I know this has been aired b4, but looking for up to date info

Are the ridiculously cheap Chinese dashcams worth having? There are now many available with G sensor, for under a tenner & if it stops a fraudulent claim then worth 20x the cost +

A few Q's:-

Any experience with specific models? (that's dashcams chaps, not your fantasies!)

Do they have sensible battery life or do you need to keep permanently plugged in - presumably you could run from a power brick?

Do they need turning on when you start a journey or do they motion sense?

Any other info you think relevant?

Cheers in advance, Russ

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=techmoan+camera

he is the font of all knowledge re dash cams

also interested with recent near misses!

The techmoan guy doesn't appear to do anything really up to date or really cheap, I've seen stuff from China for less than a tenner, very similar to the G1W he reviews at around £30 or so - but my Q is - are they absolute sh1te?

I use https://dashcamtalk.com/ for reviews. Updated regularly.
Ive just bought this and seems good so far (only had it a few days tho!)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blueskysea-Recorder-Rotatable-G-Sensor-Recording/dp/B0777J5Y6J

I started with cheap dual camera ones, (£40) which were ok but quality was average and eventually proved too unreliable,
https://dashcamtalk.com/i1000-f70/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnogK6sYy3E

so switched to a branded make, (£100) but was frustrated by the lack of options/functionality when compared to the cheap versions.
https://dashcamtalk.com/blacksys-cf-100/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFT_ORFgjU

I then tried a single camera which was reviewed well, but died after a year or so.
https://dashcamtalk.com/b40-a118/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDjzIMRknLY

Most have small batterys or capacitors so need accesory live for general use. For some with parking functions (some movement, some G sensing) you can wire permanently but watch the battery, and the memory card usage.

[Edited on 5-6-18 by loggyboy]

it's one of those things though that in the event of an accident that the cost becomes insignificant compared to the value of the possible claim then that £50 or so saved seems a bit daft if you lost out due to a duff camera...

Saying that I just use my old gopro, which are handy as they are very obvious being silver and big and have a blinking red light too so people know they are being recorded...

[Edited on 5/6/18 by Mr Whippy]

Is it a given now that they're all fit and forget assuming you put them on a switched live, i.e. you don't need to actively switch them on each journey? It's not clear from some of the adverts.

I had a £12 one from eBay and was suprisingly good, lasted a year without any problem. The one I had just started recording as soon as you plugged it in so you don’t need to turn it off and on every time. I wired mine in with a add-a-fuse into the wipers so as soon as the ignition turns on it starts recording

I recently got one of these: Link

Seems pretty good so far. I also have a £20 chinese unbranded one which also does the job but doesn't work as well as the Xiaomi.

quote:

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Originally posted by garyo
Is it a given now that they're all fit and forget assuming you put them on a switched live, i.e. you don't need to actively switch them on each journey? It's not clear from some of the adverts.

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I bought a £30 eBay special a few years ago and it worked fine, the problem is that with such a wide angle lense you need at least 2k to be able to read number plates. I now have a 2k Z-edge Z3 which I'm much happier with.

I have the Nextbase 312G Dashcam. Brilliant bit of kit and cost me £99. I recouped that in the first year with insurance discount. Video quality is exceptional day and night as you'd expect.

My issue with the cheap Chinese ones would be that if they break, you treat them as disposable so buy a new one (you'd be pissed if it broke just before it was needed!) Equally, you'd be even more pissed but the footage was so poor you couldn't make out a number plate or miss a key detail that removes fault from you.

I've had my dashcam for 2 years now and yes its more expensive than others out there, but I know that if I ever need it, its going to be there to have my back. Would you buy a cheap crash helmet?