Dash Cam?

Anybody have a dashcam on their Tacoma? What can you recommend?
I'm looking here:
https://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/dash_cam.html?fa=1#&nvpair=FFCategory|[rank267150]Car Cameras & Video
What do you get for $200 that you don't get for $100?
I guess I don't need a display unless that provides some advantage I'm not thinking of. I'm looking to record any "incident"
The Tacoma already has a rear cam

 

A lot. You want a sensor that is good in a wide variety of lighting conditions, first and foremost. Cheap cams might capture a license plate if it was in cloudless daylight, at noon, and if the other driver was kind enough to hold the plate perfectly still in front of the camera, and also read the numbers out loud. Anything between evening and morning hours, good luck. You also want a buffered parking mode so that you can see the footage 20 seconds before impact, not 5 seconds after.

The cheap 100 buckers wont have either of those, and they are kind of important.

 

NextBase GW 522. Good 4K (do not expect reading license plates, but that is common among dashcams), using a quality 90 MB/sec microSD. I used it to record step-by-step of a truck rollover ... photo attached, zoomed in from original ... about 1/2 mile ahead of me. I just kept the video to show police that the driver has passed me at high speed and caused his own crash. Base uses glue-pad for windshield but camera can be removed from base without the power-cable attached. Best Buy carries them, $250.

Just my $0.02.

PS: This is your truck after yo stray into a dirt ditch ...
PPS: had to finish the narrative, for those who wonder what the "puff" is in front of the sign ...

 

I bought the splitter cable that goes from the Dash Cam to the back of the rearview mirror. My dash cam sits in the Go-Pro location (which I believe Toyota doesn't include anymore).

Well worth it, instead of running a cable all around the windshield to the lower dash, using up one of the USB/cigarette lighter plugs.

Sorry, don't remember the brand names...

 

My Garmin 45 is attached to the GoPro mount also. Works great and wires are out of sight.

 

Dongar Technologies is one brand I saw on the YouTubes.

https://dongar.tech/

 

I currently have a N2-Pro dash cam. It was great for the first year or so, I absolutely LOVED the video quality (day and night) and all the features it had... especially the GPS speedometer. It records outside AND inside the cab at the same time. Now, the part that made me stop loving it and start hating it. The device has an internal battery, and the design makes it almost impossible for an average person to replace it since the whole unit had to be completely disassembled to get to the battery and then Sauder new battery wires to a circuit board. Since the battery has started dieing, the cam will not keep accurate date / time on it. It also loses (or fails to save) video files randomly.
In short... they've got the software that makes dash cams great, they missed the mark big time on the hardware. I DO NOT recommend any Vantrue cams because they all have the same design flaw. I paid almost 300 bucks for (what I thought) was a quality dash cam and only got 2 years max of use from it. I'm currently looking at buying a Garmin dash cam soon, im hoping I have better luck with it since Garmin has been around a while in the auto accessories industry.

 

I was under the impression that GPS satellites contained atomic clocks and would send time/date info to GPS equipped devices. Maybe that feature wasn't utilized in your dashcam.

 

First ... check that you are using a FAST microSD card ... class 10 that writes at 90 MB/sec. My NextBase GW522 will not even operate on slower than 45 MB/sec but I use a 90 MB/sec card anyway.

Second ... check out the NextBase is my advice. Best Buy sells them off the shelf. The base it detaches from is glued to the windshield and the camera can be removed to get it out of sight or to make the windshield effectively flat. You can also add in-cab rear-look or out-the-rear-window rear-look extra camera.

You have pictures taken through the windshield of a scene 1/2 mile in front of me and zoomed in. 4k recording is impressive.

But you buy what you want.

 

Right now the best quality comes from a Starvis 2 chip. Look for products that have that. I’m going to be buying a Viofo A229 Plus (not the Pro, just the Plus) when Black Friday sales start next week for one of my other vehicles that doesn’t have a camera yet. Single channel best bang for buck is the Viofio A119 mini I think is the name.

 

Red Tiger F7N 4K camera, comes with a 1080p camera as well. Look them up on Amazon. If you pair two pf these kits up, you can put the 4k's front and rear, and both 1080p's on the sides for 360° of coverage. They have a parking kit to record while parked as well.

You'll need an extra power port added in the rear. I run 256GB SDHC cards on both in my corolla.

 

I'll second Nextbase.
I've had a GW322 for a couple years now and no trouble with it. Records excellent video during the day, and still very good at night. Has GPS speedometer and lots of other functions (one is a feature where it can automatically call for help through your cell phone if it detects a crash and you don't cancel the alert).

Do you have the original (unzoomed) pictures of those? Looking at zoomed-in pics (w/o any reference to how far away it was) the blurring makes it not appear all that impressive.

 

I’ve been running a Garmin dash cam for a few years. It’s awesome. I have the adapter so it plugs into the back of my rear view mirror.

I’d buy a Garmin dash cam again in a heartbeat.

 

Original, first is a shot of the truck passing ... can ALMOST see the license plate but maybe not for a court of law. The second is with the truck just after drifting into the center ditch and moving across the freeway but quite far away. I think the fact the second image can be zoomed to "clear enough to tell the story" is pretty impressive.

 

When Garmin first marketed its dashcam I tried one. I returned for two reasons (below). They may have improved since, but I have not tried since I bought the GW522.
> Startup screen spent too long on the license page. Fine on a GPS which is not needed for about 45 seconds, not good for a dashcam in my opinion.
> The ONLY and AUTOMATIC collision sensing "sensitivity" was far too tight, and a 5 mile stretch of bad freeway registered 10 "accidents".

 

Oh interesting. Yeah I don’t have any of those problems. Mine doesn’t have a screen, it connects to your phone with the Garmin app which is really good and very easy to use.

 

Appreciate the pics. That definitely looks zoomed in better than the same distance with my GW322 would.
I've been contemplating getting a GW522 myself, and then moving my 322 over to another vehicle.

 

Explore options for always on recording with some constant 12v supply
Been Using 2 Garmin Dash mini 2 with OBD port for now for ~2+ years and recorded every single thing that was important to save

 

Interesting thread.

I bought the Blink 4th Gen System wire-free system on Prime Day Oct 11...love it!

Now, I'm interested in a decent Dash Cam.

Let's see more photos & testimonials!

 

I currently have 3 different camera setups in my daily beater Sienna (companies send me dash cams for review)

VANTRUE Nexus 5 (2 exterior views, 2 interior views)
VANTRUE S1 Pro (2 exterior views)
BlueSkySea B2W (2 exterior views)

Just got rear ended by some lady yesterday, so here's footage from each camera so you can compare....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z20eJ5gDxKQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPZdfwqhVak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ADJrjVxlI