Inexpensive ($30?) dash cam USB battery powered microSD up to 64GB

In article >, Tony Cooper
> wrote:

> >> >
> >> Just out of curiosity...why?
> >>
> >> What you're capturing is the road in front of you, right? What
> >> happens there that you want to record and view later?
> >
> >there are many reasons for dashcams, including documenting what really
> >happened in a collision. that can backfire if you did something wrong,
> >but on the other hand, it can also mean winning. some dashcams have
> >motion sensors and can trigger if someone tries to steal or vandalize
> >your car. another use is for road trips, which are generally played
> >back at super-speed.
> >
> >> People ask my why I'm taking a photograph of this or that, and I don't
> >> have to have a good answer beyond "because I want to", but I am
> >> curious if that's your answer or there's something I'm missing.
> >
> >why does it even matter?
>
> I'm not interested in why you think one is worth having. I'm not
> interested in whether or not you think it matters. I don't need to
> justify to you why it matters.
>
> I'm curious about what Ahmed and Pete think and what has motivated
> them.

those are not my reasons. i don't even have a dashcam.

again, this is not about me. it has nothing to do with me. i'm telling
you why people get dashcams.

those are the main reasons. there are others too, but the only reason
that actually matters is that someone wants a dashcam.

whether you think it's a good idea or not makes no difference
whatsoever.

> You are quite welcome to jump into any thread in the newsgroup, but
> your "why does it even matter?" comment indicates that your primary
> interest is just to stir things up.

wrong. all i did was answer your question.

you are as usual arguing just to argue.

Per Tony Cooper:
>Just out of curiosity...why?


Several reasons, drinking too much coffee probably being one of them.

But it's even worse: the cam I mentioned is facing backwards. There's
another, more expensive cam, behind the rear view mirror facing
forwards... and I'm still trying to figure out how to have 360-degree
coverage without a rat's nest of wires and devices.

My rationalizations we

- The technology is there, it's reasonably priced, and being
a computer application developer I get off on stuff like this.

I got semi-addicted setting up a surf cam for a windsurfing
shop so people could see what's going on on the bay and not
call the owner every five minutes on windy days.


- I had been seeing more and more bizarre driving behavior and
it seemed like it would be entertaining to capture it.

Dunno exactly what I'd do with the captures... maybe start
yet another YouTube channels devoted to such stuff.

The precipitating incident was when some guy in a red sports car
passed me on the right - running the shoulder - at what seemed
like a very high rate of speed - as in the vicinity
of 100 mph - and disappeared from sight slaloming through
traffic. About 10 minutes later, I came upon an accident
scene: red sports car upside-down on the median barrier,
guy strapped to a spinal board being loaded into an
ambulance. Same car? Dashcam might have enabled
comparison of license plate numbers....

Of course, I haven't seen much of anything since installing
the cams.


- In some countries, people actually engineer traffic "accidents"
so they can extort money from the target of the crash.

My understanding is that's what is behind the wide use of dash
cams in Russia.


- After a crash, it *might* be good to have some footage.

Probably depends on who was at fault.

Of course I fully expect that, after an accident, I will find
that the critical camera's SD card had become corrupted weeks
ago and is useless..... -)


- OTOH, I can see the dash cams in the same light as my little
2KW generator: largely useless, but nice to have on those rare
occasions when the power goes out.

>What you're capturing is the road in front of you, right? What
>happens there that you want to record and view later?

Dashcams record to an SD card and automagically rotate the clips
so the SD card is pretty much full and the clips on it are the
latest going back as far as the capacity of the SD card will
allow. The exception is certain cameras (as in my front-facing
cam) where a clip can be designated as a "Keeper" and kept
in a special folder from which it will never be deleted.

On this cam, I just bump the cam with my finger when I see
something entertaining. This creates a g-force event that
tells the cam to keep that clip in the special folder.

Usually there is a button on the cam for that purpose,
but bumping it is easier and more intuitive.
--
Pete Cresswell

Per (PeteCresswell):
>...that you want to record and view later?

Some cams allow reviewing of clips via the cam, but my
take is that, for practical purposes, you need to pull
the SD card and plug it into a laptop or tablet to
get any meaningful functionality.

If something has just happened and you want to show
somebody - like a cop - the clip of the event, lots
of luck. I've never put a timer on it, but popping
out the SD card, inserting into another device, firing
up the other device, and then bringing up the clip has
got to take at least five minutes..... maybe more depending
on how shaken up one is. And that's assuming that
you even *have* said other device.

