uses the plug in instead of the telephone jack so I just bought the one from safensound/ebay.

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

Very interesting info, thanks! I wonder if the pre-2010 models have the same wire configuration and usage.

J3ffrey

You can tuck the wires from mine up under the headliner... and it's all 100% hidden. I can take more pics tomorrow if you'd like.

don

iTrader: (2)

Oooo good idea. I would like.

Jetfire

iTrader: (3)

i got my blackvue for pretty cheap. $185 shipped. It was part of a group buy on another forum. I don't know who the guy bought it from. I just paid the guy and got my cam.

My blackvue has amazing picture at night compared to the cheap ones which was one of the selling points for me. It's also pretty discreet. You can barely see it.

The GPS is kinda usful. When you use the software, it has a map of your route, you can just click at a point to pull up a video from that point. Better than scrolling through all your video.

The Gopro are great but once the memory card is full, it'll stop recording, i believe The blackvue just keeps recording over the oldest video.

calvin2376

iTrader: (2)

That's a pretty fantastic feature, I must say. I think I personally would still go with the $60 one I have, because I don't think I'd use that feature enough to justify the $125 premium, but that's still very cool.

I'm hoping that dash cams become a little more common here in the States so it breeds more options and price competition. Right now it seems like there are either the Chinese made ones on Amazon/eBay for $50-90 which work fine but lack some features, or super expensive ones like the Blackvue that can be $200-400. Frankly I'm a little surprised the dash cam thing hasn't caught on more here at least among the auto enthusiast crowd.

Jetfire

iTrader: (3)

You can turn the speed display on/off on the videos, which I did, but you can still track your speed with the software. If say you were hit with a speeding ticket, but you weren't, you now have video evidence showing that you weren't speeding.