I have recently been involved in two incidents. Both very small and in car parks. I wasn't at fault neither times, and luckily even though the second time I wasn't in the car, the person left their details on my car.
Since my excess is $1,000 I am thinking on investing in a dash cam for any hit and run incidents.
A question for those with dash cams, what prompted you to get one? How much would I be looking at for a decent quality one? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Correct.
You'd need to have a camera running continuously to capture these events.
That'd require a decent size, and dedicated battery to maintain power to the camera for hours at a time and a big memory card to ensure the event was not recorded over.
These cameras fill the card with footage and then record over the top of the earliest footage in a "loop".
You'd also need to be pedantic about inspecting your car whenever you got back to it.
The cheapest cams that are recommended are about $50-60.. plus Memory card. (and in your case, plus battery)
You'd want to get 2 cameras (and therefore 2 cards and 2 batteries).
You'd be looking at $250 for a full kitout.
Could always add one of the power banks that are always on sale to the loop. Just have it in the glovebox so that if it craps out after a couple of years it's easy enough to replace. I'd estimate that a 10,000mah power bank should keep a dash cam going for around 10 hours or so, assuming some loss of efficiency and a steady power draw of 0.65a at 5v. Divide that in two for dual cameras. I don't recommend getting cameras with batteries in them - they seem to crap out pretty quick from being exposed to the sun all the time. Capacitor cameras are what you want. Thinking about doing this myself soon.
Actually, there are dashcams that have the features you're looking for but at a price. Check at the range from BlackVue, especially their latest http://www.blackvue.com/dr650gw-2ch/
It's a 2 channel system (one for the back and front) and has a parking mode. That means that when its wired in with another device called the Power Magic Pro it will activate when the car is off.
Been looking to get one, just waiting for it to go down in price!
A question for those with dash cams, what prompted you to get one?
I have seen other people drive.
IF you are interested I have a Black SYS Full HD with GPS camera I am about to try and sell. My GPS has a built in dashcam so this one is no longer required. Model CF-100. Comes with HD rear camera and Extension cables to wire it in. PM me if interested. Brad
My car just got hit by a man using a trolley, twice apparently( a witness saw it and left a note with culprit's rego), unfortunately insurance won't do anything as it wasn't his car hitting my car, police can't help either. I was that thinking if there is a dash cam that would work in incidents like this?
Exactly, without a dash cam, you'll have to take him to court and bring the witness in. Good luck with that.
With a dash cam, as long as you can put a name to his face, the police will definitely address the issue. They won't look too hard if he's not known but at least you'll have an easy case if he ever shows his face again.
The best one from what I've researched is the BlackVue but it's far too costly. The A119 is your next closest bet, you can have one in the rear and one in the front. Put both of them on time lapse, every 0.2 seconds and you will get 5fps, which is a reduction of 6x in file size. This allows you to record about 30hrs straight without having to rewrite the 64GB MicroSD card. Furthermore, it supports up to 128GB.
Down side is that this will be a problem when you're driving and would like to have the proper 30fps, you'll have to change that in the settings each time.
You can do motion sensor mode, but like most people said, it either doesn't work or it's pointless because it's only activated after the accident happens.
I'm not sure the dashcam would work well for hit and runs. Regular dash cams switch off when you turn the engine off.
I've seen some with bump sensors, but these only turn on after you've been hit, so you don't actually get the impact on camera making it kinda pointless.
Lastly, if you're hit from behind, the camera won't capture anything.