I've decided I want a front and rear dashcam. What do you guys think is the best dashcam option right now? alwso, what about mounting locations? I have the full package of options, and I've heard of interference with wifi with the car's sensors, but not sure if that was real or not. Also,. where do you mount the rear dashcam in the car where it won't interfere with the rear sunshade?

 

Do you prefer to have them hardwired?

When picking a dashcam, pick at least 1080P so you can tell what the plate of a car says within a certain distance of the video, best is go 2K or 4K.

A high capacity SD card is also recommended unless you don't want to keep the footage for more than a few days as they get full quick especially for 4K cameras. Get something high quality, you don't want a card to fail during recording and preferably something with a high read/write rate or very least something that meets minimum requirements of the camera.

Get a dashcam that has bump sensors so it turns on to record an accident that happens in a parking lot when the car is off and then turns off to conserve battery power, unless you want to hardwire it so it is always on that way.

It will be helpful if you have the mic enabled as well, you don't necessary need a dashcam that has a built-in GPS but it may be helpful, another nice feature is wifi-direct that you can download an app to view the footage and download the footage to your phone without removing the SD card from the dashcam, this is especially useful if your phone doesn't support Micro-SD card which include most phones nowadays.

It is up to you if you want to get two separate cameras for front and back but I think it is a good idea to do that incase one fails, you still have footage from another perspective while-as if you only have a main camera in the front and a secondary lens connecting to the main camera, if the whole thing fails, you lose both footage.

It is up to you if you want a dashcam with a built-in screen, it is useful if you want to view the footage on the spot (especially if you don't get one with wifi direct, although the built-in screen is usually tiny and low resolution). Make sure to test the two cameras front and back in different lighting conditions, you can also rotate them to the angle of your liking, you want the rear camera to be above the trunk but still low enough to see part of the floor as you want to record people's plate when they get uncomfortably close and especially if something happens (although honestly, as long as you get a high resolution camera, this step can be omitted) The front camera on the other hand, you can be flexible. Make sure your rear window is wiped periodically if you have a sedan since it doesn't have a wiper, the last thing you want is blurry footage. You can set the ISO and white balance of the camera manually, just configure it to a value that works for you in both night and bright conditions, try not to set it so it is over or under exposed and you are golden.

 

There is also a mini discussion going on with dashcams in your thread : ) https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...ml#post9037512

 

1. Wifi: simply get one that keeps 5G wifi off by default, unless you need to upload videos to your phone (most brand dashcams work like that).
2. Get one with Park Mode and G-sensor, to detect any vents when car is parked and to start auto recording then.
3. Make sure it has overwriting capabilities of older video, hence you don't need to ever worry about the memory card becoming full.
4. Most good dashcams come with a free phone app, but check the app yourself before buying the dashcam to see how it works. Some less known brands have lousy apps.
5. Make sure the camera has some sort of a capacitor as a backup when its unplugged... it comes handy in case you even need to pull out the camera and show it to an officer (so it can stay on for a few minutes unplugged); otherwise 5G app connectivity would be fine so you can access videos via your phone.

 

All of these are very good advices.
I have one of these on all my cars, very happy with them !
They can be mounted on the bottom of the windshield, looking from the outside you will see where.
Vantrue N4 3 Channel Dash Cam, 4K+1080P Front and Rear, 1440P+1440P Front and Inside, 1440P+1440P+1080P Three Way Triple Car Camera, IR Night Vision, 24 Hours Parking Mode, Support 256GB Max

 

I've had a Rexing V1P in all of mine too. Has wifi and app support. It was good value/performance and has saved me one time when I was rear ended at a red light. Only front camera on though but it was enough to show the full stop by me and a jolt on camera (plus me cursing) soon after. Luckily it was a light tap.

 

Yeah, I wanted to start a dedicated thread that wasn't confusing to the other posts on that thread.

I like ALL the suggestions you made up above. Did you have a specific camera that you can recommend that does all that???

 

Thanks!! I'm going to stop by Best Buy this evening to look at the Rexing and any other models they have in stock that I can take a look at.

 

1080p isn't sharp enough to catch license plates, I've got this vantrue 2.7k front and rear cam set-up on my S and GLE. Hardwired from the dash fusebox. There isn't an ideal location for the rear on the S but I have it at the rear deck where the car seat latch point flap is (will try and snap a pic later)

https://amzn.to/4gGR2DA

 

Thanks!! Does that internal camera also record audio??

