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flip down screen
can transfer to stick or computer.
"up to" 14 hrs recording
continuous loop
Not outdoors, not needing the waterproofing of say a $$$ gopro, and dirt cheap, it seems like a good idea. For like a couple months ago when the guy ran the wife off the road and totalled the car. Idiots abound, and they all want to be in front of me it seems. Scammer crashes, etc.
Part of me says just wait and get the real thing that I can use everywhere [gopro 3 or 4 maybe?]. Other part says heck the cheap drone has a nice camera and so maybe the $50 tv ad thing is OK.
If you are looking to record both front and rear video, this one works good, not excellent, but well enough for the price. Plus, if you don't hook it into your reverse lights, you can view the rear cam while going down the road. I liked that option.
I got one....for all the reasons you listed.
I've seen way too many crashes & have been hit where video would've made it obvious the other driver was at fault.
Ambrella Mini 0806 - a little bit more than the $50 cams...
Total cost incl MicroSD cards = ~$140
Takes great vids. Very clear/detailed and good in low light even with the polarizing filter on.
Has the regular dash-cam functions like auto-on at car start (I have it hard-wired into the GM RAP power so it comes on at key start & turns off when you open the door) & has builtin GPS logging & G sensor.
GPS logging is cool because with the right software on a PC it will map your trip. Remember something interesting? Just click that area of the map & the playback jumps to the vid. The shock sensor is also logged so I can pin down a chuckhole by looking at the graph. Huge spike ? Click & it jumps to vid.
Has a tiny screen, but that's a plus. You do NOT want a distracting camera screen visible. I set mine to turn off the screen 30 seconds after start. Just enough to verify everything's working. If I really need to check a vid, I can cord it to my phone (or pull the SD card, but it's kinda of a tricky little thing)
Only issue is that it is sensitive to the quality of SD cards. Some it likes. Some not so much.
I've got ~ 100 hours on it, including a 30 hour RT to FL and back. I put a huge 128GB card in it and captured the entire trip down without having to offload vids. I'm going to time compress the video and make a 5 minute vid of the entire trip! IN->FL @ 10,000 mph !
I've caught some things on it. Quite a few flaky (texting, drunk, feeble, stupid, whatever) drivers & a really low flying plane !
The worst (or best?) I caught was at night in torrential rain outside Orlando. I was rolling ~10 mph just after an intersection and a guy (pedestrian) ran from my left directly in front of me. I didn't see him until my right headlight was in his chest & his shirt lit up. Must've missed him in the oncoming glare/rain. He kinda spun off the corner of my truck & ran off into the darkness. If I'd flattened him, the vid would have helped me as he was nowhere near where he should have been.
Beware of cheap 'direct from china'. There's a ton of crap out there. If it fails, you're stuck with it because returns/refunds are near impossible. You'd typically spend more sending it back than its worth. Also, do NOT buy any SD cards on eBay. 99.9% of them are fake/counterfeit. They will work, but only have a small fraction of the memory you paid for.
The biggest problem with the really cheap cams is just that. They're really cheaply made. Sketchy vid quality and they die quickly due to poor quality, interior heat, etc. But, as long as it works, even a cheap one may save you in court!
Last edited by Indy_68_S; Apr 8, 2016 at 03:32 PM.
