So, my girlfiend walked out to her car this morning to find her bumper hanging off and headlight cracked, and the experience has reminded me that I've been putting off buying a dashcam for a while now. I'd like something that can capture more than just forward facing images. Budget wise, I'd like it to cost less than a $500 insurance deductible.

I put on a ton of miles doing sales and park in a ton of different locations. Seems like this would be a good investment

 

I have Blackvue 650GW 2CH on my G37xS and a Thinkware F750 2CH on my Q50S. Both are great cameras and are pricy. Both have excellent recording, automatic parking mode and incident recording mode. I hope this helps.

 

If you're worried about a quality cam to capture moments like what happened to your girl's car why put a budget on it? If that's the case then just get any crappy dash cam. I spent about 680 for my dash cam. I got the new thinkware F770 front and rear plus a backup battery which lets me record pretty much 24/7. There's an option where you can get a flasher to where if something hits your car it flashes so your dash cam can get a good picture of the license plate.

 

500 was an arbitrary number i came up with so it only has to save me once to pay for itself. If i do spend that much, I'd want something with external storage so the evidence doesn't leave with the camera

 

I would be a bit wary of a battery-powered one, especially in the summer. The li-po/li-ion batteries aren't really made for this kind of heat. Cams you can get online are also all over the place in quality--you won't know if the battery is bottom barrel quality and more likely to catch on fire than swell when it fails. I know this doesn't help with your needs while the car is off...

 

G37xS-Life - if you had to pick one between the two Blackvue and Thinkware, Which one would it be -

 

I would go with the Blackvue since it has a smaller footprint and wont get in the way as much. However, Blackvue front cam is 1080p and rear cam is only 720p, whereas Thinkware is 1080p front and back.

I also have the dashcam plugged into the Cellink Battery and Cellink Battery Extension Pack. If I dont start my car the two batteries will last about 3 days if fully charged. However, if I drive my car for a 45min commute per day, the charge provided during the drive are usually sufficient to charge the battery and power the dashcam without risking running out of juice.

I did not hardwire either of my dashcams into the fuse box since I was advised by two dealers that it can potentially void my vehicle's warranty depending on what components require service.

I hope this helps.

 

G37xS-Life -
Thanks very much, really appreciate your opinion. Can you post a couple of pictures of the two ?.
I"ll like to get a general idea of how much difference the two make

 

Sure. Give me a few days. Traveling for work at the moment.

 

i recently purchased a Z3 cam from Z edge, has all the bells & whistles. my question is who has hardwired it & how? i pretty techy so any install should be fairly easy. i saw an add on install kit by wheel witness that hardwires to the fusebox. Any Thoughts??

 

I used the Power Magic Pro to hardwire my Blackvue in.

https://www.blackvue.com/power-magic-pro/