By the way, do any of these record any audio? I'm a total newbie.

 

Glad to help, I see people recommending Viofo, I do agree that it is a great value for what you get. I personally use Thinkware and Blackvue. Just personal preference really.

 

Most modern units record audio, you are able to remove audio if you need to share video.

 

Yes the it does !

 

Thanks for saying that. Those are the 2 brands I couldn't remember. I thought I had heard of both on this forum before, so I was surprised that nobody had mentioned them prior to you. I do think they are a bit more expensive, but not sure. I just found out about the parking feature yesterday after looking at the camera @S_W222 suggested. That's a really cool feature. A local guy is selling a DDPAI N5 Dual on Offerup. It seemed too good to be tre when it comes to features for value. Then I read that each recording is limited to something like 1 or 2 minutes so you wind up with storage being used up quickly, and a bunch of short video clips, which could be bad if you needed a longer incident recorded for some reason.

 

I looked into Thinkware also, but there was an independent review done that basically said most of them use the same sensor and the quality didn't match the price. The unit does look more premium, however.

 

Good luck. Honestly, other than the Rexing VIP FLEX X4, none of the options they have is good. Keep in mind that they also sell a few different Rexing dashcams; make sure it is "Rexing - V1P Flex X4 4K"
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/rexing-v1p-flex-x4-4k-wifi-dual-dash-cam-black/6582494.p?skuId=6582494

 

If insurance companies were smart, they would include free dashcams with a new policy. Or they would give you a discount for using a dashcam. Oh no...I can't believe I'd suggest something that allows even more privacy intrusion from Big Brother

 

You're welcome, those two brands are on the pricey side and features wise is less for the comparable price Viofo.

In the UK, Nextbase is recommended but then they also tend to have problems.

It is good to have a dashcam with a super capacitor than a battery because of the temperature fluctuations in a vehicle, the battery won't last. Problem with that, is that the camera turns off without vehicle on, so it doesn't record during parking unless you hard wired or use a dashcam external battery.

 

Sadly, they are more interested in tracking your speed and driving habit, an example is Allstate's Drivewise

Plus they can sell that data and it is free for them because they use your phone to do it when you install the app.

 

From experience with various dashcams, Thinkware and Blackvue are the most reliable/stable, I do agree they need to offer more for the price but they last and they have good protection against clip corruption, that was the selling point for me.

 

Wiring goes from the dashboard fusebox up the A pillar along the headliner/upper windshield to the front camera. Line then goes from the front camera along the headliner to the rear pillar, behind the rear seat to the camera. Aside from the wiring you'll see at the rear cam photo, you dont see much at all. Front camera isn't visible to me from the driver's seat. Looking at the rear, there aren't good options that 1) Don't interfere with sunshade 2) Don't involve putting an adhesive on a leather type surface. Remote to toggle save recording I have mounted near the steering adjust area.

 

Your image and post reminds me of cameras like these that was discussed before, I guess it was discontinued as it didn't work as promised:
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...g-dashcam.html
https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...ar-camera.html
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...obd2-port.html

 

im surprised 'ring' wasn't able to step in to the market and dominate considering their funding and amazon's backing. I suppose interior monitoring for theft never really caught on.

As for my set up, theres no interior monitoring, its just front exterior & rear exterior. Interface is user friendly and can access with their app. I've had anker cams prior and they were not user friendly at all, didnt record when i thought i hit the right button etc.

https://amzn.to/4gGR2DA - $30 coupon on now also, $170

 

Vin, thanks for the pics!! Looks really nice, and I looked it up online; looks like a nicely featured system, pretty much does everything I can think of. But I really don't like the look of the rear camera. What's the view like out of the back for you? Can it see anything with the rear shade down? And how much change do you see i the video between shade up and shade down? I know that's askig a lot, I just don't want to buy it then regret it later.
But given that low price, it's almost a no-brainer. I don't have acoupon like you, but $199 isn't bad.

 

Thanks!! It looked better in person than I thought it would. Also considering the one they had this is a little more expensive. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/rexing-...?skuId=6512931

But I can't find the buffer time for the parking sensor. It says it has motion detection. but what I want to know is how long before it detects a bump does t=it record. Some record for 10 seconds, while others record for 30 seconds prior to the shock.