Dash cam recommendations

Arkady001

Arkady001

Club Member
Apr 2, 2013
461
129
Iserlohn, Germany
Had a very near miss today when a 4x4 Merc Panzerwagen towing a mini trailer overtook me at about 60 in a 40 zone then cut in so the trailer almost sideswiped us. My daughter was in the back and had a bit of a fright as I nearly went off road between two parked cars and then again as I booted it up the road after him before I came to my senses. He ran a red light to get away nearly tipping the trailer in the process...

Anyhooooo...
Now in the market for a reasonably priced dashcam as this **** is getting tiresome now...
Budget between £50 - £100...
 
Mine is 4 years old and still going strong. It's an Ambarella 0801 which records in 1080P and is the size of a 35mm film canister. You can get one for far less than £100 if you omit the GPS unit.

Having said all that, I have been very impressed by the output of some cheaper (£50-60) ones recently. Al and Olly will have some other suggestions that I'd be happy to get behind...
 
It's looking very much like the Transcend DP100 is going to be a clear winner for me: battery for recording after power loss, slightly better nighttime recording capability and currently on special offer... Always a bonus.
 
I'm not familiar with that model, but the spec is great. I'm amazed how much they're come on in the last five years, and how cheap they are now.

The 30-minute battery might be useful; I get barely more than 10 minutes (though to be fair, the unit is tiny). Very useful for taking stills post-accident.
 
Me and Al both have the Transcend DP220. I've had mine for just over a year and very pleased with it.

The DP220 has built in GPS, which will record speed and coordinates. It also has Lane Departure Warning System, Forward Collision Warning System and WiFi (to connect to an app on a smartphone). It's currently £97.50 on Amazon, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transcend-16GB-Drive-Video-Recorder/dp/B00U701N6I/

Just another note, when recording in 1080p you'll get around 2 and a half hours worth of recording on 16GB. The storage on both the DP100 and DP220 is an mirco SD card, so can be easily upgraded.
 
MRT803 said:
Me and Al both have the Transcend DP220. I've had mine for just over a year and very pleased with it.

The DP220 has built in GPS, which will record speed and coordinates. It also has Lane Departure Warning System, Forward Collision Warning System and WiFi (to connect to an app on a smartphone). It's currently £97.50 on Amazon, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Transcend-16GB-Drive-Video-Recorder/dp/B00U701N6I/

Just another note, when recording in 1080p you'll get around 2 and a half hours worth of recording on 16GB. The storage on both the DP100 and DP220 is an mirco SD card, so can be easily upgraded.
Click to expand...

What Mark said :)
 
OK so this arrived today, but for some reason I can't connect it to either a PC or a Mac using a USB cable...
WiFi download to mobile devices works, but takes a thousand years to download one 3min clip.
I'm off to the electrical shop tomorrow for a dual outlet cigarette lighter adapter (so I can run the cam and my TomTom at the same time) and I'll grab a 32Gb card and card adapter at the same time... I just wondered if anyone else had connectivity problems.
 
Arkady001 said:
OK so this arrived today, but for some reason I can't connect it to either a PC or a Mac using a USB cable...
WiFi download to mobile devices works, but takes a thousand years to download one 3min clip.
I'm off to the electrical shop tomorrow for a dual outlet cigarette lighter adapter (so I can run the cam and my TomTom at the same time) and I'll grab a 32Gb card and card adapter at the same time... I just wondered if anyone else had connectivity problems.
Click to expand...

I don't know this model, but in my case it's better to take out the card (and put it in an adaptor) and read it from a laptop or other computer than trying to do it directly?

Not sure if that helps.
 
Mako said:
I don't know this model, but in my case it's better to take out the card (and put it in an adaptor) and read it from a laptop or other computer than trying to do it directly?

Not sure if that helps.
Click to expand...
That's what I'll do, but according to the instructions it should plug and play on both PC and Mac...
 
Arkady001 said:
That's what I'll do, but according to the instructions it should plug and play on both PC and Mac...
Click to expand...
I've just got mine out the car to confirm what should happen.

Plugging the cable into the PC then the dashcam, the dashcam will automatically turn on and go into a different mode than normal. You should now see it as a removable drive.

Make sure the dashcam is turned off first though, as I tried it again while it was in it's normal recording mode and nothing happens when you plug it in.
 

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I'll try it again, but I did try turning the unit off and on again and it always went into normal record mode...

- - - Updated - - -

Nope. Just goes into normal record mode once the cable is attached... Unless there's a way of turning it more 'off' than I'm aware...
I'll try a different lead and see if that makes any difference... But a USB lead is a USB lead, right?
 
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Pid_16V said:
Have you installed Drive-Pro Toolbox onto you PC? Iirc you need this to play clips from the unit but if you just put the card into the reader, your PC software should pick it up.

http://www.transcend-info.com/Support/Software-180/
Click to expand...

I did but the unit wasn't recognised...
I've changed the lead and it's sorted now. PC and Mac both recognise the memory card in the Unit. I can play via Drive-Pro toolbox (crappy sound with a delay) or just click on the MP4 files in the folder itself... Better sound and picture.

The other lead was supplying power but not transmitting data.
 
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