DVR Dashcam OTE £250 off great big Lisa Riley

[cobblers]

I put a post up about a dashcam I got off ebay from chuzbecistaiwan and literally a person was interested in a sample clip and ebay link, so here we are. It's my third one, and the first that is actually any good. Honestly, the footage at night easily rivals my DSLR that cost 13 times as much.

I got interested in them after watching the russia dashcam compliations on youtubes, and after having a few near misses on the road, so I thought for £33 or so it's money well spent.

 

This is the camera I bought:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310752336819?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

 

 

 

 

Quick explanation of it - it sticks on your windscreen, plug it in the ciggy lighter and put a micro SD card in the side of it. When you turn the ignition on, it starts recording and stops when you turn the power off. It records in 3 minute long clips and just overwrites the oldest clip when the card gets full, roughly 280mb a clip, so you get about 2hours and 35 minutes on a 16gb card before it loops.

 

This one has "G sensor" on it which locks a file and stops it being overwritten if it senses a shock (ie a crash). Sounds like a good idea, but I am a wanker and have put £150 ebay coilovers on my mk3 golf diesel and wound them right down until it was undriveable, then just lowered my expectations of "driveable". Even on low sensitivity the camera thought I was having a crash every 20 seconds, but luckily you can just turn that feature off. If you do have a crash you would probably notice it and just unplug the camera within 2 hours of driving anyway.

 

Overall, this thing works bloody well. Heres some video clips I made with it - It's fantastic in the dark which is when I do most of my driving at the moment - Its a very good representation of what you can actually see. Even the audio is OK.

 

 

Click the link and go for 1080P HD IN FULL EFFECT. I reckon the video is bloody brilliant for £31.54 posted. Mine took about 17 days to arrive, but it came over the christmas period so yours would probably be quicker. Usual caveats apply - it's coming from china and probably has poor QC, but luckily it's off ebay and you paid through paypal so you could probably twist their arm and get them to send you another out if yours turned up DOA, but if not it would probably cost you more than the purchase price to send it back.

[dollywobbler]

That's pretty astonishing, especially the night footage. 

[pompei]

That's pretty remarkable especially at that price 

[phil_lihp]

That's pretty impressive, I'd be concerned about how long the camera actually lasts but you can't fault the image/sound.  Might have to get one now.  In theory, having one of these in your car would make you a more careful driver as everything you do is being (temporarily) recorded.  

[Pillock]

Brilliant, thanks for that. Can't wait for the next installment of Cobbers! Camera! Action! It's not the one I was eyeing up - that was a little bullet one with no screen. But I reckon when it comes to dubious Chinese electronics, buying something tested is the way forward. Does it get in the line of sight at all? Where is yours mounted? Other problem is bloody Fords have permanent 12v fag lighters so I'd need to rig something switched.

[Hertz]

That's better quality than the police seem to use for the police stop action type programmes.

[cobblers]

Inside the camera there's only really a battery to wear out, but that only needs to last ten seconds to save the last clip after the power goes off (from new you can record for about 15 minutes on battery alone)

The mount is a bit flimsy so I wouldn't want to be taking it off every time I left the car, I've got it hidden up behind the rear view mirror and once I tuck the wires in the headliner you'll barely notice it from inside or outside.

 

My golf has a permanent fag lighter too, but I'd always planned to wire it up proper -  you can get "piggyback fuses" to steal a switched feed off the fusebox without actually cutting any wires, but there's a load of spade terminals in the golf fusebox ready to wire up to.

[Spiny Norman]

That's pretty damn good for the money, I've been thinking about one of these recently.

[Micrashed]

Might have to upgrade mine.

 

£17 off eBay  colour even in daylight is shite, at night time its just a blur.

[saucedoctor]

That's jolly impressive, Cobblers.

[cobblers]

Just as a comparison, heres my DSLR that cost as much as my car. It was just wedged in a headrest and I didn't get the focus right, but you get the idea of the angle of the lense and how much the sensor will pick up

 

 

One disadvantage if the wide lense on the dashcam is that it makes things look much further away, this for example looks "not all that bad" but in reality it took all the stopping I had to not hit her.

 

 

Apologies for the Tupac.

