The purpose of this thread is all things Dash Cam. Cam selection, installation, use, software and of course questions.
Dash cams are becoming quite popular and handy. They are commonly used to document accidents for insurance (and legal) purposes. They are also used to share amazing and weird and stupid stuff other drivers do. In addition, I use mine to document wonderful roads, scenic adventures, strange weather and stuff I happen across while driving.
For everything you'd ever want to know about dash cams (and more)
the site on the web is
Dash Cam Talk where you'll find helpful forums, comparisons, reviews and tons more.
When I decided to put in a dash cam in my car for all the above reasons, I selected the pretty standard G1W
This was a fine little unit that performed extremely well and was quite cheap. Unfortunately the thing quit working and I replaced it with a newer unit, not available at the time, the B40/A118. Like the G1W, this is a Chinese generic type unit, but made with a quality CMOS and video chip, the two most important things in a digital camera.
This replacement unit has essentially the same internal components but has a dramatically better form factor - more steady (no suction cup mount), an easier to adjust lens and more stealthy.
Here's mine mounted in the car.
As you can see it's pretty stealthy. Normally in sunlight conditions it blends into the rear view mirror and is essentially invisible. From the drivers perspective, it's completely invisible as well hiding behind the mirror.
I chose to do a completely hidden and hands free installation. I opened the cigarette lighter adapter, fished out the positive and negative wires, closed it up again and then wired it into switched power. The power adapter is secured behind the dash and the extra long USB cable snakes up behind the A-pillar, across the trim valance and exits at the seam between the two pieces. There's just enough pigtail to plug in the cam with almost no excess.
A 32mb microSD card gives about 5 hours at 1080p 30fps. Around town I leave one card in all the time as it just overwrites the oldest file automatically. On my trips I rotate 4 microSD cards (mostly because my laptop is so slow it takes forever) and copy off wanted videos to an external USB hard drive.