Dashboard cameras

Hi, Has anyone fitted a dashboard camera in a Transit (or similar) campervan.  I've been told a normal one for a car won't work properly in a van.  What make did you get and how well does it work?  Thank you Janet.

Can't see why not, I have a cheapo (£50) in one car, a HD one in the motorhome & an expensive GPS/HD one in another car, but each works perfectly in any vehicle, so just buy what you fancy or can afford, most are good nowadays.

I agree with 'modelman', we have never experienced a problem with cheap or expensive dash-cams in either car or campervan.

Janet.....i bought a Mio Mivue 538 Deluxe [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]  It was around this price when i bought two years ago but i expect you could find it cheaper if you look around the internet. DVR cams have flooded the market so prices have fallen considerably. Much depends on what you want. The cam i have has GPS tracking as well so you will pay a bit more for that. The image quality is excellent.

My first cam was a cheap Hong Kong import off ebay and was terrible. The tech spec described it worked with up to 32gb card.....but it wouldn't take anything more than 16gb. As you can see, my van is a Transit and i don't live that far away from you either......Madeley, so you are more than welcome to have a look at mine if you want to. I mount mine just behind the rear view mirror.

I've returned two cheap dashcams to petrol stations (Tesco and independent).

The Tesco one wouldn't keep the time and the other had buttons that didn't always work.

I'm still using a cheap Chinese one I got from Amazon but have had to replace the  holder and power supply.

I would prefer a combined sat-nav dash cam but the 'proper' Tom and Garmin ones are still very expensive. Cheap ones are just android tablets with software.

Hi Janet.....
I've got an 0805 by e-prance which is doing me well for quite a while now. I've got a mount in m/h and car, so it is interchangeable, depending which vehicle I'm driving. 
There is a good you tube test by "Techmoan" where you can see a review of it.......there may well be a more up to date review of dash cams which you can see, and decide which is the best for you. 

logburner wrote:Hi Janet.....
I've got an 0805 by e-prance which is doing me well for quite a while now. I've got a mount in m/h and car, so it is interchangeable, depending which vehicle I'm driving. 
There is a good you tube test by "Techmoan" where you can see a review of it.......there may well be a more up to date review of dash cams which you can see, and decide which is the best for you. 

I forgot to mention him. He's done lot's of excellent dash cam reviews on YouTube and very professionally presented too. I can only think he gets the cams sent to him FOC. He lives somewhere around Manchester as i've recognised some of the roads he drives.

Bulletguy wrote:
I forgot to mention him. He's done lot's of excellent dash cam reviews on YouTube and very professionally presented too. I can only think he gets the cams sent to him FOC. He lives somewhere around Manchester as i've recognised some of the roads he drives.

He does get the occasional one sent to him but on the whole, he prefers to buy his own. That way he can give an honest opinion - he has said this on previous videos.
I recognise some of the places he drives through too!

Frank

Who told you that, never had a problem with our dash cams in the camper or our other cars.

Mind you I did keep clear of Ebay etc and got a Nextbase 312GW from Halfords, perfect, although not needed, just in case, all through France last few trips.

Janwood wrote:Hi, Has anyone fitted a dashboard camera in a Transit (or similar) campervan.  I've been told a normal one for a car won't work properly in a van.  What make did you get and how well does it work?  Thank you Janet.

Techmoan is the guy to help:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

PB

I bought the Nextbase 312GW for my son's Ford Transit minibus and a Transcend 220 for myself (at just over half the price!).  I am very happy with the Transcend which seems just a sgod as the Nextbase.  Any of the dashcams will work as well in a van as in a car.  Don't expect to read the number plate of a car coming towards you at 30mph unless the light is incredibly bright. 30mph is 44ft per second or more than a foot in a single frame (30 fps is normal for these cameras, though you might get 60fps at 720 resolution).  The exposure needs to be 1/500th sec if the number plate is to move only 1 inch. If you are moving at 30mph as well then the other number plate has moved around 2 inches in 1/500th of a second.  If his number plate is coming STRAIGHT towords you the blur will be less - but do you want that?

For info you can actually get a free app to turn a smart phone into a dash Cam. The app is called DailyRoads Voyager. It seems to work pretty well, all you need is some sort of mount to fix the smartphone to the windscreen.

hat004 wrote:For info you can actually get a free app to turn a smart phone into a dash Cam. The app is called DailyRoads Voyager. .

I tried this app when it first came out, several years ago -  it stopped recording if I got a phonecall or text. No doubt they've sorted this out by now BUT, you fit a dashcam primarily to collect evidence in an 'incident'. Why not fit something which is designed to do the job rather than faff about with something which may or may not work the one time you need it?
As I have said previously, the folk on the Dashcamtalk forum reckon that mobile phones overheat if kept plugged in and running for extended periods [something they are not designed to do].

I have to say though that it was this app, although [or perhaps because] it didn't work properly, put me on the road to my first dashcam.

Frank

inspiredron wrote: Don't expect to read the number plate of a car coming towards you at 30mph unless the light is incredibly bright. 30mph is 44ft per second or more than a foot in a single frame (30 fps is normal for these cameras, though you might get 60fps at 720 resolution).  The exposure needs to be 1/500th sec if the number plate is to move only 1 inch. If you are moving at 30mph as well then the other number plate has moved around 2 inches in 1/500th of a second.  If his number plate is coming STRAIGHT towords you the blur will be less - but do you want that?

Hi Ron

Just for interest.

I just bought a Nextbase 312GW and have used it only once so far. Needless to say I have played back most of the footage on the computer, as you do with a new toy.

I've checked the number plates of several approaching cars and they are impossible to read on the video. However, by pausing the video they can be clearly seen on the still frame when the light is good. In some cases I had to use the PC App "Datakam Player" to advance the frames one at a time to get the best image, but even in the rain the number plates were usually clear enough to read. I very much doubt if the same will be true at night, but their reflective number plates may show up clearly in my headlights?

I'm very impressed, and although most of the footage will never be seen I may well save selected clips of interesting parts of our travels in future.

Gromit wrote:However, by pausing the video they can be clearly seen on the still frame when the light is good. .

It's because the previous assumption is taking it too literally, that the number plate is moving at 30 mph across the field of view, which isn't the case as they are approaching the vehicle, not moving across.

If you think about it, 2 cars approaching each other at speed don't really have much movement relative to each other from the perspective of 90 degrees to the field of view, it's simply getting bigger as it approaches, so the camera can easily pick up plates at quite high speeds.

Noggin wrote:

Gromit wrote:However, by pausing the video they can be clearly seen on the still frame when the light is good. .

It's because the previous assumption is taking it too literally, that the number plate is moving at 30 mph across the field of view, which isn't the case as they are approaching the vehicle, not moving across.

If you think about it, 2 cars approaching each other at speed don't really have much movement relative to each other from the perspective of 90 degrees to the field of view, it's simply getting bigger as it approaches, so the camera can easily pick up plates at quite high speeds.

I would agree entirely Noggin. The lateral movement is quite small until the approaching vehicle gets quite close.

What did surprise me is how far the approaching car will have moved between individual frames.

Thinking a bit further though (and remembering Mr Einstein) we are not talking about 30mph. The closing speed will be more like 80 or 90mph if you and the other car are both doing around 40 to 50mph.

Pretty impressive from a lens the size of a grain of sand. How do they do it???