[dollywobbler]

Can you turn that date stamp thingy off? I'm having non-accident-useful-info thoughts.

[Station]

Might have to upgrade mine.

 

£17 off eBay  colour even in daylight is shite, at night time its just a blur.

 

Am I the only one who noticed that Astra driving on the pavement?

[cobblers]

Yeah, theres a setting in the menu to turn it off

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I love Cobblers' posts, they are 100% shite gold. Great stuff man.

[purplebargeken]

So many dickheads driving round my way so i I have just taken the plunge on Mr. Cobblers recommendation.

[cobblers]

I would like to see autoshites version of this, I reckon it would take an interpreter.

[phil_lihp]

I tried a video taken via my Canon PowerShot G11 - it was attached to a mini tripod wedged into the passenger headrest.  Even with this, which takes superb photos, the quality isn't on a par with the cheap ebay camera.  Plus there's an annoying rattle from the tripod.

 

Still, it's got varnished wood in it.

 

[Jim Bell]

What a silly Dick head knob sausage.

 

Great post though. I'm getting one.

[Tayne]

 

The mount is a bit flimsy so I wouldn't want to be taking it off every time I left the car, 

 

Is it possible to leave the camera in but just unplug the power lead when you leave the car?

[jakebullet]

I has one same as demonstrated by annoying Yank in this here video:

 

 

USB / power socket is going a bit shonky after a few months. Internal battery lasts about 30 seconds.

 

Oh, and I crashed within a month of buying it. Is it Alanis Morissette that if I'd not spent the time sticking it on the screen I may have not remodelled a passing audi?

[Lord Sterling]

Hey nice one Cobs! Great quality on that eBay camera, in fact I might consider purchasing one myself. I see your not impartial to a bit of Tupac It's been years since I listened to any Rap/Hip Hop in my cars, or anywhere else for that matter. Funnily enough when I did, the radios in my cars then were not up to the job, now I've got some half-decent set-ups, I cant be bothered to listen to anything more than 'The Archers'.

[cobblers]

Is it possible to leave the camera in but just unplug the power lead when you leave the car?

Yup, the power lead is Mini USB so you can disconnect it. It comes out of the top of the camera so if you hid it up behind the mirror you can tuck the cable under the headliner and have it all pretty invisible.

[MikeKnight]

Top find!

 

Been looking for one for my Triumph and this will do the job nicely.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

That camera's shit,I watched the video and didn't see a single Lada t-boning anyone or any people wearing track suits and leather jackets kicking fuck out of each other.

[Des]

That camera's shit,I watched the video and didn't see a single Lada t-boning anyone or any people wearing track suits and leather jackets kicking fuck out of each other.

That can be sorted with a quick drive around Slough or Luton.

[Pillock]

Right, so I've ordered a piggyback fuse thing and can do some multimeter magic to find a switched location in the fuse box. Apparently the heated seats is the one to go for, although since I'm sunroofless if I use that fuse it'll give me switched, plus 30 minutes or something. 

 

Then I've found a magic box that converts 12v to 2x USB ports at 3A, that ought to be more than enough! I don't like wiring into hidden fag lighter sockets, I did that in my Leon and cable-tied it to something behind the dash and the fugger kept coming loose and making funny burning smells.

 

Then I just need to get a cable. Found some nice "flat" USB-MicroUSB but the piccie on the ebay ad for the camera seems to show MiniUSB, the slightly fatter one. Cobblers, sorry to be a pain but can you confirm if it's a mobile-phone style Micro or a computery Mini USB on the side of yours? I can then get one of these flat cables which look like a piece of wee to tuck behind the screen rubbers.

[cobblers]

It comes with a ciggy lighter adapter to micro USB wire, a few meters long, you'd just need to get one of them low-current ciggy lighter adapters to plug it into and wedge behind the dash.

 

I shoould probably read your whole post first! Yeah i'm 99% sure its proper micro SD, not mini. I will double check,

[cobblers]

I really do talk bollocks - I went outside to check the camera and it's actually mini USB.

[Pillock]

Cool, thanks.... the flat cables come in both but it saves getting one of each.

 

The hardwired adaptor I found was this one

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-to-5V-USB-DC-DC-Buck-Converter-Car-Power-Supply-Regulator-/161132397465