To me it's more like "Get home, swap out the card, sit
down at one's PC and then spend a half-hour or so isolating
the critical footage, transcoding it to a smaller file, and
then burning said file to media of choice or uploading
it to YouTube or Vimeo.
--
Pete Cresswell

On Thu, 24 Apr 2014 08:53:18 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" >
wrote:

>Per Tony Cooper:
>>Just out of curiosity...why?
>
>
>Several reasons, drinking too much coffee probably being one of them.
>
>But it's even worse: the cam I mentioned is facing backwards. There's
>another, more expensive cam, behind the rear view mirror facing
>forwards... and I'm still trying to figure out how to have 360-degree
>coverage without a rat's nest of wires and devices.
>
>My rationalizations we
>
>- The technology is there, it's reasonably priced, and being
> a computer application developer I get off on stuff like this.

Fair enough. I don't think you need to have a reason other than the
fact that you want one of these things, but I was curious about your
thinking. You've expressed it well.


> I got semi-addicted setting up a surf cam for a windsurfing
> shop so people could see what's going on on the bay and not
> call the owner every five minutes on windy days.
>
>
>- I had been seeing more and more bizarre driving behavior and
> it seemed like it would be entertaining to capture it.
>
> Dunno exactly what I'd do with the captures... maybe start
> yet another YouTube channels devoted to such stuff.
>
> The precipitating incident was when some guy in a red sports car
> passed me on the right - running the shoulder - at what seemed
> like a very high rate of speed - as in the vicinity
> of 100 mph - and disappeared from sight slaloming through
> traffic. About 10 minutes later, I came upon an accident
> scene: red sports car upside-down on the median barrier,
> guy strapped to a spinal board being loaded into an
> ambulance. Same car? Dashcam might have enabled
> comparison of license plate numbers....
>
> Of course, I haven't seen much of anything since installing
> the cams.
>
>
>- In some countries, people actually engineer traffic "accidents"
> so they can extort money from the target of the crash.
>
> My understanding is that's what is behind the wide use of dash
> cams in Russia.
>
>
>- After a crash, it *might* be good to have some footage.
>
> Probably depends on who was at fault.
>
> Of course I fully expect that, after an accident, I will find
> that the critical camera's SD card had become corrupted weeks
> ago and is useless..... -)
>
>
>- OTOH, I can see the dash cams in the same light as my little
> 2KW generator: largely useless, but nice to have on those rare
> occasions when the power goes out.
>
>>What you're capturing is the road in front of you, right? What
>>happens there that you want to record and view later?
>
>Dashcams record to an SD card and automagically rotate the clips
>so the SD card is pretty much full and the clips on it are the
>latest going back as far as the capacity of the SD card will
>allow. The exception is certain cameras (as in my front-facing
>cam) where a clip can be designated as a "Keeper" and kept
>in a special folder from which it will never be deleted.
>
>On this cam, I just bump the cam with my finger when I see
>something entertaining. This creates a g-force event that
>tells the cam to keep that clip in the special folder.
>
>Usually there is a button on the cam for that purpose,
>but bumping it is easier and more intuitive.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

On 2014-04-24, Tony Cooper > wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:59:02 -0400, nospam >
> wrote:
>
>>In article >, Tony Cooper
> wrote:
>>
>>> >Check out some of TechMoan's reviews on YouTube.
>>> >He has a couple of favorites among cheap cams and some of them are way
>>> >small.
>>> >
>>> >I have one of these http://tinyurl.com/jwlho7a and it's been pretty
>>> >good.
>>> >
>>> Just out of curiosity...why?
>>>
>>> What you're capturing is the road in front of you, right? What
>>> happens there that you want to record and view later?
>>
>>there are many reasons for dashcams, including documenting what really
>>happened in a collision. that can backfire if you did something wrong,
>>but on the other hand, it can also mean winning. some dashcams have
>>motion sensors and can trigger if someone tries to steal or vandalize
>>your car. another use is for road trips, which are generally played
>>back at super-speed.
>>
>>> People ask my why I'm taking a photograph of this or that, and I don't
>>> have to have a good answer beyond "because I want to", but I am
>>> curious if that's your answer or there's something I'm missing.
>>
>>why does it even matter?
>
> I'm not interested in why you think one is worth having. I'm not
> interested in whether or not you think it matters. I don't need to
> justify to you why it matters.
>
> I'm curious about what Ahmed and Pete think and what has motivated
> them.
>
> You are quite welcome to jump into any thread in the newsgroup, but
> your "why does it even matter?" comment indicates that your primary
> interest is just to stir things up.

Raging cops and insurance disputes. My reason for running a camera is
the former.

Per (PeteCresswell):
>Check out some of TechMoan's reviews on YouTube.
>He has a couple of favorites among cheap cams and some of them are way
>small.

"Mobius" is one that he really likes - and he says that many people are
using it as a dashcam.

http://dashcamtalk.com/mobius

http://www.techmoan.com/blog/2014/2/...-my-ideal.html
--
Pete Cresswell