also search on Aliexpress - dozens of them, at various price points, but similar to that link above. Some are better quality than others, but most are $80 to $120 for the full setup.
I think I've mentioned it in another thread, but I really wish someone would make a 'bullet cam front, bullet cam rear, DVR hidden in the trunk or under dash' dash cam. I don't need a 1970's era rear view mirror, a video display or any of that crap. Just save the video to a memory card. Maybe have a battery version that will sense motion (car being hit) and start recording then too.
yes, but they could not sell it to the masses. They want a DVR, Android GPS and other gizmos in their 1970s mirrors when they spend $100 on these things.
I figure if I can separate out the camera from the mirror, I could move the camera part to the backside of the stock Mini mirror, but leave the rest in the glovebox. Still too expensive to buy these things and possibly break them in the attempt to modify, but it can't be rocket science to get that camera out of the mirror unit. Maybe a winter project.
Here's what I've considered... I'm one of the 10% that will pay for quality. Forward and reverse cams at 1080p. G-shock sensors. GPS. Cloud uploads via cell or wifi. I just wish they would minimize the camera size and put all of the battery / DVR / wifi / memory card stuff in a third component to be hidden somewhere under the dash / in the trunk, etc.
I see where you are going w/ the "I don't want to take a mercedes apart for an experiment when a chevy will do" approach. I just wish someone would figure it out and make a tidy product of it.
You must realize that all these products are being developed for the Russian market where more than 90% of dashcam sales are. The Russians clearly have a more relaxed view of what makes a quality product. And cost is a major factor with their currency not being quite as strong when buying these things, but they need cameras given how their vodka consuming comrades drive. If it records the wreck, that's what matters. Looking spiffy is highly secondary to that.
I would like to have something you are describing myself, but I won't pay hundreds of dollars for it, knowing it could be made for $50 total production cost, if one of these guys just changed the darn form factor. I have an action cam that actually works great as a dashcam, all it takes is a mount and hardwire it to a usb charger. Done. It rotates up to 4K 24fps (or 1080p 60fps) video on a 64GB card in 10 minute chunks, dated, image-stabilized, etc. The video quality lis likely far better than any of the dashcams out there, especially in low light. Those things go for $75 these days and are small enough to fit in front of the rear view mirror. If I could only figure out how to auto-start the thing with the turn of the ignition key... it has a small remote fob, but that's still a hassle and you'll likely forget to use it being tucked away out of sight.
