As an old ■■■■ who is at the opposite end of the scale to being a techy I haven’t a clue about dashcams. A quick search on here, probably using the wrong wording, has not revealed anything useful. I wish to buy my son a dashcam for his new-to-him car. I would be very grateful for some assistance from those who know about these things and have their own. I have heard - and that is all - of TomTom and Garmin, I haven’t heard of Nextbase, which at first glance seems attractive since I can buy and get it (Nextbase 522GW or 422GW) installed at Halfords 100 yards from where he works. I am thinking about a front one linked to a rear window one. I would appear that Halfords do their own brand as well.
Nothing is set in stone,I would assume the Garmin and tomTom are good but what about the Nextbase or any other makes? I have just mentioned what I was able to read quickly from the bumph in Argos, PC World and the said Halfords; so are there any opinions/recommendations please?
18 months or so, I’ve had a MiVue 658 wifi stuck to my windscreen.
It’s been 100% reliable has all the features you need, is easy to set up, gives an outstanding view, it is also GPS tracked and the playback is very clear.
I use a 64gb SD card and that retains almost a whole shift in 1080 hd format.
I got mine from Amazon but, if you look around I’m sure the price will vary by a tenner somewhere else.
I’ve got a Nextbase 222X in the car which records both forwards and rearwards from the same unit, it’s a nice bit of kit the footage is real clear. I’ve also got a Nextbase 312 which lives in the truck permanently it’s a few years old now but again picture quality is plenty good enough and I’ve never had any issues with it.
There’s plenty of videos on YouTube if you search for the camera model you’ll be able to see the standard of footage before committing to buying one.
Bear in mind you’ll need to buy a good quality SD card for it, 64GB should be ample and budget an extra £20 or so on top of the price of the camera.
I have a nextbase ,which does what it says on the tin,you can download your selected clip to your phone …I have only downloaded a couple of times …Usually when some idiot does something crazy / funny …You can get a hardwire kit ,which is a piggy back fuse …Easy to fit yourself …
There’s lots to choose from, my advice is to not get one with too small a screen and definately not one with no screen at all, too small and they are really difficult to see what you are doing when operating.
Whether you get one with GPS is your choice, with GPS will show your own speed which could incriminate you.
A normal front facing camera can easily be fitted to the back window, for the rear facing powering up might be a tad more difficult if there is no power point at the rear that switches off when you leave the car, but i have no doubt powering them to suit what you want won’t present you with any issues.
There’s a Youtube bloke called Techmoan, he tests them all practically.
Personally I’ve used a Nextbase 512G I think it is since I started driving trucks which works pretty well. Its been superseded since by another 500 version.
Ideally you could do with one that has a polerising filter which I think all the 500 series include, but you can buy a seperate one for the other models.
Dual cam ones are probably a good idea, but not sure how easy they are to wire - might depend on car as to how easy it is to hide cables. Front is most critical as you can see a lot from that including any blame.
You will need a SD card but it tells you on the package what type you need and the size (there are loads of versions).
Garmin and Tomtom do they included into sat navs but personally I’d stick with Nextbase or the MiVew mentioned as you get optimum positioning.
I have the nextbase 522gw with a rear camera and it is excellent. All the added features like Alexa etc should all be sorted now. If you don’t want the hassle of running cabling to the rear camera they do 2 plug in modules which plug in to the side either a cabin and rear view module or a zoon rear camera only. Or you can have the wired camera that sticks on to rear screen.
Thank you all, the advice is very much appreciated. I have now had a good look at the various suggestions, websites and suggested video reviews. I shall go with Nextbase.